What’s It About
Former heroes have seemingly become targets. The Comedian has been murdered, the all-powerful Dr. Manhattan has been exiled to Mars, Ozymandias survived an assassination attempt and the outlaw-vigilante Rorschach has been arrested. Suspicious.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Brandon Vietti and J. Michael Straczynski have wrapped up their animated take on Alan Moore’s famous comic book with a second chapter that feels both familiar and fresh. After the first part’s dark, detective-like style, this finale digs deep into what makes these characters tick. Rorschach is stuck in jail while his friends Dan and Laurie try to save the world from a possible nuclear war. They go back to being superheroes—rescuing people from a fire and breaking Rorschach out of prison. Dr. Manhattan, a god-like character, takes Laurie to Mars for a serious talk about what it means to be human. The movie really wants to show how dangerous it is to keep looking backward instead of moving forward. Adrian Veidt thinks he can save humanity by creating a big, fake threat that will make everyone work together. But the story argues that this is a bad idea. People love remembering “the good old days” too much, and this stops them from fixing real problems. Sound familiar? It’s just like what’s happening in the United States right now. People are about to vote for a candidate who totally messed up during a health crisis and left the economy in bad shape. When we’ve got ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza and tons of problems at home, people just want to remember a time when things seemed easier. But here’s the truth: those “easier” times weren’t actually easier. They were just times when people didn’t see the real problems. Remember the COVID lockdowns? Instead of working together, people learned to hate science, refuse masks, and avoid vaccines. Everyone was so focused on themselves that we missed a chance to really help each other. . . Anyway, the animation looks a bit rough, but that’s on purpose. It’s supposed to feel like an old movie from the 1980s. The voice actors do a great job, especially the people playing Dan, Laurie, and Adrian. The movie follows the original comic book almost exactly. The only big change is finding a clue on paper instead of a computer. There’s still this extra comic-within-a-comic called “Tales of the Black Freighter” that doesn’t really add much to the story. Watchmen: Chapter II shows why getting stuck in nostalgia is a trap. It’s a reminder that we can’t fix today’s problems by wishing for yesterday. The movie argues that the only way forward is to deal with things as they are right now, not how we remember them. If you want to see a super-faithful version of the original comic book, this animated film is definitely worth watching. Just don’t expect it to make you feel warm and fuzzy about the past.
OUR RATING – A POLITICAL 7