Reviewing Watchmen

Okay now that I have seen the movie and had some time to ponder it, I want to give a review of the film.

First off, I felt like the movie did a good job of sticking to the graphic novel. When I got home last night, I pulled out my copy of Watchmen and read through it again. It was faithful to the feel of the book, right down to the lines. I really want to thank the filmakers and cast for doing such a good job of getting to the heart of the book in this regard. The look and style of the book was in the movie. I really did feel like reading the book again.

This movie definitely needed the rating it got. The action beats in the film could be over the top (i.e. the ally fight with Night Owl II and Silk Spectre II with the gang. The sex in the movie was too much if I were to be asked. There is sticking with the source material and then there is what was seen in the movie.

My roommate’s response was that of amazement for just how bizarre the movie was. Granted it was an apocalyptic scenario of nuclear war breaking out between the US and the USSR when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan back in the 1980′s. But then there is Dr. Manhattan (think of Superman only with the ability to manipulate matter) and his detachment to humanity and his role in the conclusion of the movie. There was the Comedian and why he is actually called the Comedian. I warned him that this movie was going to make the Joker from The Dark Knight look sane and even that didn’t repare him for what he saw.

Now here is what I liked most about the movie: the over all unifying theme. In the movie our world was five minutes from destroying itself from nuclear war. In the film we are in a perpetual state of crisis and war. There is no peace. And to really amplify this bleak picture of humanity there is one scene involving the Comedian and Night Owl II. There is a riot and these two heroes come in to stop it. When the mob turns on the heroes, Comedian moves in for some crown control. When confronted by Night Owl, the comedian tells him that he’s just living the American dream, doing whatever he wants. The bleak world that they live in is what follows from living the American dream. It’s one sick joke because the “American Dream” was supposed to better the world and instead it had only made it worse!

But the blam is not on anyone but humans for the world they live in. They have created it. They made it. From within their black hearts a black world, set to destroy itself, has appeared. This graphic novel and movie understand something very fundamental, something is wrong and the problem isn’t found outside of man, it is inside of him. Human beings are wrong, fundamentally and internally. Dare I say it is something ontological. Dr. Manhattan was supposed to guarantee the US’s national security but only put them in greater danger from the Soviets.

The solution posed in the movie by one of the characters recognizes the problem but doesn’t fix it. The answer is only temporary at best. It doesn’t allow for the flaw in human nature. If Everyone can get anything they want why fight and destroy each other? Cuz human nature is corrupt! The comedian saw this and it made him laugh.

But this film really illustrates that something is wrong with humanity. It points to that great reality of sin. We are sinful creatures, fallen and depraved. We are children of wrath, following “the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind” (Ephesians 2:3 NET). There must be a change internal, not external. This is where the movie fails to see the answer. Human nature is flawed, the movie does admit. But it still thinks that something flawed can remove the flaw. Yet that effort will be a flawed effort! Something outside of human nature must remove that flaw. That something is the grace of God purchased for us on the cross in the death of this Son! Only in being united to Jesus will that flawed nature be killed and we be raised to new spiritual life. Only in Christ can humanity fin a new heart and receive a new Spirit that causes our obedience and replace that sick heart of stone with sin etched in it. A leopard cannot change its sports, unless the leopard ceases being a leopard and becomes something else.