Watchmen: The Movie Review
In the middle of the eighties, a phenomenon hit the comic book world of superheroes. A number of titles came out that challenged the conventional wisdom of what exactly constitutes a superhero comic, even what a superhero is. It wasn’t simply that the comics had to be deeper or more complex. It wasn’t that the characters were well rounded. We were treated to heroes interacting with a world not all that different from the one of the 1980’s. We were afraid, we were paranoid, and the world looked to be heading to the big nuclear war that we all feared. The thing these comics did was it showed us how the heroes we revered would grow up, and interact with our world. The truth hit us hard, so hard that we have been affected by these stories since then. Now one of those stories has come to the big screen. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s masterpiece Watchmen. Spoilers and a review after the cut.It’s so hard to think after just seeing the movie. I guess the best way to go through it is to explain the basic story. Watchmen is the story of Earth 1985 that has taken a turn for the worse then the one we all have lived or seen in our history classes. The obvious thing is that Richard Nixon is still the President of the United States. Vietnam has been won and declared the 51st state of the union, and superheroes really do exist. The major divergence in both the story and the movie from our world is that the comic books of 1939 inspire real people to don costumes and masks and fight crime with similar dressed people. Then in 1959, Jon Osterman, becomes Dr. Manhattan. The world forever changed as the United States and Russia were still in the cold war, but America had a real life Superman. Compounding things, the police get fed up working due to the costumed adventurers of this world and riots break out. The United States passes the Keene Act that outlaws costumed vigilantes. Some retire, some do not, and some work for the government as sanctioned agents. This brings us to the real story as one of the original costumed adventurers is murdered, and the investigation in why he is killed, along with flashbacks to the past, detail why this world is not only more horrible then our own, but also how far some people will go to save it.
When I saw the movie, it’s best to come out and say that I had read the graphic novel beforehand. I am wondering if perhaps me reading that gave me an edge in terms of understanding what the story I am watching constitutes of. I will say that the director truly tries to let the film breathe and explain what is going on, or for that matter show what is going on. Often he succeeds, but the films only loss that I can see is the lack of supporting characters, and the lack of subtlety. That and the way Richard Nixon is portrayed, that kinda bugged me.
The movie does a good job with getting us to care for the characters, and in this the film shines. All the main cast are given their back stories for the most part, only Nite Owl 2 (Dan Dreiberg played by Patrick Wilson) and Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt played by Matthew Goode) get short- shifted in terms of background. We never quite see why Dan has his compulsive need to adventure, and we never quite see the depth of Ozymandias’s desire to save people. The rest of the characters get depth, but not as much as from the novel, which is to be expected. They are given enough for the audience to truly sympathize with their various plights.
I will have to say that the Comedian (Edward Blake played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan), deserves great credit for portraying a sympathetic bastard to the extreme. We see that he does in fact feel emotions in every thing he does, even when it is brutal. He truly thinks the world is a sick joke, and that he is just playing the part. When the real joke becomes apparent though, we see what happens when the illusions of old, give way to the realities we all have to face.
Rorschach (Walter Kovacs played by Jackie Earle Haley) is a revelation as our narrator. He nails all the little eccentricities of the main character, and yearns to have more of his back story revealed. Perhaps when we see the extended cut of the film we will see more of his excellent take on the character. The film really whets your appetite for more exploration in the uncut DVD. He is brutal, uncompromising, but not unemotional, which Jackie portrays beautifully.
Dr. Manhattan or rather Billy Crudup deserves special mention for mastering emotional resonance with detachment. You never doubt that the man cares about people, while sounding so detached. Every action he does shows what happens when you live an ivory tower existence, and only when he is confronted with a true miracle, does the character truly shine as he gets to act. Again, subtleties and loss of supporting characters and even some lines shortchange the character and actor, and I can only hope we see more of Billy in the uncut DVD.
The real loss is the stories supporting characters. When the event happens, we feel as detached as Dr. Manhattan (Jon Osterman played by Billy Crudup) due to the lack of seeing anyone but the main characters. This is understandable given the limits of the film, but heartbreaking because at the point of the event, we should be bursting with emotion. Fear, paranoia, epiphany should be cascading from us as much as an energy signature, but it all felt somewhat flat. This isn’t due to the changing of the ending, this is due to the lack of people to connect with. Ever little character missing leaves nuances and emotions at the door, to the point where we are shocked, but not awed. Angry at the idea, but not outraged at the consequences.
Subtlety has never been Zach Snyder’s strongest suit. I understand why Zach has such a fondness for slow motion as it gives you the illusion of a panel from a comic, or really feeling the impact of whatever emotion or action you are seeing. I never felt he overused the device, but he did overuse the depiction of violence in the film. It is what I refer to as the ‘Sin City effect’, basically meaning that we don’t feel like these people are human, but truly superhuman in the amount of damage they can inflict and take. Not only that but the wholesale destruction of a human body that martial arts does to people in this movie detract from the realism of a fight that I believe was the original intent of the author. Now I also understand that this was to emphasize the point that these people do enjoy damaging other people, it takes extreme personalities to don a costume and fight crime. But the over the top fight scenes took me out of the film, it shocked me, not immersed me.
The sex is also cranked up in the movie. Which will either serve the film for you, or not. I did not have a problem with the multiple sex scenes, as they all made some sense. The musical selection for a scene with Silk Spectre ( Laurie Juspeczyk played by Malin Akerman) and Nite Owl was very odd as it was meant to be slightly comical, but killed the impact of the fact that Dan and Laurie got off on dressing up and playing hero. Dan needed to do that to feel fulfilled.
There are a ton of little touches in the movie that serve to show that the director clearly had a love for the source material. Zach fills in the background with touches of the novel as wee see the floating airships, the Gunga Diner, the newsstand, and all those wonderful posters and graffiti. Its not a failed labor of love, its probably the closest you can give love to a novel with that much dense material and have it make sense. I credit Zach for bringing this to the screen, and getting talented people to play the seminal roles. Just like in the novel, I leave it in your hands whether you will see this as an action flick, a deeper story, or the greatest story, its all up to personal opinion. Just like the novel, everyone will act differently.
Enjoy the movies!
Jeff “DarkSpirit82” Adams
