![]() Everything is made of quantum particles, after all. If it seems unlikely that quantum materials could assemble into a tangible physical body, not to worry. Never mind the details what matters is that he possibly exists at a quantum level, at which particles seem exempt from the usual limitations of space and time. Manhattan is contained in a towering, muscular, naked blue body he was affected by one of those obligatory secret experiments gone wild. Rorshach’s cloth mask, with its endlessly shifting inkblots, is one of the most intriguing superhero masks ever, always in constant motion, like a mood ring of the id. These characters are garbed in traditional comic book wardrobes - capes, boots, gloves, belts, masks, props, anything to make them one of a kind. Manhattan is both her lover and a distant father figure living in a world of his own. And Silk Spectre II ( Malin Akerman) lives with one of the most familiar human challenges, living up to her parents, in this case the original Silk Spectre ( Carla Gugino). Rorshach ( Jackie Earle Haley) is a man who finds meaning in patterns that may only exist in his mind. The Nite Owl ( Patrick Wilson) is a man isolated from life by his mastery of technology. Ozymandias ( Matthew Goode) is the world’s smartest man. Manhattan ( Billy Crudup), the only one with superpowers in the literal sense, lives outside ordinary time and space, the forces of the universe seeming to coil beneath his skin. Now the murder of the enigmatic vigilante the Comedian ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has brought the Watchmen together again. Faced with law enforcement anarchy, Nixon has outlawed superhero activity, quite possibly a reasonable action. Although a superhero is able to handle one dangerous situation, the world has countless dangerous situations, and the super resources are stretched too thin. They can be in only one place at a time (with a possible exception to be noted later). The film confronts a paradox that was always there in comic books: The heroes are only human. ![]() That world is America in 1985, with Richard Nixon in the White House and many other strange details, although this America occupies a parallel universe in which superheroes and masked warriors operate. It seems charged from within by its power as a fable we sense it’s not interested in a plot so much as with the dilemma of functioning in a world losing hope. It’s a compelling visceral film - sound, images and characters combined into a decidedly odd visual experience that evokes the feel of a graphic novel. After the revelation of “ The Dark Knight,” here is “Watchmen,” another bold exercise in the liberation of the superhero movie. ![]()
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