Who's Watching "Watchmen"?

SUMMARY: Not much of a movie review. With dogs.

We knew that Watchmen was almost 3 hours when we went in, but it didn't feel like it. I've been to shorter movies that seemed much longer. It's not for the squeamish. Blood flings itself everywhere. (Although, in its defense, you mostly see the blood and only very quick takes on the sources of said sanguinity.) There's brutality (reasoned and insane) and sadism and appalling cruelty and erotic scenes and betrayals and god-like beings and Richard Nixon elected to 5 terms in office and like that. To make the story work, I think it had to be like that. Interesting story line, interesting characters, and interesting how all the seemingly unrelated and trivial things tie together at the end, posing an intriguing moral and philosophical dilemma.

But here's the thing: The dogs die.

I hate it when dogs die. No, this was definitely not an adored family dog deliberately pulling at your heartstrings. These were violent dogs who didn't really know what they were doing and paid the price of their owner's evil with their own lives. It's just not right. Among all that carnage, jeez, and the dogs were really on screen for a only few seconds in a couple of places, but the dogs dying really got to me. And what they were involved in was heartbreaking and sickening, too. Sigh.

OK, it was a good film. But if you go see it, be forewarned.

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