Hallelujah?

Watchmen stumbles its way onto the big screen

(March 12, 2009) Previews

The reinvented Dwayne Johnson, formerly known as “The Rock,” stars in Race to Witch Mountain, itself a “reimagining” of the 1975 film Escape to Witch Mountain. Johnson is a Las Vegas cab driver who teams up with an astrophysicist (Carla Gugino from Watchmen) to rescue siblings (Anna Sophia Robb, Jumper and Alexander Ludwig) who have special powers from the usual villain (Ciarán Hinds). The 1975 film was based on the 1968 science fiction novel by Alexander Key. Rated PG for sequences of action and violence, frightening and dangerous situations, and some thematic elements. 99m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek

It’s a weekend for do-overs. Last House on the Left is a remake of the 1972 Wes Craven horror thriller, which at least represents a change from picking over the bones of an Asian horror film. Arriving at a remote lake house (don’t they ever learn?), Mari (Sara Paxton) and a friend are kidnapped by prison escapees and left for dead in the middle of the woods. Unluckily for the equally brain dead escapees, they end up at Mari’s parent’s house. Maybe they should have stayed in prison. Rated R for sadistic brutal violence including a rape and disturbing images, language, nudity and some drug use. 100m. At the Broadway and Mill Creek.

If these films don’t thrill you then there’s Miss March, a comedy wherein a guy wakes up from a four-year coma (probably induced by too many stoner comedies) to discover that his high school sweetie has graduated to a centerfold. What’s a guy to do? Obviously, travel across the country (road trip!) to crash a party at cleavage mansion. For those viewers who don’t have a Hooters nearby. Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, nudity, pervasive language and some drug use. 89m. At the Broadway.

Review

WATCHMEN: As I paged through the graphic novel, a compilation of the Watchmen comic series published in 1986-87, I saw a very dark universe with a very interesting mythology and an intriguing group of masked heroes. As I have a penchant for dark material, I started to look forward to the film version of the comic series written by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. After all, The Dark Knight was one of my more enjoyable movie experiences in 2008.

As it turns out, Watchmen was at least a partial pleasure. Director Zack Snyder, whose previous film was the imaginative 300, is very faithful to the comic as I understood it. Many of the images and much of the dialog hews closely to the graphic novel, and the story remains a sort of philosophical detective narrative.

The film begins with the murder of Edward Blake/The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the final image of which, a smiley-face button with a streak of blood, provides an effective segue into the back story as we see a series of images of well-known events from just after World War II into the 1980s. We also discover that this universe represents an alternate history when it is revealed that Nixon is now into his fifth term as president.

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