Well, yesterday Matt Sellman mucked up the online waters by posting an early review of Watchmen, which meant breaking embargo and pissing off the masses. I recapped some of it right here and today Jeff Wells continues the rant only this time he has brought back up in the form of an anonymous journalist friend that has also seen the movie and starts off by saying, “I’ve seen Watchmen, and speaking as a huge admirer and devotee of the graphic novel, the film is a staggering failure. On the plus side, you’ve got a pretty literal adaptation of the source material. It is at times a meticulous and gorgeous recreation of Alan Moore’s original work. Unfortunately it’s an empty, inert, meandering and, yes, boring 2 hours and 45 minutes.”
Uh oh. Get out your pitchforks.
He criticizes most of the acting leaving only a little room saying “only Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach and Billy Crudup’s Dr. Manhattan register at all.” He even continues on what I have said on several occassions just based on the little bit I have seen that Tom Cruise would have been a great fit for the role of Ozymandias.
One thing I have a problem with when it comes to this anonymous source, and I think this is an overwhelming problem in general, is that he was part of the group of journalists that screened 20 minutes of the film months back. The same thing has been done for the likes of Star Trek, Monsters vs. Aliens and now Pixar’s Up and I think it is one of the worst ways to see or even sell a film as you only get a small portion to judge and then have to return to see it again along with the rest of the finished product. I think it is irresponsible for a critic to take part in the screening of an extended segment of a film and then return months later to finally witness the final product. Your view has been tainted and manipulated, for better or worse it doesn’t really matter. Movies are no longer movies when viewed in piece-meal segments.
And if you didn’t think I had any flair for irony (it’s only hypocrisy if I watch it) I will prove you wrong right now by sending you to TotalFilm where they just debuted the first clip from Watchmen click here if you dare, or just wait until early March where it has an additional 2 hours and 43 minutes wrapped around it.
