MOVIE: Watchmen (2009)

Note: A repost from an article I wrote in March 20, 2009 in a blog that i've discontinued.

Who watches the Watchmen? That would be Me.

Two weeks ago, I went to another town to watch the movie Watchmen since we have no cinemas here. That was not my real intention but Plan A didn't materialize so I resorted to Plan B which is just to watch the movie adaptation of the graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, WATCHMEN.

I was enthralled by the movie because of what I have heard of the graphic novel since I am an avid comic book fan of both Marvel and DC. Truth be told, I already had an electronic copy of this graphic novel years ago but failed to ready it. I got most of my information about the novel from Wikipedia and other websites after my friend gave a copy, saying that it was one of the best comic book ever made.

Even with all that information from the internet, I wasn't able to fully comprehend the story of the novel until I watched the movie adaptation. Since the 12 issue graphic novel cannot be all incorporated into a 2-hour movie, I'm currently revisiting my copy of the comic book to fill-up some gaps not found in the movie.


Also, I have watched the animation "Tales of the Black Freighter" which is a comic story within the Watchmen story. It was quite scary and not suitable for anyone for teens. The story is quite dark and grotesque that it is uncomfortable to watch and I kept grimacing while watching the video.

From the host of watchmen characters, I now understand why many believe that Rorschach is the most popular figure even on the way he was portrayed in the novel.

I do like how Rorschach thinks, in this world where there are many gray areas that people tend to make, it is a necessary component to have a character who sees things as black and white, right or wrong, good and evil. I like a character who doesn't compromise their beliefs even when it resulted in a perfectly made lie.

The saying "The End Does That Justify The Means" comes to mind on how Rorschach does his thing. The is a very flawed character who does veil things to get what he wants but doesn't pretend that what he was doing was right. No apologies for what he has done because he himself knows that they're wrong.

Although I like Rorschach, I question whether such a person could exist in seeing the world just as black and white. Well, I think that the world of tolerance, understanding and empathy would not be in the vocabulary of Rorschach.