...the hype that was around it made me give it 5 instead of 6.
I *hate* comments like this. How should anything affect the movie other than the movie itself. Manage your own expectations please.
Back on topic: Watchmen - */10. That's right: "*". I like a lot of films, I love a large number, I dislike and I despise even more. Not in my recent (10-15 years) recollections, can I say that a film had less of an impact on me.
I only hated one scene in the film - which is a shock for me, I hate 3-4 scenes in Transformers, which is one of my all time favourite films. There are some AMAZINGLY good bits in it, the first 20 mins (the credits are awesome), the prison section (both in the cell and the breakout), the way the "alternate ending" was handled, the clock palace, the fights in general and Rorschach in general. I for one also didn't mind (until the last moment) Akerman's acting, and man, is she pretty. Shes a blond in real life, and no where near as hot as she is as a brunette in the film. I'm also a huge fan of boobies, and I liked the latex leggings in the sex scene. Colour me impressed with nudity in films. As a general rule, society is way to fussy about nekid peoples in films these days, and I feel its a shame, bring back the early 90's!
The bad bits weren't awful, they were just "WTF were they thinking" moments. Nixon's nose as a classic moment.
BUT... the story hasn't translated well over the last 20 years. The Cold War went cold, and we are all too aware of that. So, to me and mine that have spoken about why it made no impact, the best we can figure is that there is no... "threat". We just weren't able to connect anymore with the "ZOMG we all gonna go BOOM", because thats not how we see "threats" anymore. Threats are now small (relative to nukes) bombs in shops (Children of Men), bombs on buses (Negotiator etc) or you know, real world stuff... 9/11. Nowadays (me and mine at least) feel that large scale destruction is "out of our hands" whereas these smaller scale threats are more about "fate targeting you". What if you had gotten on the next bus, or walked down that other street. Also with the smaller scale stuff, you're always aware that most likely you are gonna be leaving behind loved ones, parents, spouses, children, who are gonna grieve and feel the pain for much longer after you're gone. If you love and have loved ones, their pain is usually more important than your own. If everyone dies, no one feels pain, C'est la vie.
What this film needed was more of the connection to the audience that let us feel/imagine the threat of the story, because just saying "there are nukes out there" just doesn't cut it anymore. The Cold War ended without the OTT actions in the film, so we've lost perspective about why it was good or bad. Again, rather than being horrified, or happy that the crisis was averted, I just felt... "WTF dude", nothing more.
And then... after Ive watch 2 hours and 30 mins of "cool, meh, cool, meh, meh, cool..." comes the closing 5-10 mins. And it kills it. The final scene twixt Spectre 1 & 2 is so badly scripted and acted that it actually shocked me. And the very final scene, which in the novel is an "aaaah!" moment is reduced to next to no speech and a nothing moment. Then My Chemical Romance screech over the closing credits with one of the worst covers ever. No impact, no conclusion, and crap song. If I had walked out 10 mins before the end, I might have actually have had a real feeling about the film. But as it stands... I'm left with a hole.
Not "it could have been so much better" because parts of it are utterly awesome. Not "that was shit" because its not; like any film its let down by some parts but not critically. I just have no feelings about it one way or the other. I didn't connect with it on any level; the acting wasn't bad; the SFX are very good; stylistically its great; but then... there is no heart.
This isn't me agreeing with Alan Moore's assumption that it's "un-film-able", because his reasoning is purely egotistical and reads like he's never watch a film in his life; I find myself offended by his reasoning infact.
Not enough was done to connect the audience to the subject matter, so no matter how good the parts were, the sums just don't add up. I have no feelings one way or another so my rating (for now) stays as */10.