Watchmen

This review is based on the Ultimate Cut To put it simply, I love this film, it isn't flawless, but it's something that I grew up absolutely adoring during my teenage years to the point that even today I can't bring myself to knock it off a perfect rating, and frankly I don't think I ever will. Watchmen is a film that if anything has got better with time, partially helped by its extended cuts really improving on the original theatrical cut (which I also quite enjoyed to be honest), and also the surge of superhero films that released since this film, particularly those part of the MCU and DCEU that went for an overarching storyline between subsequent films in their series during the 2010s. Here we're given a contained 3.5 hour long dark gritty take on the genre, based on the well-renowned comic of the same name that I have sadly yet to read, though do intend to at some point, and man I absolutely love this film. This film is visually stunning, by far Snyder's best, this alternate history take of the 80s is perfectly brought to life by the sets, cinematography, and characters. The action itself is still some of the best I’ve seen in a superhero film, but it's the strong story that really sells it to me, I get it's compared negatively to the comic due to it lacking the thematic depth that presented, but man disconnecting it from the source material and just as a film itself, I love it. The extra scenes included with the Ultimate Cut really add to the experience, hell I’d say it's kind of necessary to watch the film via this cut, sure it's inclusion of "Tales of the Black Freighter", an animated short based on an in-universe comic with the original comic is a bit jarring at first, but it's cleverly included within the film through a character who visits a newspaper stand, becoming a nice little side plot within the film for two characters. Some absolutely iconic scenes such as Dr. Manhattan's origins, and the prison scene still are amongst my favourite in the genre. The film isn't without its flaws though, the film's ending has split opinions due to it differing from the comic, and it does partially suffer from issues that plague Snyder's filmography, with its strong use of slow-motion, gratification of violence, and unnecessary sex scenes (seriously, there's one that really stick out), and it's focus on style over substance, however here it's not as bad as his latter films, and if anything remains from what I know quite loyal to its adaptation apart from a few storyline omissions, which to be fair, for a comic renowned for being unadaptable into a film, this seems like a damn good effort. Even with the slow-motion it doesn't deter me like it did in Army of the Dead, or more to the point, Rebel Moon. For the criticisms I have against Snyder's filmography, I respect his style to an extent, it's mostly in the writing department that I have issues with his latter films. Even with these flaws though I struggle to knock it off from the 5 star rating, I just love this film too much to do that, as a teenager I loved this film, and even watching it now I can't help but be completely enchanted and amazed by it. There really isn't any superhero film like this film. Hell, the fact the film even got made in the first place at it's time is absolutely mindboggling when you consider the cast of relative unknown actors of the time, the high budget of $150 million, Hard R/18 rating, and long length of its original theatrical cut at nearly 3 hours. I'm no Snyder fan, but I will always love this film.