Watchmen: From the book to the big screen [by Will and Matt]

After three directors, a handful of scripts, and a decent legal battle, Watchmen has finally hit theaters. Based off of Alan Moore’s graphic novel which has often been dubbed “unfilmable,” Zach Snyder has finally breathed life into source material that has been circulating for 20 years. And after catching two showings this past weekend I would have to say that I was not disappointed, though it wasn’t entirely the epic experience I had hoped it would be.

For those of you aren’t familiar with the gist, “Watchmen” is set in an alternate reality in the 1980s where nuclear war with Russia looms ominously over everyone’s head. Nixon is in his 3^rd term as president, and masked vigilantes are a staple of the country’s history. It is a movie that explores the idea that super heroes might not be so super after all, and that more often than not they are flawed, sometimes insane, and once in a while sociopathic.

The beginning of the movie sets the stage with a fantastically filmed, sepia-tinted montage set to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a Changin’,” showcasing the rise and fall of the masked avenger movement. Beginning with the original team dubbed “The Minutemen” which depicts the good ol’ glory days, up to their downfall as the masses cry out in protest against the current team, dubbed Watchmen, which results in a legal ban on masked crime fighters. The catalyst which sets the combination of these elements into motion is the beating and subsequent defenestration of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) which sets Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), a vigilante with a particular set of morals, on a path to uncover the truth beneath the murder. His probing into an elaborate conspiracy starts to affect the other retired heroes as their old urges to don latex and fight crime begin to surface once again.

One of my favorite things about this movie is the visual style. Aside from it being incredibly faithful to the graphic novel, it is a brand of eye candy all its own. Zach Snyder’s obsession with the slow-down, speed-up, freeze-frame brand of filmmaking only intensifies already great cinematography. This makes the fight scenes incredibly gratifying to watch– the addition of random slow motion allows us to capture every crunching connection in hi-definition brutality. And there is much brutality throughout the movie; it certainly isn’t for the squeamish. This is exemplified in one scene where we watch Rorschach drive a butcher’s blade again and again into the sweaty bald forehead of a man as blood spurts out like exploding ketchup packets with each impact.

All of the actors, despite not being well known, fit into their roles very well. The only performance that lacked somewhat was Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) who wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great either; she just didn’t bring much to the table in terms of acting ability. If Watchmen were a picnic, she would be the one that brought the napkins. On the other hand, the high points in this movie were definitely the stories and flashbacks that fleshed out the characters. The two most interesting characters: Dr. Manhattan, a once-human turned super-being whose incredible power distances himself from humanity, and Rorschach, a sociopathic vigilante whose sense of identity lies in his “true” face which is his famous changing ink-blotted mask, are the heart and soul of the movie. Billy Crudup captures a sad being in his portrayal of Dr. Manhattan, one whose immense power is counteracted by his knowledge that he cannot change mankind’s destructive nature and as the movie progresses we see his touch with humanity gradually fading. And Jackie Earle Haley proves to be a spot-on Rorschach, capturing a perfect blend of aggression, paranoia, and an unwavering sense of justice with just a hint of insanity to hold it all together.

This great peek into the origin of these characters’ also brings about one of the downfalls of the film. Once we start getting to the conclusion of the story it feels as if it is running out of steam after giving us such powerhouse, character-driven segments. The end also seems a bit rushed which isn’t terrible considering the movie runs at 2 hours and 45 minutes, but the immensity and complications that the end imply don’t fully sink in and take effect as a result. Hopefully this is something that will be remedied when the directors cut hits shelves (supposedly to run at about 3 hours and 45 minutes for you other Watchmen fanatics).

My only other gripe about this movie is that some of the song choices were absolutely God awful and came close to the ruining the scenes they were supposed to enhance. There is a rainy funeral scene done to Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” which seemed completely out of place and only reminded me of Will Farrell in “Old School” floating unconsciously in a pool with a tranquilizer dart jutting from his neck. There was also some obscure cover of “Hallelujah” done to a sex scene, and a randomly thrown in version of “All Along the Watchtower” by Hendrix which only removed me from the viewing experience and made me wonder what the hell the sound guy was thinking. I don’t mean to bash the soundtrack completely; some of the original score was very good. The song playing in the background during Dr. Manhattan’s back story (which showcased how he came to be) fit in beautifully and made it my favorite scene of the movie.

Overall my thoughts are still somewhat conflicted on the movie. It’s hard to judge it as a film in itself because I hold the graphic novel in such high regard. The graphic novel encompasses a wide variety of themes and elements within its pages and I have to give credit to the crew to have preserved so much in its transition to film, but it does suffer somewhat. There are some parts of the graphic novel that are simply lost in the translation, partly due to the fact that Moore wrote Watchmen with the intent to explore what the comic book medium was capable of that other forms of entertainment were not. All in all I think the movie stands perfectly fine on its own, you certainly don’t need to have read the original material to appreciate it. Though it isn’t as epic as “The Dark Knight” like I hoped it would be, it is indeed worth the 10 some-odd dollars to see it in theaters.