Watchmen (2019)

HBO | Release Date: October 20, 2019

5.6	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 539 Ratings

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DanielGOct 21, 2019

This is some artsy fartsy yuppies wet dream to take a solid franchise and integrate some awful identity politics into a franchise that has nothing to do with that. The pilot was extremely weak and boring almost the entire way through. It keptThis is some artsy fartsy yuppies wet dream to take a solid franchise and integrate some awful identity politics into a franchise that has nothing to do with that. The pilot was extremely weak and boring almost the entire way through. It kept some original watchmen fans interested with mere nano seconds of well known characters from the original franchise. Mixed along with the boring plot line and terrible pacing that will put you to sleep. They did a fab job with the trailers, I'll give them that. Too bad its going to be a one season let down show. If you are looking for your next series time sink. This isn't going to be one of them.… Expand

31 of 53 users found this helpful3122

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DoubledoorOct 23, 2019

This show could have been decent, if they had done two things: Cut out all the social commentary, seriously, "cop brutality is bad" and "racism is bad" is something we all know. It gets pushed into our faces every single day, and we don'tThis show could have been decent, if they had done two things: Cut out all the social commentary, seriously, "cop brutality is bad" and "racism is bad" is something we all know. It gets pushed into our faces every single day, and we don't need any more of that. IMO they should also have at least 1 character from the movie in the first episode, even if it's just a TV interview. This would connect it to the movie universe, which is something this movie badly needs. Some kind of connection to something we already know.

If I had to say something good about the show so far, I'd say the acting is pretty great.… Expand

24 of 42 users found this helpful2418

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empeNov 25, 2019

I had high hopes for this one, but after 5 episodes I'm sure they're leeching out of original Watchmen popularity. I mean, the show is sometimes surprising and make you curious what happens next, but not in a sense that you care about it.I had high hopes for this one, but after 5 episodes I'm sure they're leeching out of original Watchmen popularity. I mean, the show is sometimes surprising and make you curious what happens next, but not in a sense that you care about it. Good for killing time but you wouldn't notice if it suddenly ends.… Expand

4 of 11 users found this helpful47

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AngryBanelingDec 23, 2019

The subtle brilliance of the original WATCHMEN is lost, or has been willingly discarded in this “2019 TV show.” It’s the first thing you'll notice if you've read the original comics and watched the 2009 movie. WATCHMEN 2019 has insteadThe subtle brilliance of the original WATCHMEN is lost, or has been willingly discarded in this “2019 TV show.” It’s the first thing you'll notice if you've read the original comics and watched the 2009 movie. WATCHMEN 2019 has instead adopted an over the nose, loud, post-2016 message to beat you over the head with. If you're living in the USA and lean a particular direction politically, then this show will please you greatly. If you're like me, however, and live outside the USA and are not interested in the political dumpster-fire currently raging across the USA, then you’re out of luck. You see, the showrunner goes out of his way to incorporate his beliefs and political messaging into the show. You can try your best to avoid it but it won’t try to avoid you unless you avoid the show altogether. In fact, the show makes use of Rorschach’s legacy to do it to you. I know Alan Moore was displeased with how the fans took a liking to the Rorschach character even though the character was apparently written to be very unlikable. Well, Alan Moore is probably very happy with this show because Damon Lindelof takes a huge dump on Rorschach’s legacy in this show. It’s actually very disrespectful to the character and what he stood for.

Also, Dr. Manhattan does not make sense in this show. He behaves like he hasn’t lost his humanity. He behaves like someone who lives in the WATCHMEN universe without having gone through all the things that Jon Osterman did by the end of the original WATCHMEN. The show undoes his tragic character arc from the comics so they can write a nonsensical story around him. There are some clever moments in the show but it’s not enough to save it from how pretentious it really is. This show behaves like it’s a direct sequel to the comic. I’m here to tell you that it’s not. Go read Doomsday Clock issues 1-12 instead. At least there you’ll find some genuine storytelling and heartfelt moments.… Expand

4 of 12 users found this helpful48

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DellagalaDec 19, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A piece of political correctness that forgets the core of the main characters, specifically Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias.
Not to mention the poor display of special effects.… Expand

4 of 12 users found this helpful48

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a_scott_aNov 16, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. very mild spoilers - ignore all the "political" complaints. On the other hand, this production hangs heavily off of interest and knowledge in the original comic/2009 movie plot. It does not stand on its own. Far from starting on the street with understandable characters and gradually getting into layers of meaning, you start with a subplot of one character trapped in some kind of alice in wonderland world that simply fills up 10 minutes of each episode with disjointed chatter. The main character is supposedly a batman type figure with a secret lair... right in the middle of downtown and on a policeman's salary. Married with kids with an army of anti-masks and very poorly hidden identity. Motivation? All sorts of people unexpectedly turn to the camera and say "tic toc". The richest person in the world comes knocking on someone's door at bedtime for no apparent reason, they say - your that billionaire! the response all catty - actually, I'm a trillionaire *smug little smirk*. More interesting visually than most things going, but some unwatchable moments and not much story if you get beyond the references to the original. What if there was a universe took the Tulsa Riots seriously? That's an interesting question - but in the watchman universe, they're still cleaning up after a squid attack that made 9/11 look like a sneeze, so, that reparation is the only thing that makes any sense in the universe where we're suppose to be.… Expand

