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Thursday
05Mar2009

Movie Review - 'Watchmen'

DateThursday, March 5, 2009 at 11:02PM
Watchmen

Starring Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Directed by Zack Snyder
Rated R

watchmen_galleryteaser.jpg Before you analyze Watchmen - a film that will be the subject of critical and fan analysis for years to come - you have to acknowledge all that it is. Yes, it's a comic book movie at a certain level. And yes, a strong attempt has been been made to remain faithful to the source material.

However, in another light, it's a self-contained entity. While Watchmen the graphic novel made a list of the 100 greatest novels of the 20th century published by Time and it is, as comics go, one of the most important and influential titles you'll find, this isn't a comic book or a novel.

It's a movie. And not everybody reads comic books, anyway, even the great ones. So while being faithful to the source material is admirable (otherwise, why would it be worth making a movie out of it?), movies and the printed word are decidedly different things, and movies, no matter what seed germinated them, have to operate as films do.

Then there's the other component of Watchmen, one that really has nothing to do with what happens between the credits: This is a hype machine, a movie that has had more headlines and webspace devoted to it than almost any other movie this year. And, speaking for a lot of movie audiences who buy tickets based on buzz and very little else, this one just won't make sense to them. This isn't as easy to digest as Iron Man.

Because all of those things work together regardless of the project but perhaps particularly in this case, what's great about Watchmen is also what's bad about it. Perspective really is everything here. It's almost ineffective to discuss the story, because if audiences know it well already, they'll be over the moon, and if they don't, they'll likely find this movie arch and unapproachable, wondering who the good guys are and even if they win in the end.

The ticket buyers who are influenced more by the number of commercials they see than anything else will be somewhat disappointed that a movie with six superheroes has so little action in two-and-a-half hours, which stems from the long, involved, and involving narrative structure in the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons comic.

The film begins with promise for everyone: There's a murder. It's the mid-1980s, and Nixon is still president. Vietnam worked out much better for him in the alternate universe of these characters, in large part because of these characters, so term limits have been removed. But America is crumbling, and one night, a disheveled Edward Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) gets his door kicked in. He knows what's coming. "Just a matter of time, I suppose," he mutters.

Blake was a member of a government-funded group of heroes. Or mercenaries. It began decades earlier, and before there were Watchmen there were Minutemen. Blake was the bridge between both groups of heroes. But he was far from heroic more often than not. And it was just a matter of time.

The mystery of who killed Edward Blake runs parallel to another, larger storyline. The world sits on the brink of nuclear annihiliation. Could they somehow be connected? The remaining Watchmen slowly involve themselves in both missions. The first to pursue leads is Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). Even though Nixon officially disbanded the group years earlier, Rorschach has remained in character, as it were. The other Watchmen have never known his identity, nor have they ever seen his face. He's a bit of a vampire, stalking the New York streets at night, exacting justice on a world that has gone too liberal and soft.

Rorschach has investigated The Comedian's apartment, and strongly believes it was not a random slaying. He shares his opinion with Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson), otherwise known as Nite Owl II, and then with Laurie Jupiter (Malin Akerman) and Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup). There's nothing overwhelmingly out of the ordinary about Laurie, who fights crime under the name Silk Spectre II. Dr. Manhattan, however, is a strange case. He's a nuclear man, all-powerful, indestructible, and in fact, he's barely a man at all anymore. He exists in his own mind, trying to find a way to prevent a nuclear oblivion.

He's also blue. And naked. Pretty much all the time.

Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode) learns about the murder, as well. He's the only member of the Watchmen to publicly announce his identity. The former Ozymandias is the smartest man in the world and he's turned his remarkable mind into a furnace for million dollar ideas. Yeah, he's also the richest man in the world.

Considering that we began discussing the narrative structure of Watchmen six paragraphs ago and we're just now through the first act of the movie, you can see how disconcerting all of this might be to the unitiated. The question for director Zack Snyder (300) is how do you make all of this more palatable to audiences who don't have the first clue what this is about?

I spent a couple days thinking that over. I don't think he could alter the structure of this story very much at all. Unlike a Sin City that could work in chapters, Watchmen is an all or nothing proposition. So if you're new and you walk away from this film saying, "I don't get it," just know that the movie as a whole is better for that. You can't show half of Watchmen and have it be worth making. So if you find it's getting too obtuse, focus on the gorgeous cinematography or the performances by Morgan and Haley.

Strangely, the way into this tale for most of us would be Rorschach and The Comedian, but they're more likely to be confused with sociopaths than Superman. Both actors are simply magnificent in revealing the really dark side to heroes.

None of the other performances really boil the pot, however. Akerman is primarily eye candy in the middle of a tug-of-war between two characters, Patrick Wilson is a little too reserved, even as a character that's more in the background, and of course, you simply can't get into Dr. Manhattan. How could you? You can only watch it - marveling at the technique behind the effects that make the character possible and believable - but there's nothing to grab onto.

