(Long Island, NY) A comic book being listed by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 novels of all time is quite an impressive feat. But it’s a feat that Watchmen, a complex superhero story originally written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, has managed to pull off. Originally released in 1986 as a limited series, Watchmen changed a lot of people’s perceptions of what a comic could bring to the table, especially in terms of depth of storytelling and symbolism. Given how popular comic book-based films are these days, you’d think such a well-regarded tome would have gotten the movie treatment already, but attempts to convert Watchmen to the silver screen were mired in development hell for years. Many directors claimed it was simply UN-filmable due to the deep nature of its narrative.
But finally a Watchmen movie has become a reality, as envisioned by director Zack Snyder (who previously helmed 300). Snyder has crafted probably the most loyal adaptation of Watchmen possible in a film with a 2 hour and 40 minute running time. Of course, things had to be cut (or else the movie would have probably ended up being 6 hours long), and the ending was altered from the comic’s (which, in my opinion, works better), but overall, Watchmen is an interesting and unique film containing beautiful visuals and a wide cast of engaging characters. I myself am a fan of comic books and have read Watchmen- however, while I don’t hold it in as high a regard as some do, I still consider it an important work. That being the case, I’m glad to report that Watchmen makes for a good film, although non-fans of the comic or people with short attention spans might not enjoy it as much.
Watchmen takes place in an alternate America of 1985, where term restrictions on the Oval Office have been lifted (thus, amusingly, Richard Nixon is still President) and masked crimefighters help to keep the public safe- that is, until they are outlawed, forcing them into retirement. The Cold War is still very much alive, and rising tensions with the Soviet Union bring with it the threat of nuclear war. All of this serves as a backdrop for the murder of Edward Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), AKA The Comedian- a costumed hero formally of the team known as The Watchmen, now employed by the U.S. Government for top-secret Block Ops missions. The motive for his killing remains unclear, as does his killer’s identity- his death is dismissed as a the possible work of a long-time rival, but one man has another theory.
Enter the vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), former Watchman and one of the last remaining costumed adventurers still working the streets, despite the aforementioned ban. A borderline sociopath who wears a bizarre mask featuring a constantly shifting inkblot pattern, Rorschach is convinced that Blake’s death is part of a conspiracy to murder former superheroes and starts digging through his contacts for clues. While smacking around the dregs of the criminal underworld looking for answers, Rorschach also takes the time to warn his former teammates that their lives might be in danger. These former crusaders include Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), a nerdy, Batman-like character who’s growing soft in retirement; Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), a blue, emotionally-detached nudist transformed into a god by a science experiment gone awry; Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman), Dr. Manhattan’s long-suffering girlfriend; and Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), a super-genius who is now a billionaire businessman after going public with his secret identity. All of the Watchmen have sordid histories with The Comedian, and these are all revealed via flashbacks while they attend his funeral.
Rorschach’s attempts to warn his former comrades is generally met with skepticism, as his reputation for being a right-wing paranoid is well known, as is the fact that he’s wanted by the cops for his brutal and often “permanent” solutions for street crime. However, once an attempt is made on the life of Ozymandias, Dr. Manhattan is driven off of Earth and into exile on Mars after he is accused of being a carcinogen(!), and Rorschach himself is framed for murder (at least, the one murder he’s actually innocent of) and sent to jail, the remaining Watchmen start to take him a bit more seriously. The search is on to unravel the mystery of The Comedian’s murder and the dark conspiracy behind it, but the clock is ticking- the only deterrent to nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was the near-omnipotent Dr. Manhattan, and with his exile on Mars and growing disinterest with a humanity he shares little in common with, the world is stepping closer and closer to annihilation. Will the Watchmen save the day, or will they usher in the destruction of mankind?
First of all, if you have a short attention span, Watchmen will probably lose you. The film attempts the convey the complex narrative and wide array of characters of the comic as closely as possible, and as a result the story is told through a large series of flashbacks, with the emphasis switching from different protagonists at various points. But, despite the movie’s attempt to fit in as much content from the comic as possible, it does feel as though things are missing-even if you’ve never read it. Believe me, I can appreciate the fact that things are going to have to be left out when adapting a story such as this into a running time of under 3 hours, and I do not lament the loss of many of the minor characters, sub-plots, and back-stories- it’s a fact that these things needed to be stripped (they were the weaker parts of the book anyway, in my opinion) in favor of concentrating on the meat of the plot-line. Watchmen is not about guys in spandex stopping bank robbers- there’s a lot more to it.
Watchmen, more than anything else, is a character study of the heroes comprising the team- their personalities, their flaws, and their relationships with each other and the world around them. However, despite the bare-bones approach to the story and the film’s long length (which, shockingly, I didn’t find to be a detriment), I still got the feeling that it could have used even a little longer to flesh out these characters, which in turn would have helped me to invest more in them emotionally. As it is, the Watchmen film covers most of the the bases, but things feel crammed a little too tightly at times- I especially would have liked Rorschach’s history (especially concerning his wacky mask) explored a bit more, and people really should know why Ozymandias suddenly has a purple horned tiger thingy hanging around with him later in the movie. Still, as I said earlier, I don’t see how anyone on Earth could have done a better job in under 3 hours of running time, so Mr. Snyder deserves a nice pat on the head for a job well done.
Visually, Watchmen is gorgeous to behold. Personally, I’m not one to be impressed by elaborate opening credit sequences (I usually consider them to be a waste of both time and money…if people walk out of your movie talking about the credits and nothing else, something’s wrong), but I’ll make an exception here. Watchmen’s credits are pretty fascinating: a series of slow-motion scenes set to Bob Dylan, depicting major events throughout the years of the film’s alternate history, leading up to the present (in this case, 1985). Snyder backs off on the large amount of green screen work he used in list last film, 300, instead using more sets and locations to stage Watchmen in, which adds greatly to the atmosphere and realism.
You can also tell that Snyder took great care in translating the look and feel of the comic to the screen, going so far as to hiring the comic’s illustrator (Dave Gibbons) as a consultant and using the actual comic itself in place of traditional storyboards. Watchman creator Alan Moore’s name is nowhere to be seen in the credits, however- staunchly anti-Hollywood, he’s apparently been burned by film versions of them going forward. Hey, it all works out well for Dave Gibbons, who gets Moore’s cut of the dough (at Moore’s request).
But despite Watchmen’s loftier goals, at its heart, it’s a superhero movie…and what’s a superhero movie without some action? Well, don’t worry- despite the material cut from the comic in its journey to the screen (which, in some ways, led me to enjoying it more), Snyder left in all the beat-downs, explosions, sex, and violence…and then for giggles, gave us even more. Make no mistake- this film is rated R and pulls no punches. The brutality of some of the scenes in Watchmen can be particularly harrowing- the at-times bright and cheery tone the film is matched by a dark, seedy, bloody undercurrent that at times rises up in a fairly shocking manner. Don’t take your kids to this expecting the Fantastic Four, that’s for sure.
So, in the end, Watchmen as a movie is a triumph in the sense that it takes a comic considered UN-filmable and manages to make a pretty good Cliff’s Notes version of it. While fans may miss the omissions from Alan Moore’s original tale, in some ways the Watchman film is made better than its source material by those very omissions. And while I would have liked the characters expanded upon a bit more, the plot a little less jam-packed, and less clichéd musical choices in the soundtrack, I’ll still give Watchmen a solid recommendation. It’s not the greatest superhero movie ever made, but in the flood of sequels and cookie-cutter garbage we’re subjected to every time we head to the local cinema, any movie that tries something fresh and different is worthy of your attention, and Watchmen is certainly one such movie. Go see it.
