Watchmen

This is the first time going into writing a review that I’m not quite sure how I will rank the movie at the end. It all amounts to the fact that I’m not sure how to view this movie. Part of me wants to look at it from the point of view of someone who has read the novel and knows what’s going on – and the other side of me thinks that I should take it from the point of view such as my younger brother that was with me while we saw this movie. He was someone who had no idea about the Watchmen graphic novel and was completely new to all of the concepts and themes of the entire plot. After seeing the first trailer with the Smashing Pumpkin’s song attached to it I was so psyched for this movie. I have a feeling that this review might go all over the place so let’s get to it shall we…

SYNOPSIS:
Ok for those that don’t know, Watchmen is a movie based directly off of the graphic novel by Alan Moore. The graphic novel was one of the most celebrated graphic novels of it’s time and probably ranks up there with even more popular titles such as Sin City, 300, and the Dark Knight Returns. In the story, there were once caped crusaders, who were normal people, that went around as vigilantes taking care of the bad guys that cops more or less didn’t deal with properly. They were known as the Minutemen. This group soon either got old or got dead and a new group of caped crusaders emerged. They were known as the Watchmen. The Watchmen however were not as well liked as the Minutemen were initially and eventually the government demanded that all should un-mask themselves and either stop being a “super-hero” or give up your identity. The story then centers around the few that still share their own secret identities and despite the odds still try to do good for mankind in their own rite. There is a lot more to the story but if that seems to interest you enough, then by all means pick up the novel and get to reading!

PROS of the FILM:
Watchmen was one of the best things I’ve had the pleasure of reading, and I don’t read much. Granted it’s presented in a comic form, but trust me when I say that it’s far from a comic. There is so much to Watchmen that if you take it for granted then you obviously don’t understand what Alan Moore was trying to tell. With that I have to say that a big pro of this movie by Zack Snyder is that he did his best to try and stay with the original content of the novel as closely as he could. Whether it was the in depth looks into each character or the small subtle references to things such as the Black Freighter – it seemed that he crammed as much in there as he possibly could.

Another big pro in my eyes was the cast. Each person that was cast for all of the characters seemed to fit perfectly. Granted they might not have looked “just” like them from the novel, but if I was reading this as an actual book and not as a comic then the entire cast would’ve been pictured exactly as I had them in my mind. There were three in particular that stood out to me. Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) for one was brilliant. The character really shined when he had his mask  off and was in prison. Just his expression alone seemed to embody exactly what was on the page and who he really was. Another cast member I thought was perfect was Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup). The way he kept his expression emotionless and completely bland as he talked about humans and their existence as if it were meaningless was awesome! Once again someone who fit the bill to a “T” when he was to look the part. The blue omniscient glow around him and the slight particle effect in his skin as well as the almost galaxy star burst effect in his eyes were all awesome to look at. Finally the third was the Comedian played by Jeffrey Morgan. Not only did he visually look the part, he probably did some of the best acting. Which to be a bad good guy has to be hard. I tip my hat to him for a superb acting job.

After mentioning how both Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan looked in the film that moves me to my next point – the film looked amazing the entire way through. To try and set up both the opening credits and showing the old super heroes and then changing the look entirely to where we find Rorschach investigating in the dark damp alleys of  the alternate 1980’s. The subtle use of light and atmosphere really helped to set the entire mood and feel of the movie. Big credit to the cinematography and lighting guys for figuring out which ways to set up a dark scene but add just enough light so that we can tell what’s going on. Something I’m sure that is hard to accomplish when trying to translate something that is illustrated in comic form to something that is presented in live action. Along with all of that we have to give credit for those poor guys that sit behind their computers and complete all the CG that was in this film. Kudos to them because other than the slight motion capture details and Ozy’s really fake looking pet I couldn’t point out what was CG and what wasn’t. Little details like these are always taken for granted in a big action movie but if you don’t catch that it looks like CG then they’ve done a great job keeping you in the movie experience rather than taking you out of it.

A head nod should be made for Rorschach’s voice over journal entries. The guy’s voice was perfect and for some reason a lot of other critics give it grief.  I’m not quite sure how they would rather have it – but if I had that voice playing while I was reading the novel that would’ve been awesome and would’ve saved some time during those segments because some of his journal entries would go for 2 to 3 pages. I just thought that it was something subtle but so effective in the storytelling.

Finally, the fight sequences were superbly choreographed and shot. It really helps to show that these aren’t just every day people but people who have trained themselves to kick ass. It’s not just mom and pop who decided to put on costumes but people who cared enough to train themselves and get stronger in order to take on the situations that they were putting themselves into. I loved how this was shown in the movie not only for the great choreography but also to help stir up the boredom that I started to experience during the lapse of any action going on at all.

CONS of the FILM:
As critics are job is easy to point out the flaws of a movie and quite frankly, a little more fun to do so. With Watchmen I didn’t have a lot to say that was entirely positive about the film, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a good movie. I just have more negative things to point out than positive. And here are some of them:

What the hell was up with the music selection and why was it so loud out of nowhere each time that it was used?!?! The music seemed to be all over the place and almost comical at times in the film. I’m not quite sure what the director was going for here – but I hope that something is explained in the special features of the DVD.

