Watchmen Review

I was one of those people who bought a copy of “Watchmen” after seeing the incredibly impressive trailer before “The Dark Knight” last summer.

I love to read, though I don’t own many books because I don’t have a lot of time to read for fun (but I apparently DO have time to write about “America’s Next Top Model”). I’d also never read a graphic novel, but I was well aware “Watchmen” was not only considered one of the shining examples of the form, but one of the best literary works of the late 20th century. That’s how impressed I was by that first glimpse at Zack Snyder’s feature film adaptation.

After actually seeing the film nine months later, I’m somewhat less-impressed.

“Watchmen,” based on Alan Moore and David Gibbon’s masterwork of a graphic novel, is set in an alternate reality in 1985 where Richard Nixon is still president and the world is on the brink of nuclear war with the USSR. Additionally, after a successful run decades earlier, masked (not-quite-super) heroes have been outlawed.

The story is set in motion after the death of the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), one of the former masked heroes. Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) is the lone masked man who is still active and believes someone is targeting his fellow former Watchmen. He tries to warn his former allies and eventually uncovers an even more troubling conspiracy.

As I mentioned before, I’m familiar with the incredibly-hard-to-adapt source material, but not what you would call a fanatic that’s been waiting for this movie for 20 years. I commend director Zack Snyder for staying so close to the source material to the point that many shots and lines of dialogue are directly lifted from the graphic novel.

However, I also have to criticize Snyder for staying TOO close to the source material and not making enough edits out of an apparent fear of angering the most ardent “Watchmen” fans. Like Robert Rodriguez in “Sin City”, Snyder seems a lot more concerned with making all the characters and settings LOOK the way they do in the book than he is with making a vibrant, interesting movie. This wasn’t a huge problem for “Sin City”, but it’s definitely an issue for “Watchmen”, which has a lot of pointed and funny things to say about politics, heroism, and plenty of other Big Ideas.

It’s too bad because things started off promisingly with a brilliant/dreamy opening credit sequence (one of the best I’ve ever seen) that established the story’s setting, provided us with quick background on the characters and gave fans of the graphic novel’s lesser-known heroes a little thrill. After that, the movie pretty much follows the roadmap established by the graphic novel, even if it means derailing the movie’s main storyline to give us an extended (but still impressive) origin story or flashback.

After that, Snyder’s main contribution to the film are several incredibly violent, over-the-top “Matrix”-style fight scenes that too often veer away from “cool” territory to “ridiculous.” The more stylized sequences (Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl II’s fight scenes) don’t work. It’s the more brutal ones (the Comedian’s fight with his assailant, Rorschach’s confrontation with a murderer) that leave a mark.

Then again, the graphic novel is so good that Snyder doesn’t go completely wrong by sticking so close to it. He also gets help from a pretty solid cast.

Haley is terrific as Rorschach, despite the fact that his face is hidden by a mask throughout most of his performance. Rorschach is the character we follow most of the time through the movie’s main storyline and, despite the fact that he’s a no-nonsense, sociopathic loner, Haley makes it so you can’t take your eyes off him. He’s also a totally convincing badass. Morgan also does a very good job as the Comedian, seen mostly in flashbacks. His character is completely deplorable, but Morgan’s swagger and enthusiasm is magnetic. He (along with Haley) does the best job out of anyone in the cast of conveying the spirit of the graphic novels. In the Comedian’s case, it was acting in a way he felt mirrored the despicable place where society was headed.

I also liked Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan, the omnipotent blue hero who also happens to be the only person with actual superpowers. Sure, most of his performance is computer generated, but the actor’s serene voice (Crudup is the voice of the “Priceless” Master Card commercials) fit the detached character perfectly.

The rest of the cast didn’t fare as well. Patrick Wilson is a good actor, but isn’t given much as Nite Owl II other than to act geeky most of the time. Malin Akerman, on the other hand, is not that good of an actress, so maybe that’s why she wasn’t given much to do as Silk Spectre II (an ambivalent, interesting character in the book) other than look good in that yellow and black outfit and whip her hair around stylishly. Meanwhile, Matthew Goode is ok, but mostly overplays Ozymandias aristocratic nature to the point that he’s a bit creepy and doesn’t appear to give a damn about the world he allegedly wants to save. Finally, Carla Gugino (who I like a lot) gives most of her performance in surprisingly unconvincing “old age” makeup.

Overall, Snyder made a (too) faithful adaptation that is more impressive as an action movie than it is as any sort of character study or social commentary. Of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that because anybody who’s interested can always just read the book — like I did.

Watchmen...B