If there's one complaint to levy against Zack Snyder, it's probably that some of the scenes feel unnecessary or overly drawn out, particularly when one of the Watchmen is incarcerated and for a lot of the film's third act. That's a different issue than the structure of the film, an area Snyder got right.

This is where the argument against being faithful to the source material has some merit, though. You can read things on your own schedule, and in fact, you're supposed to. Books have more detail precisely because they have time for more detail. Films don't have that much of a luxury, and if a 155 minute movie could be better and more riveting at 135 minutes, then why wouldn't you approach it that way? After all, Snyder and any director is making concessions anytime a text is adapated, and the running time should be in that discussion. In fact, there's a much longer version of the movie waiting for the DVD release, so another ten minutes could be trimmed with no damage done to what remains in the theatrical cut.

Finally, what remains is how those distinct groups of people we mentioned earlier will feel about the movie they've seen. Most of the Watchmen fans will love it. They understand how complex this story and its characters are, and it delivers a pretty accurate filmed version of the original.

People who are curious to see how it works on its own merits might think it's too much of a graphic novel on screen. But within that, even skeptics will have to fully admire the technical accomplishments by Snyder and his crew.

And finally, there's the guy who thought the commercials looked cool. He'll wonder why it's not more entertaining and why there's not more action. Will he be enticed to read Watchmen after this? Probably not, but hopefully he can appreciate what an auspicious moment it is even though he wanted to just turn off his brain for a couple of hours instead.


Watch the Watchmen trailer

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment8 Comments |

Reader Comments (8)

Although I agree with a lot of what is being said above (Morgan and Haley are great - I do think Crudip is equally great though and does give us something to attach to with his subtlety and voice work AND the visuals are outstanding and often mesmerizing) BUT I don't agree with the 4 gorilla rating. This film simply does not work... the old adage that 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts' works in reverse for this film, the parts are greater than the film as a whole. Sequences took my breath away but in the end I was left disappointed with the film as a whole. I can see why so many thought this amazing graphic novel was unfilmable because as good a job as Snyder did it still doesn't work. Even if he had trimmed the 20 minutes as suggested above (which could easily have been done) it still wouldn't have worked I don't think... some things just aren't meant to be films. It was a good try and I'm glad they did it but I won't be seeing it again or buying the DVD and I buy everything.

Friday, March 6, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAnybody

This film was breathtaking. Staying true to the novel was no small or easy feat, especially with the short attention spans that many American have nowadays. People have a rough time sitting through a nearly 3 hour film, which is actually quite sad, especially for a film like this-which is a monumental accomplishment in my opinion. I think you got this right Colin-excellent review. I've read many negative or mixed reviews for Watchmen-which I respect-but I cannot get over the fact that some of their reasons for their reviews have been too analytical. You have to dive deeper into the story and why this story exists. I think it's highly relative to society today and for our world. Perhaps I am thinking to seriously about this but the idea that creating world peace could be created by a complex yet outrageous way as is in this graphic novel/film, is absolutely genius. I mean think about it, especially having what happened wtih 9/11 and seeing how that basically had no affect on sustaining world peace. IT really is incredible that the writers had this idea that gave possibility that peace could be possible. But-in closing-we don't always need to see THE DARK KNIGHT or IRON MAN comic book films. Sure action and explosives are great to see and those movies were great-but sometimes-and I find this especially true with Watchmen-it is nice to see a Rated R film with a great story succeed with the mesmerizing consistency that I feel it completed. Kudos to Zack Snyder.

Friday, March 6, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterIndeed

Saw the midnight showing, pegged you to give it a 4. Amazing for what it is, a better Straight Adaption could not be done, but a better movie still could of been made. Leave the DVD 4 hour directors cut to the fanboys. Still they got far more right then they got wrong and at the very least proved that there is no reason you cant have the production values to recreate everything in fine detail. (looking at you DBZ and street fighter)

Friday, March 6, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterOrinn

why not 5 apes...it was breathtaking....and about Malin's character, i think that is not just eye-candy, but a slice of humanity in its best...so 5 apes from me :)

Sunday, March 8, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDan

i just got back from watching Watchmen; in retrospect, the movie leaves me feeling a bit haunted by it's style and storyline, though in a good way

Saturday, March 14, 2009 | Unregistered Commentercoffee

I liked the costume, but overall the movie isn't that good. I could have just buy wow gold with the money I've spent in the cinema or visited my friend and play frisbee.

Monday, March 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJames

loved this movie
now the syupid stuff
doesn't Jackie Earl as Rorshach look like Steve Nash?

Colin, I hear the edge needs a morning show

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterPsyko Tek

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