In the 2009 Warner Brothers film Watchmen, many commonplaces are evident. The ones I am discussing today are das ex machana, known as divine intervention at the last second before disaster. Triumph over evil, the belief that good forces in films, books, and in other entertainment that the forces of good will always triumph over the forces of villainy. Finally, super beings, while not being a commonplace itself, they represent the common belief that supernatural beings, or people who have reached a high stature through extraordinary measures.
First of, Das Ex Machana, normally appears at either the end, or the climax of a film. In Das Ex Machana, a near omnipotent force intervienes at the least likely opportunity, thus saving the protagonist, or protagonists, from an almost certain destruction. In Watchmen, this is seen multiple times through the movie, whether it be Doctor Manhattan saving troops in the Vietnam war, or Nite Owl and the Silk Spectre showing up to save Rorshach (as if he needed it). However, in the Watchmen movie Das Ex Machana appears, but is also overturned and is disproven, as no omnipotent force was able to stop Ozymandias' master plan. Thus disproving that the Das Ex Machana shows up whenever it is really needed, no crises needed it more than when Ozymandias launched his attack on nearly a billion innocent people across the globe.
Next is Good triumphing over evil. It is comonly known that good will win, but as is the case with watchmen, even this is overturned. Once again, the villainous character Ozymandias wins. He kills nearly a billion people, in order to "save" 5 billion. While the forces of good try to stop him, and prevent his plan, they ultimately succumb to despair (as he intended) as they realize that they couldn't have stopped him. After that, the other heroes turn on Rorshach, the main Protagonist, and kill him. While the common place of Good Triumphing is there, it doesn't hold out.
Finally, movies that center around super powered beings, or beings of strong stature, always have strong positive moral messages and strong and justifiable characters, Watchmen displays this commonplace in the flashback sequence that details the "Minutemen" super hero team. However, the modern team of heroes serves to satarize that ideal, and ultimately reveals a glimpse as to how "real heroes" would act if they were put in the world we live in.
Watchmen has multiple commonplaces that it follows and at the same time overturns, which helps the audience to understand movie ideals a little better than movies normally convey.
