Watchmen Have Style … That is, One Fighting Style

I just watched Watchmen and I’m glad to see that director Zack Snyder and the stunt crew went with a style that allowed the audience to actually see the action (i.e. not the epilepsy-inducing, shaky-camera fight scenes of The Dark Knight or The Bourne Ultimatum.)

Snyder also didn’t overplay the slow-motion editing too much as he did in 300, in which virtually every sword swing and stab was shot as if the actors were fighting in molasses. (There is such a thing as “too much of a good thing.”) In Watchmen, he uses a combination of kinetic speed, slow-mo angles, and most importantly wide shots to show full-body choreography. I also liked that the fighting was a combination of styles, rather than overlying on just, say, wushu or jeet kune do.

The only problem is that stunt coordinators Damon Caro and Doug Chapman and fight choreographer Richard Cetrone forgot that each character’s gotta have their own fighting style. Instead, virtually every single character (with the exception of Dr. Manhattan, who can vaporize people with but a thought) has the exact same movements, from the diminutive Rorschach to the gorgeous Silk Spectre II. Everyone fires the same roundhouse kicks, the same punches and the same knees.

And for some strange reason, everyone really likes to spin. There are spinning kicks, spinning backfists, and even spinning to avoid someone charging at them from 20 feet away.

I guess they just really like spins.

Tags: fight choreography, fighting style, stunt coordinator, Watchmen