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Perhaps because of living in a society with highly developed technology and relatively sound laws for a long time, the problem that Americans care about is that they are different from the Chinese.
For the former, because they have created weapons that can destroy the earth N times in an instant, they often worry: what if these weapons fall into the hands of thieves or are abused by people with ulterior motives? The power of the atomic bomb has been proven. Just one person, with a flick of a finger, the lives of 300,000 people on the ground and the entire city will be wiped out in an instant. What's more, it has entered the era of nuclear bombs, not to mention a city, even the extinction of human beings is not a problem. Therefore, there are often some madmen in American movies, or they want to steal nuclear warheads, or kidnap scientists to create new weapons in an attempt to go against all mankind. Then, some superheroes with heavy responsibilities will be born to turn the tide, relieve the crisis at the critical moment, and save the lives of thousands of people.
As for the latter, Americans have clearly realized: "No law is impossible, but the law is not omnipotent." No matter how sound the legal system is, there are always some dead ends that cannot be taken care of. What's more, the greedy and selfish nature of human nature cannot be eradicated only by the punishment of the day after tomorrow. In these cases, it is natural to use our superheroes again. So, Batman, Iron Man, Daredevil, Spider-Man, as well as Superman and National Superman have appeared one after another. They all have super powers, not only doing small things such as heroes saving beauty and fire, but also directly participating in International wars to resolve global disputes. They are the embodiment of justice, acting in place of the law and the police.
(PS: In order to fully take care of the audience's tastes, Hollywood movies have created superheroes with different styles, not only the friendly and lovely big boy next door like Spiderman, but also the cynical millionaire like Iron Man; both Batman There are the kind of elegant gentleman with mysterious identity and melancholy personality, as well as sloppy hip-hop men like Hancock, the superman, and even the standard white-collar type of Superman Karl and the handsome blind man of Daredevil Murdoch. In short, men and women Young and old can find their favorite genres and favorite idols.)
But then, the problem arose again. Is there a standard for the justice that these superheroes uphold? What is the scale of their enforcement? For these superheroes with super powers and absolute power, who will supervise them? These issues are concentrated in Watchmen. The whole movie is not so much that "Watchman" is watching over human society, it is more that they are completing a self-redemption.
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Watchman Blake, nicknamed "The Comedian", is killed as soon as the film opens. In the next series of flashbacks from other Watchmen, we slowly learn what kind of person Blake is: he loves his companion Silk Ghost, but the way to love her is to go straight to rape; Vietnamese women; he shot down protesters; he killed two journalists who exposed Watergate for President Nixon. From the actions of comedians, people have long lost sight of the so-called justice that superheroes have always upheld, and he has become a pawn of the government.
Rorschach, the watchman who has been tracking the death of the comedian, is a man who hates evil from a poor background. But his means of dealing with others is: use violence to control violence. "Watchmen" is a very violent movie, with blood splattered at every turn, and more than 50% of the bloody scenes were contributed by Rorschach alone. He finally died at the hands of another watchman, Dr. Manhattan. He was also bloody, and he died without a corpse, which was also in line with the characteristics of the character.
Dr. Manhattan is another interesting figure. He was a physicist in his early years and died in an accident. Unexpectedly, after reorganization and regeneration, he had super powers. Not only could his body change, but he could walk on the surface of the sun without fear of life and death. His eyes can penetrate time and see the past and the future, which makes him look at issues from a different angle than ordinary people. Once people become gods, there is often a pain that they are separated from the crowd and can no longer communicate with others (this kind of pain Spider-Man has and Superman also has, so they need to cover up their identities in order to be able to live the life of ordinary people. It's an interesting paradox. While everyone is dreaming of being superhuman, they're struggling to get back to the ordinary). Dr. Manhattan is no exception. After he became a god, he even lost the ability to have sex with his girlfriend, causing her to go out of business. But considering that the Doctor himself is also a person who loves the new and hates the old, Sally's derailment is actually a kind of innuendo to his abandonment of his old love.
Rorschach traced it to the end, only to know that the comedian was actually killed by another watchman "Pharaoh" Werther. It turned out that the truth he was trying so hard to track was actually an internal fire between the watchmen, and he thought it was It should be a revenge of the evil society on the watchmen. The so-called smartest man in the world Werther, his way of maintaining world peace is even more astonishing: killing one example to a hundred! In order to achieve complete peace between the United States and the Soviet Union on the brink of war, he did not hesitate to raze several cities to the ground!
Now a moral dilemma confronts all watchmen: continue to lie and see Werther as the savior; or expose the truth and crucify him?
In the end, the Watchers, like the United States during World War II, made the final choice: it is worth sacrificing millions of lives to protect the interests of more people. (We should really thank the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for being the test specimens of the atomic bomb. World peace is built on their tombstones.)
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I haven't read the "Watchmen" comics, but I know that comics fans have a comment on it, called "the end of the superhero comics". In my opinion, the biggest difference between it and other comics (movies) of the same theme is that it wrote a sequel to the superheroes. Such movies are often keen on making prequels, and always want to tell everyone "how Superman is made", but few people ask, where will their future go?
"Watchmen" told everyone the end of these people for the first time.
It turns out that they will also grow old, retire, and die. (Although speaking like this will greatly destroy the hero image in the audience's mind, it will not be fun, but this is indeed an unavoidable problem. From the perspective of movie fans, of course, everyone hopes that they can be like 007, and they will not be old for decades. , still high-spirited and charming, who wants to see an old, ugly, bloated James Bond?)
In the film, the ending of all the watchmen is quite intriguing. Rorschach was killed by Dr. Manhattan because he insisted on the principle of his heart; Dr. Manhattan went into seclusion on Mars because he realized the true meaning of life; Sally and Dan truly fell in love, so they decided to return to being ordinary people, occasionally firing anti-aircraft guns The car went for a drive; Pharaoh Werther, the man who really brought peace to the world, lived alone in the South Pole.
Basically, the stories of all the heroes in the world have been written:
1. Either die in battle, your name will be engraved on the monument, and people will miss you forever in their memory;
2. Or, like Li Xunhuan, disappear into the rivers and lakes and become a legend, people will relive your story in the legend;
3. Or, be content with the plain and obliterate the crowd. Many years later, your neighbors will suddenly find out: Damn, the old man who lived next door used to be such a good guy!
4. Or, become a hero like Cao Cao, be infamous for the ages, be a wise man who no one understands, and die alone.
No one can be a hero for life, no matter how beautiful the country is, it will be too late.
At the end of the film, the world is at peace, there is nothing in the world, and the newspapers have no news to publish. People can only recall the glorious years of the Watchers from the diary left by Rorschach.
But, fortunately, it is fortunate that the world is still only a dream, so we still need all kinds of Superman to adjust our daily life. It doesn't matter if this generation retires, and newcomers will emerge one after another. Although they may not really be able to save Li Min from the fire and water, it is already very good that they can save our audio-visual.
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