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Gamertell Review: Watchmen the movie
Title: Watchmen
Release Date: March 6, 2009
Company: Warner Bros.
Rating: “R”
Length: 163 min (2 hours, 43 minutes)
Pros: A very respectable adaptation of the comic(s), great costumes and special effects, good soundtrack and several good performances.
Cons: Some moments of unintentional awkwardness, poor makeup and a few mixed performances. A little too long.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one sideways; 89; B+; * * * 1/2 out of five.
Based on a series of comics released by DC Comics in the late 1980s, Watchmen offers a twist to costumed super heroes. Directed by Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead), the film follows the original 12-issue series very closely, with many scenes and moments created to depict specific panels of the comic.
The film is set in an alternate 1980s where Nixon is President, the Vietnam War was won and the Cold War is ready to literally explode. Super hero-ing was made illegal year prior so most heroes have retired with only a few working either in secret or, ironically, for the government.
The Watchmen are a group of retired, disbanded heroes who have moved on to either normal lives, government projects or personal agendas. Their paths, as well as the paths of an earlier generation of heroes, re-crisscross after a hero is killed in his apartment and one of the former Watchmen believes it is part of a larger plot to kill costumed heroes.
Watchwomen, Too
The first ten minutes are essentially a montage of nostalgic tableaus, creating some back story, setting up the history of the Watchmen and showing off the talents of the film’s costume department. From there it delves into the comics’ story pretty much as it was printed including scenes of bloody guts and glowing blue male genitalia.
To the dismay of some, but wisely done both for time and to flow, the parallel and foreshadowing comic-within-the-comic is not in the film except for a quick passing moment.
Snyder does a great job giving the movie an ‘80s feel including some appropriate angles and even music (right down to pre-sex scene background music) from the era. After all, this is a comic set in the 1980s, though there are also fair hints at the ‘60s and ‘70s, which makes sense considering that Nixon is an active figure in the book and film.
Much like the Watchmen comics, the movie is sometimes heavily segmented, focusing on the story of one character more than the others, while periodically bopping back into the other developments as well. This is only noticeable for the early portions when a character does the majority of the narration.
There are certainly hints of Snyder’s previous movie, 300, but only in some of the slow-motion special effects. Instead of being abused (as was periodically the case n that film), here is it appropriately used to let you see all the action and give slight pause for appreciation. Most of the scenes in the film were well paced, well filmed (you actually see the heroes fight instead of claustrophobic quick cuts) and appropriately spiced with effects although a few leave you feeling uncomfortable.
My biggest moments of groan are not the dialogue which is quite appropriate for a Cold War ‘80s and one line even generated rousing applause from the audience. Instead, some of the makeup work was unfortunately laughable.
At certain times, Nixon looks like Nixon while in most others he’s filmed in such a way that he’s just an actor in an awkward chubby suit with a costume shop paste-on nose and jowls. Very pretty Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter, the original Silk Specter, plays her character in both the younger and elder years, with the latter including painfully obvious plastic wrinkles which are visually uncomfortable in a few up close. Same for Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Edward Blake (aka The Comedian) which is unfortunate since his performance is appropriately over the top and swarmy.
Unfortunately, Patrick Wilson’s Dan Dreiberg (aka The Nite-Owl) is often more swarmy than the director likely intended, sometimes seemingly like a creepy old guy versus a disappointed nerd, which is does often portray pretty well.
Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach (and Walter Kovacs) is perhaps the best performance on screen, offering a guttural voice that fits the character and rarely gets on your nerves (like Christian Bale’s Batman often does, even in Dark Knight). Even more impressive, he does it with his head completely covered by the ever-morphin’ Rorschach mask.
Likewise, Matthew Goode’s Adrian Veidt (aka Ozymandias) is always spot-on, constantly offering a nice mix of arrogance and slime, as does Blake as the Comedian. Billy Crudup’s Jon Osterman (aka Dr. Manhattan) has the benefit of a computerized outer shell, offering an other worldly aspect to his intentionally and appropriately stoic performance.
The opposite is true for Malin Akerman’s Laurie Juspeczyk (aka the current Silk Spectre), whose performance runs the unfortunate gambit between convincing and over rehearsed (adding to the icky feeling you get during the movie’s sex scenes).
Watch the Watchmen?
While this movie will not likely convert non-comic fans, it is a good adaptation and certainly honors both the comics and the era they were created (and set). That’s not going to settle well with all viewers but, even so, is certainly well executed and appreciated (at least by this critic). The film wasn’t made 15 or 20 years ago, as it probably should have been, but does benefit from modern effects.
The comics’ nuclear war-heavy story is a bit passe for younger viewers who only know Watchmen as a flat-bound graphic novel, which may be why some are bemoaning the film’s hokiness. I suggest instead that the film’s very ‘80s feel is quite appropriate and honors the era rather well.
What will lose some audience members are the awkward sex scenes (at least one is intentionally and unavoidably uncomfortable), a few moments that take too much pause to adhere to the comic and the many character refocuses. Even so, this is a rather respectable adaptation.
