The Four Color Media Monitor

I waited a few days to see what the word would be on the internet about the Watchmen movie, and from some of the results, including the box office receipts, which were not as good as they were for 300, it looks like this adaptation of an Alan Moore book too, looks to be regarded as a failure. On the Savage Critics blog, they say:

It fetishized the violence. This is a seriously violent movie. Most of that violence is in the comic, but it is very very different in a comic than in a movie -- especially when the movie tends to use that speed-up, then slow-mo down technique for the action. Movies also have sound effects (you can hear s*** breaking and tearing, yes), which the comic resolutely did not have.

So it fetishizes the violence? Big mistake. Sensationalism is not how you make a point or send a message.

The Wash. Times' movie critic says on his own blog that it's not worth all the fuss that was made over it, and that:

The film earns its R rating honestly with gross-out sequences of snapped limbs and other visual atrocities. But it often feels forced, as if playing to its audience’s baser instincts like some B-minus horror film.

It doesn't sound like the audience was particularly enthralled either: when bringing up some highlights about what went on at the theater, he says:

Audience reaction to “Watchmen” was muted, to say the least. I saw the 3:10 p.m. showing, which was probably about 1/4 full - not bad for a matinee. But I got zero excitement out of the crowd.

And that's probably why it won't take in much more money in the next weeks of its release. So, I guess if there's anything now that could raise eyebrows, it's that Toys R Us is selling merchandise like action figures for kids!

Okay, this is a joke, right? April Fools must have come early. Nope, DC/Time Warner/Toys R Us are apparently selling toys, lunchboxes and thermoses based on the Watchmen (that Lego was willing to make some is shocking), including one based on the Comedian!
Though it was available on their website, they must really be ashamed of that last one, seeing how it wasn't clearly on display with the rest of the action figures, and is last in line on the menu of individual action figures, where it's listed with a price of 20 bucks.

And I guess that's what's really disgusting about this movie: that they're going so far as to include merchandise based on it, most of which is sold at a major outlet for children when this happens to be a movie with an R rating and certainly a comic that's geared for adults.

Labels: dc comics