[REVIEW] 'WATCHMEN'
'Wizard's' take on director Zack Snyder's film adaptation of the seminal graphic novel. Is it good? Is it bad? Find out!
By Mel Caylo
Posted 3/6/2009
Spoilers ahead! Beware!
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It's finally here. After languishing in development hell for over 20 years, the "Watchmen" movie is upon us. The film adaptation of the most revered graphic novel of all time is supposed to be every comic book fan's dream come true, but does it live up to expectations?
Wizard got an early look at the film and we're here to tell you if "Watchmen" is worth watching.
PROS
FAITHFUL TO THE SOURCE MATERIAL
If "300" was Snyder's "I have a crush on you" note to comic book fans, then "Watchmen" is his love letter to them. It is the closest page-for-page adaptation of a graphic novel ever put to film. Snyder and his team took the most revered work in comics and transformed it into a brilliant masterpiece on screen. Many key lines were lifted directly from the book, and much of Dave Gibbons' groundbreaking panel work was amazingly reproduced on the screen. However, as has been widely publicized, the ending has been altered and purists are crying foul (The filmmakers felt the original ending with an interdimensional alien squid would have taken too much movie time to set up, hence the change). But the new ending also made a lot of sense and was able to circle back to the final outcome.
A NEW APPRECIATION OF 'WATCHMEN'
Viewers will appreciate the beauty of Watchmen all over again. While some of the comic's depth is missing–with all the exposition Moore included as back-up material in the issues, it was impossible to incorporate it all (which is one of the reasons Moore wanted nothing to do with the movie)–the spectacle of seeing these characters and imagery leaping from the page to the big screen was essentially geek-gasmic. The sight of the Owl Ship swooping above the New York cityscape gave me goose bumps. I was awed by the magnificent costumes–especially the latex-ified update of Silk Spectre II's outfit–and mesmerized by Rorschach's ever-changing, ink-blotted mask. Even the appearance of a CGI Bubastis made me smile.
THE "R" RATING
By insisting from the moment he signed on that the movie had to be a hard "R," Snyder was able to put his stamp on the film. To wit, there are super-violent fight sequences (take notice especially of the scene where a gang of "top knots" attempt to mug Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk in an alley), an all-too-graphic attempted rape of Silk Spectre by the Comedian, gruesome torture shots (Rorschach's specialty) and even a Skinemax-worthy lovemaking scene. The "R" rating also afforded Snyder the ability to show full frontal male nudity in the case of Dr. Manhattan. It gives all-new meaning to the term "blue balls."
JACKIE EARLE HALEY AS WALTER KOVACS/RORSCHACH
The "Little Children" actor is absolutely chilling as Walter Kovacs/Rorschach. Even with a sock over his head, Haley convincingly captured the gravitas of this complex, troubled character–from the eerie, raspy voice to the uncompromising, merciless attitude. You know what Rorschach's fate ultimately is and when it draws closer there's enough palpable anxiety that you'll feel like it was you who Ozymandias punched in the stomach. Snyder punctuates this feeling by inserting Nite Owl II into the scene to witness the killing, and his gut-wrenching "Nooooooo!" could be felt in the back of the theatre.
MUSIC
The choice of music on the soundtrack is interesting, considering the film is set in 1985. While there are songs from the era like Nina's "99 Luftballoons" and Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," there's also a good supply of songs from 1960s recording artists like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Simon & Garfunkel. A rather nice surprise is the inclusion of a couple of tracks by poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen, including his performance of the haunting "Hallelujah" (Look it up on YouTube and you'll see what I mean).
CONS
MATTHEW GOODE AS ADRIAN VEIDT/OZYMANDIAS
Goode's attempt to play the smartest man in the world comes across as fey and uninspiring, not regal and arrogant as he's depicted in the comic. I understand why the filmmakers chose for him to speak with a German accent but it also detracted from the portrayal. Also, isn't he supposed to be about 40 years old? (Hint: Yep, he is.)
SCENES ON MARS
While crucial to the storyline, the scenes with Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre II on Mars were mind-numbingly boring and made worse by Malin Akerman's cringe-worthy performance.
