Watchmen — 2009

Snyder argues that to show how sick violence is, you first have to make it look cool, then pull the rug out. Consider the alleyway fight: Nite Owl and Rorschach brutally slaughter a group of thugs. The camera lingers on the snapping of an arm. The audience feels a primal "hell yeah," followed seconds later by the realization that these "heroes" just executed scared criminals.

Morgan chews scenery like bubblegum. He plays Edward Blake as a nihilistic bully who, in a moment of clarity, weeps about the futility of it all. The opening credits, set to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” show the Comedian’s violent history, retroactively turning the film’s murder mystery into a eulogy for the American Century. watchmen 2009

In the film, Snyder made a calculated risk. Instead of a squid, Veidt uses Dr. Manhattan’s energy signature to nuke major cities around the world. The frame-up makes Manhattan a global scapegoat. Snyder argues that to show how sick violence

It’s not. It’s a suicide note.