4 of 13 users found this helpful49

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chrisse989Apr 25, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. First 4 episodes were fantastic and I was really stoked to watch further
Than came episode 5: a long flashback, never a good sign... This episode really drags out, but the season goes completely downhill from there. The last 4 episode basically explain some of the weird stuff which happened in the first 4 episodes, but it doesn't resolve the story arc created in those first 4 episodes. So what's the point than of those episodes...?… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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RalfbergsJun 24, 2022

I thought it was ok. As I understand for those who are comic fans of original Watchmen they hated it as this twisted the story, for me as someone watching who never have read those comics, only seen movie, I thought it was ok, nothing impressive.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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JoeiJul 8, 2021

If your a fan of the comic or the movie, you will probably not enjoy this as much as you would expect. And if your not a fan of them you will probably just be confused about the back story.
The plot of this film is interesting enough, butIf your a fan of the comic or the movie, you will probably not enjoy this as much as you would expect. And if your not a fan of them you will probably just be confused about the back story.
The plot of this film is interesting enough, but seems to be crammed into the watchmen universe to appeal to a larger audience. The quality of the acting and filming is also quite high.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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jenbaminMay 21, 2023

I agree with the politics in the 2019 adaptation of Watchmen. I won't sugarcoat that. I am far left of leftist and even farther left of liberal; my politics would be considered extreme by some. On paper, I agree with the sentiment found inI agree with the politics in the 2019 adaptation of Watchmen. I won't sugarcoat that. I am far left of leftist and even farther left of liberal; my politics would be considered extreme by some. On paper, I agree with the sentiment found in Watchmen, specifically the study of the alt-right and the racial tensions that exist in our cities. Notice how I'm painting with broad strokes here; the show does the same.

By trying to say a lot, Watchmen ends up saying a whole lot of nothing. It is the quintessential neoliberal wet dream: a strong black woman beats the **** out of the cartoonishly evil supremacist group, the big communist (because Marx is in style with the young intellectuals) beats the **** out of the cartoonishly evil supremacist group, the sigma interrogator mentally beats the **** out of the cartoonishly evil supremacist group...

I'm not saying that identity politics shouldn't be studied, or that we shouldn't represent marginalized groups, or that we shouldn't envision worlds in which my ideological enemies are given their due. What I am saying is that making such sensitive issues so binary offers absolutely nothing to any existing discourse. It's reddit politics where we reduce centuries of pain and exploitation down to an easily-digestible meal that appeases the left-center libs and pisses off the right-leaning chuds who are afraid of their own shadows. It's politics for people that don't understand politics. Real racists, real bigots, real xenophobes are much more subtle: they exist right under our noses in our offices, our school boards, our management positions. Watchmen just wants to throw them all in a trailer park and have them look like dumb, poor, Facebook-posting morons.

Say more. Be more ruthless with your agenda. Call out the fascist undercurrents running across America, the pedophilic conservative global elite, the transphobic elected officials advocating for genocide. Keep calling out the racism, but don't turn around and try to "both sides" police brutality by trying to make us care for cops that commit racially motivated crimes. The Flanderization of the core characters only further diminishes the message here. Sister Night is too one-note to make any analysis stick; Ozymandias is fanservice bait whose arc amounts to nothing. Dr. Manhattan is the victim of like a thousand retcons and is basically unrecognizable from the god the comics left us with.

Most pertinently, though, is Rorschach; the whole Kavalry organization is a perfect study of the right's securitized view of politics with idolization and line-drawing done purely by shared interests rather than morals and values. Kavalry misunderstood Rorschach's mission and trauma much like the real-world right misunderstands people like Elon Musk, Andrew Tate, and Ron DeSantis. As for the rest of the show, it's okay. It's visual barbiturates: the edits and action sequences are meant to satisfy the blithest audiences imaginable. The show's inconsistent use of violence (we go from blowing up cows in the pilot to a horrendously choreographed police raid in ep. 2) is confusing as a fan of the original comic, since the scarcity of violence was much more impactful thematically.

Characters and costumes are visually fine and the cast did the best they could with the dialogue they were given. Color grading is, as expected, poor; HBO seems to love raw lighting because they never bother to grade their damn footage. The show is never unwatchable but it does almost nothing to separate itself from similar programming visually. Imagine this show with Fukunaga's tempo and blocking... man.

As a sequel to the comics, Watchmen is pretty underwhelming. Lacking the nuance of the original, this series feels more like a poor contextualization rather than a necessary sequel. The characters are meant to be rooted for; there's little examination of power and justice; there are no moral conflicts aside from the obvious 'heroes vs. racists' skirmishes. Save for a few Easter eggs, there is very little carryover between the comic and the show. "Oh, look! Electric cars because of Manhattan! Oh, look! The stencil of the lovers! Oh, look! Squids!" is as far as the show wants to go. I still can't think of a single reason why Dr. Manhattan would come back to Mars after **** off to an entirely different galaxy in the comic. Watchmen is boring, genuinely. It lacks the allegorical punch that would excuse the wayward plot, and it fails to expand upon the original in any meaningful way. The milquetoast visuals do enough to keep one engaged but don't offer any style of their own.

Why exactly someone thought we needed a sequel to an unadaptable comic is a mystery for sure, and it's one I'll never unravel. I don't get why Hollywood just can't leave good enough alone.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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