Graphic novel and, specifically, nostalgic Watchmen fans will want to see the movie at least twice to catch all of the intended visual elements lovingly reproduced from the comics including the rather awesome Owl ship. For anyone else, save the experience for the at-home screen where splattering guts and a few dragging scenes are either skipable or bathroom break worthy, especially considering the run time.
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Just saw this movie and like everyone else I was pretty excited to see it. But man, talk about over hype. I found it pretty dull and uninteresting, and not to mention extremely slow. The movie was very predictable even if you hadn’t read the graphic novel. I did like this version’s end more than the book. It made way more sense than a giant octopus, but it felt still very rushed and didn’t focus enough on the dramatic impact of the villain’s actions. And even though there is so many damn flashbacks and details about these character’s past, I still couldn’t find myself caring about them, or really understanding who they are.
Rorschach, was, however, the whole movie. Every time he was on screen I just didn’t want him to leave.
Overall, Watchmen doesn’t hold a candle to Dark Knight or Iron Man.
on March 8, 2009 at 01:31 PM - LINKThere were certainly slow parts that could have been edited to bring up the pace (and can you imagine an even longer Director’s Cut?)
It’s a bit hard to capture the fright and seriousness of a potential nuclear war 20+ years later. Nixon (in the movie) was supposed to help convey that but the cruddy makeup really cut into the effect. I given them credit for at least trying.
on March 8, 2009 at 06:25 PM - LINKYeah I felt that about the whole nuclear plot…it just didn’t feel very serious or certain, but just a after thought to the plot. If it was a threat that was more contemporary than it might have had a greater impact on the story. It was weird seeing the Twin Towers in a lot of scenes, and at the end when we do see Ground Zero, there is a lot of memories of 9/11. I really think they could have pulled more on those more current images to strengthen the overall sense of dread in the film.
That is the main problem with adapting this movie to almost a mirror translation of the graphic novel. If it had been inspired, brought up to date, and reinterpreted, say like how Lords of Rings follows the books, but the films feel very original and purposely skipped over a lot of the unnecessary crap from those books, Watchmen could have been far stronger and groundbreaking.
on March 8, 2009 at 07:46 PM - LINK@Christopher. Apart form the fact that I haven’t actually read the book, I could have written your first comment word for word. I really didn’t give a damn about any of them, except Rorschach, who was indeed the start of the show.
on March 11, 2009 at 05:10 PM - LINKRorschach (no relation) is also one of the most interesting characters in the book, so they did pretty well there.
The person who went to the screening with me said at the end, “Well, that certainly wasn’t a character movie.”
With so many diverse main characters, it’s hard to give due justice to them all. I’m not sure how they could have resolved that without major rewriting (tricky), cutting characters (a fan non-no) or an uber long movie (maybe the Director’s Cut?). Even the non-Director’s cuts of the Lord of the Rings movies have sections that drag on far too long. Cutting out the comic-in-the-comic/movie was a good idea but there could certainly have been a few minutes (and redundancies) trimmed from several scenes to pick up the pace.
Geek_Girl - I’d recommend the Watchmen book(s) for the value of it as a ground breaker. Like the movie, it’s pretty hard to get the full effect of the nuclear scare/themes in it two decades later but it has influenced many comic writers/artists/editors as well as other media. The original may seem a little dated or passe if you had not been exposed to it before.
Of course, there’s something nice about being able to add your own internal interpretation to the characters based in the original words and art.
on March 11, 2009 at 06:50 PM - LINKI downloaded the Watchmen comics a few weeks before the movie came out. While I have been collecting comics since I was 11 years old, I had never really heard of Watchmen, although, I had heard of Alan Moore, who I don’t like as a writer. The only movie based on his work that I liked was From Hell, which was great.
I like the Watchmen movie much better than the books by a wide margin, which I actually got extremely bored with. Although, while I’ve heard how original the books were, there does seem to be a lot of Batman: The Dark Knight (not the movie - the Millar book) influence spread throughout Watchmen, and I think the Dark Knight came out several years earlier. But yeah, if I had read Watchmen at the time, which I couldn’t being only like 6 years old, I would have found it more original and complex compared to any comic (except the Dark Knight) of the time. I’ve had the luxury of Spawn, Sin City, The Authority, etc that are darker and broke new ground in the industry through the 90s and beyond, all of which can, I guess, be contributed to Watchmen. So, I’ll give the book and Moore props for that, but not much else - but hey, I don’t like the Godfather movies either :)
Overall, I still love my more conventional super heroes more than these deconstructive attempts that Watchmen tried to shove down our throat.
on March 11, 2009 at 08:47 PM - LINKAnd damn PJ for beating me to the punch to the Watchmen review. But at least I can rant here ;p
on March 11, 2009 at 08:50 PM - LINKi haven’t read the Watchmen comic series, but i can’t imagine them packing any more into one movie even if they wanted to, which is good for me, makes me feel like i got my money’s worth
on March 14, 2009 at 05:38 PM - LINK