My thoughts so far. They are all, pardon my language, fucked up characters. I don't know if they are a parody of the usual superheros, but they are certainly different. Usually a good superhero is shown as torn, or conflicted but they still serve a good purpose. Here they are mostly just bad, or have become bad. When they started out they had good intensions (though it was still a form of self-justice) but now their ego's have taken over control.
One problem still is that the movie "celebrates" violence (just as "300"). So there's still the question if it was necessary to show some things in graphic detail. It may serve the purpose to show how bad the superheroes are, but it also opens the door that some people will like the movie for the wrong reasons (that's what I alluded to in my previous comment).
The book was written in the mid-80s where the very conservative Reagan and Thatcher ruled. I think you can easily see the Watchmen as henchmen of those regimes (or the recent Bush administration who also thought to be above the law). So the movie raises the question, repeatedly indicated in the film, "Who watches the Watchmen?". Are they to decide that in order to safe the world it's okay to kill a few million people? The movie destroys the usual superhero-myth.
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Date: 2009-03-17 11:29 am (UTC)My thoughts so far.
They are all, pardon my language, fucked up characters. I don't know if they are a parody of the usual superheros, but they are certainly different. Usually a good superhero is shown as torn, or conflicted but they still serve a good purpose. Here they are mostly just bad, or have become bad. When they started out they had good intensions (though it was still a form of self-justice) but now their ego's have taken over control.
One problem still is that the movie "celebrates" violence (just as "300"). So there's still the question if it was necessary to show some things in graphic detail. It may serve the purpose to show how bad the superheroes are, but it also opens the door that some people will like the movie for the wrong reasons (that's what I alluded to in my previous comment).
The book was written in the mid-80s where the very conservative Reagan and Thatcher ruled. I think you can easily see the Watchmen as henchmen of those regimes (or the recent Bush administration who also thought to be above the law). So the movie raises the question, repeatedly indicated in the film, "Who watches the Watchmen?". Are they to decide that in order to safe the world it's okay to kill a few million people?
The movie destroys the usual superhero-myth.