Why would you NOT explain where Rorschach got his mask from? Especially for people who don’t understand how it’s changing?!?!? Everyone who hasn’t read the novel will have no idea how that’s happening and completely take that for granted in the film. For those of you that will see this movie and haven’t read  the actual story then here is your explanation. It’s a fancy fabric combo! There is no special effect or some “magic” that makes it work. It’s just a liquid between two sheets of special fabric that constantly moves around mimicking the look of a Rorschach ink blot. I have no idea why Snyder left this explanation out but found it fit to tell every other aspect of Rorschach’s story. Also I think they over did the effect in the movie. I for one would’ve rather had it change only if his face was actually moving under neath – which doesn’t happen all that much. But maybe during his speech etc. the liquid could move around a bit creating different patterns. I don’t know – the way it was portrayed in the movie didn’t seem to fit and was more of a special effect rather than a very interesting way to do a mask. (somewhat misleading if you ask me)

This leads into my next complaint/con – why change some of the character’s outfits and then leave some completely the same? I mean if you are going to do one – then you better do the other. I especially hated how they did Ozy’s outfit – it in no way looked anything like the novel’s depiction and actually looked worse in my opinion. Even the Silk Spectre’s outfit, although it was quite fetching, didn’t go along with everything else. It was like they wanted to depict the movie in the 1980s but bring in a modern 2009 look to the heroes. Which didn’t make a bit of sense at all, considering the environment around them didn’t suggest that they should look modern with their Kevlar suits that looked like batman rip-offs.

Another major con is the whole entire way the movie was done. (I don’t want to seem like I’m being a hypocrite here so bare with me in this explanation…)  I’m probably going to be stoned for this, but when you do a movie, make sure that you make a ENTERTAINING movie. For someone who read the novel and found it to be awesome storytelling, the movie didn’t do near the job. Now I will go on record and say that I’ve complained about other adaptations before – aka: Harry Potter, but now I see why a director/producer/writer will take a certain creative license to help tell the story but try and keep the movie entertaining for EVERYONE. That is the key point here – you want to keep the movie entertaining for EVERYONE. Not just the comic geeks out there, and not just for the critics that are going to either love it or hate it but for EVERYONE. I almost felt bad for even bringing my younger brother to the movie because I sat there and knew that he was definitely not into the movie and it’s mainly because there were a lot of sequences where nothing was being done and it was just characters talking amongst themselves. Now this is partially the director’s fault but not entirely. I know that Snyder was trying to stay true to the source material but he didn’t have to leave it so stale that we were all starving for an action scene by the time it came around. This is where you take that creative license and put little spins on the adaptation to help pull the audience in and help keep them tied to the story rather than bore them, or at least leave out a lot of that filler content that we as the audience can make up in our minds as we would if we were reading the script.

As my good friend Pasquale has pointed out. Dr. Manhattan’s blue member not swaying in the wind even ever so slightly made it more of a bother to look at than to try and avoid. And when I say member I’m talking about the BIG BLUE DICK that we had to constantly look at whenever he was on screen. We all know how I feel about the penis on screen. I think that one shot of it right as he emerges in the cafeteria as it was in the book would’ve been fine – but then they kept mushroom stamping it to our faces every other scene. Completely un-necessary.

I’m going to also point out the ending. While I commend them for actually changing it to make it work for the film (as I’ve already griped about the fact that they didn’t do it for the rest of the movie) – they end up really putting a different overall twist to some of the characters that wasn’t there in the ending of the novel. When I finished the novel the first time, I didn’t come away thinking that it was Dr. Manhattan’s fault and that he should be blamed for what happened, nor did I remember reading anywhere that suggested that Rorschach wanted Dr. Manhattan to kill him because he couldn’t deal with what was left. Anyone can correct me if I’m wrong on this – I don’t have the novel on hand at this time so I can’t double check anything. (I’ve lent it to someone so they can read it)

SUMMARY:
Let me just apologize once again if this review seemed all over the place – it was a hard one to write. Even after all of this typing I still find it hard to really give this movie a final rating. I think it might be one of those films that will grow on me with more viewings but the initial screening of it wasn’t what I had hoped it to be. It wasn’t terrible nor was it mind blowing. For such a strong story with so many themes and suggestions to humanity and the rest of the world the movie didn’t seem to have the same power as the novel. Now that’s not to say it wasn’t a great adaptation and a very good effort in the slightest. It just wasn’t what I wanted it to be I guess. Now not everyone will agree with me and that’s fine. I just think that for the general audience this is not going to be something that they’ll want to see or even understand for that matter. I’d be curious to hear what a lot of fans of the novel have to say about it.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot to mention, the Watchmen sites are probably the best movie sites I’ve seen online ever.
Movie Site
Viral Site (nintendo game)
(I’m giving a .5 added to the score for such a superb job on those websites)

FINAL MOVIE RATING: 6.5/10 (if I see this movie again – on DVD etc. I’m sure this score will get higher)

~ by phoenixwave on March 8, 2009.