BERNIE AND BERNARD
The loquacious newsstand owner and comic book-reading kid are relegated to cameos, but look for more of them on the DVD (Plus, an animated movie of the comic Tales of the Black Freighter is coming out on a separate DVD just after the film hits in theatres).
HIGHLIGHTS
OPENING CREDIT SEQUENCE
The fantastic opening credit sequence brings the audience up to speed to the time when the movie opens in 1985, and essentially, it doubles as a feast for fanboy eyes. After the film opens with the murder of the Comedian, it segues into a succession of snippets that chronicles the emergence of "masks" in the late 1930s and 1940s and how they're a part of this alternate history of the United States. It goes from their origin (see if you can catch a young Walter Kovacs), to their integration into society, to their recruitment by the government (for both covert and not-so-covert missions–some of this stuff is not in the comic book so I won't spoil the surprises here), all the way to their downfall and becoming outlawed by the Keene Act. These scenes alone will inspire repeat viewings and freeze-framing when the eventual DVD comes out. Look for cameos by David Bowie and Mick Jagger lookalikes in the Studio 54 snapshot.
FIGHT SCENE IN ALLEY
While watching Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk fight the gang of Top Knots in an alley, I can't remember how many times I gasped and said, "Oooh." Not even "The Dark Knight" featured bones popping out of the skin.
DR. MANHATTAN IN MOLOCH'S HIDEOUT
When the Blue Wonder confronts two of Moloch's cronies in a bar and obliterates them, their guts are splattered all over their molls, but mostly on the ceiling. Gruesome. And awesome.
RORSHACH IN PRISON
From the scene where Walter Kovacs makes short work of an attacker in the prison cafeteria to his confrontation with Big Figure and his goons, these sequences are awesome when brought to cinematic life, especially when he growls, "None of you understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me!"
BOTTOM LINE
This is certainly not a traditional Hollywood "mystery adventure" (as the studio, Warner Bros., is marketing it as). By sticking very closely to the original source material, Snyder (thankfully) chose not to dumb it down for conventional audiences so that it'd be easier for them to swallow. It may feature superheroes, but this is a high-concept superhero story, and Terry Gilliam–who was once attached to direct–didn't claim the project to be "unfilmable" for nothing.
Will the uninitiated watch this film? The Watchmen aren't exactly household names like Spider-Man and Batman. A quick, unscientific survey amongst my friends who don't read comics revealed that most of them are curious enough to check it out. But is the mainstream audience ready for a superhero film that's darker than "The Dark Knight?" In the post-9/11 era, yes, but it's a long leap to take.
Those not familiar with the source material may be somewhat confused by the film and shocked to see that the good guy-turned-bad guy gets away with killing millions of people and doesn't get his comeuppance. It may unnerve them to see superheroes have sex, commit genocide and perform torture. And they will not like the sight of a superhero killing a pregnant woman in cold blood, no matter what the context. But in the current world climate, nothing shocks audiences anymore.
With "Watchmen's" complex storyline, political overtones, two-hour-and-36-minute running time and "R" rating, Warner Bros. is taking a tremendous risk with this film, exacerbated by the fact they have to share a percentage of the worldwide gross of the box office receipts with Twentieth Century Fox, which successfully argued they still owned the "Watchmen" movie rights. The film will undoubtedly make the most money out of any Alan Moore adaptation (it only has to beat the $179 million worldwide gross pulled in by "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"), and Warner Bros. will be happily rewarded. However, any idea about franchising "Watchmen" into a series of movies should be given up.
Is this the best comic book movie ever? No. (I give that distinction to "The Dark Knight.") But it's a faithful, well-made film that the endemic audience will embrace despite the controversy surrounding the new ending. What's more, Snyder's director's cut, which will be included on the DVD, will–I'm sure–just endear them to the film more.
VERDICT
If you're a comics fan, and even if you're not a fan of the Watchmen graphic novel itself, you owe it to the medium you love to see the reverence it is paid by this film. That alone is worth the price of admission. Go watch the "Watchmen."
