Watchmen

One of my favourite 21st birthday presents was a video of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes" movie. I don't know all the reasons why, but I love it when they make comics or cartoons into movies - it is probably my favourite kind of movie to watch. I think it was Robin Williams playing "Popeye" that first got my attention as a child. So, when I heard that "Watchmen" was coming out as a movie, I got pretty excited. "Watchmen" is supposed to be THE BEST graphic novel (translation - comic book for adults, but on steroids) of all time.

When I went to see it, I had that "I'm in the presence of greatness" type feeling that sometimes comes over me when I am at the movies. But as the movie progressed I got a bit distracted by the loud, graphic violence of the film, and by the bright blue penis of Dr Manhattan that seemed to take over every scene he was in (you'll have to watch the movie to make any sense of that comment)... I allowed these features to overwhelm all other impressions of the movie I might have had, and left the theatre a tad disappointed in the overall result. I remember saying to friends, "It could have been a really great film, but..."

A few days after watching the movie, I read the Damaris Culturewatch review of "Watchmen" and it helped me to see the thoughtful aspects of the movie that had been lost to me because I'd been distracted by the violence and Dr Manhattan's ever-present "little blue friend".

Over the last few years, I have been quite impressed with the Damaris group and the resources they provide on a Christian perspective on various media - particularly movies and TV. I'd recommend that you have a look and a read of their review on "Watchmen" and would put it forward as a good example of the thoughtfullness of their work. I'm pretty open-minded and not easily put off by bad language, sex scenes and violence in films, and for these kind of reasons, "Watchmen" is a movie that Christian groups might easily write off.

To the credit of the Damaris group, they didn't write "Watchmen" off, but looked deeply at it and found some valid social commentary and interesting refections on God and life in it. Lessons that I missed but certainly appreciated when they were highlighted to me...

For the Damaris Culturewatch review on "Watchmen" click here...

Shalom...