(such criticisms would be) completely valid when referring to a modern, straightforward superhero movie. Should Catwoman be unable to defend herself in the next Batman movie or should Batman start railing against evil liberals, I’m going to get angry. But the point of “The Watchmen” is that it’s about juxtaposing the myth of the superhero with certain ugly realities, and the conclusions reached---especially about how the profession would attract mostly sociopaths and self-promoters, how women’s success would be related to their sex appeal over their skills, how sexism and homophobia would still touch you even if you were a masked vigilante---strike me as entirely realistic.
She coins the (not very elegant) term 'unfunny satires' for films like this. The other examples she gives in her review are 'No Country For Old Men' and 'Pulp Fiction'.
“No Country For Old Men” uses the format of a crime thriller to question the narrative structures of a crime thriller, particularly the way that your typical crime thriller uses the darkest parts of humanity to guide you to a place where you feel pretty good about yourself and the main characters. Instead, you’re asked to consider violence something to truly despair over... the book of “The Watchmen” does the same thing, except I think Alan Moore is overtly hostile to comic book conventions
Not having seen the film of Watchmen she asks:
Will it translate? ... Storytellers of any sort try to throw up a lot of signposts to indicate exactly what sort of story they’re about to tell, so you the audience will be ready to accept it for what it is.... “The Watchmen” has a real obstacle to communicating to the audience, which is that every signifier... has been used by other movies, especially “The Dark Knight” to indicate a dark superhero movie that has some uncomfortable scenes in it, but is fundamentally not going to question the narrative conventions or break down the fantasy and throw it in your face.
Something else I want to say though. I think these three films have something else in them, beyond their function as 'unfunny satires'. Throwing narrative convention in your face, could be pursued in its own right - such as in Tropic Thunder, or Kelly's Heroes which I was thinking about this week - and that kind of film is fine.
But it seems to me that in Watchmen, No Country and Pulp Fiction the satire is part of a much larger project, which I can't hardly define. Because when you see them you feel opened up into something better, and I don't know why. I need to find a better way of talking about this, because I want to be able to work it out, and work out what films and books have it, but I'm really struggling to put my finger on it.
