ACTION; 2hr 40min
STARRING: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson
Punchline: Morgan
In a dystopian 1985 America, Russia and its nukes are a looming threat. And in rainswept New York City, someone is targeting outlawed masked vigilantes who now live half-lives under the radar. At their zenith, the take-charge Masks rocked. But these days, any glory is long gone for Silk Spectre II (Ackerman), Ozymandias (Goode), Rorschach (Haley), The Comedian (Morgan) and Nite Owl II (Wilson). As the one bona-fide superbeing among them, only mutated physicist Dr Manhattan (Crudup) has retained his killer strengths — to the increasing detriment of both his humanity and his relationship with Silk Spectre.
Director Zack Synder’s fabulous, moody, overwhelming movie of the 1986-87 DC Comics series turned award-winning graphic novel breaks the superhero persona down to its frail human bones. Psyches are bared and conventions smashed with a charged and radical beauty that becomes its own reason for being. Supes have always existed to do battle with impending darkness, no matter how conflicted they may be. But they sure as doomsday don’t make them like this.
