I learned two things last night in the wee hours of the morning:
1) I’m too old for midnight screenings. Both because I get sleepy at that time of the day, and because 95% of the people in the theater were probably simply on spring break.
2) Watchmen is a terrific movie.
I doubt that the first of those items needs much more elaboration, so I’ll move on to the second one (without spoilers, by the way, so fear not and forge ahead).
Other than the extreme uber-geeks who won’t be satisfied unless Watchmen is painstakingly recreated panel for panel, line by line, fans of the graphic novel will find much to like in this film. Zach Snyder and company nailed the tone of the original work and kept the themes intact. Many of the scenes, lines of dialog, and even shots themselves were taken straight from the pages of Alan Moore’s magnum opus. In the areas where the film diverged from the book, the changes were mostly good ones, made for the sake of a cinematic medium rather than a printed one.
That’s not to say that all the changes were welcome. In my opinion, there were several minor changes that weren’t true to certain aspects of the original, but they are minor and (while annoyingly unnecessary) can be fairly easily overlooked. The other fact worth noting in the area of differences is that the filmmakers chose to ratchet up the violence (a lot) to needlessly graphic levels in several instances, as well as a sex scene that, while important in the novel, was extremely drawn out for the film. I guess I’m not surprised at either of these things given that we are taking about the guy who directed 300, but it was excessive at times, and disappointingly so. At the same time, I should mention that in other areas, Snyder did show remarkable restraint where he could easily have chosen to (as above) go in a less-tasteful direction.
Okay, enough of that; while all of that was important to mention, this isn’t a content review.
As mentioned above, the film keeps intact the themes of Watchmen. It portrays a dark and dreary alternate 1985, reflecting social fear and uncertainty in the wake of the Vietnam War and in light of the increasingly tense Cold War. The opening credit sequence does a masterful job of walking through iconic moments of the second half of the 20th century and showing how they’ve turned out differently in the world of Watchmen. This sets the stage quite well for the rest of the film, and in a short span of time prepares the audience for the fact that what they’re about to see isn’t “superheroes as usual.” It’s also the first of many instances of music being used to great effect throughout the movie (along with everything from costumes to makeup to details in the set design) to sell both the tone and the time periods.
In terms of casting, the majority of the actors were fabulous in their roles. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was excellent as the Comedian, and while his scenes were short and scattered throughout, I found myself always looking forward to them. Patrick Wilson fumbled around as a wonderfully awkward Dan Dreiberg while soaring as a heroic Nite Owl. I was surprised at how well Malin Akerman and Billy Crudup pulled off their performances as Silk Spectre and Dr. Manhattan, respectively, and Jackie Earle Haley turned in a pitch-perfect portrayal of Rorschach.
A few other minor downsides include several moments that stumble a little too far into campiness or self-awareness. Also, while Watchmen clocks in at nearly three hours, the observant viewer (especially one familiar with the printed work) will notice scenes in which the pacing has clearly been sped up in the editing process, or scenes that (based on shots that prominently featured elements that then went unused) obviously had material removed from them to shorten them. These are small problems that will probably be fixed on some of the extended-cut DVD releases.
This is a complex movie based on a complex book, and it hasn’t been dumbed down for mainstream audiences. If anything causes it to suffer, it will be that; I suspect that many people will go in cold, expecting just another superhero action movie and find instead a mature drama with layered, complex dissection of character and culture. Unprepared, they won’t know what to do with it. For that reason, I have a hard time recommending this film to the casual viewer (and definitely not to younger audiences or those understandably bothered by R-rated content). It’s a dark work, difficult and sometimes disturbing to watch, but ultimately very rewarding to those who seek to understand all that it contains. As with the graphic novel, I don’t always agree with everything it has to say, but there is much that is insightful, much that will make you think, and it’s a film that — like the book — will reveal something new on each subsequent journey through it.
Other reviews and resources:
- Rotten Tomatoes: A good place to go for a roundup of reviews from a variety of sources.
- Plugged In: Focusing more on content tallies than themes and so forth, this spoileriffic review talks a lot more about why you shouldn’t see the film than its redeeming merits. Still, it’s a resource.
- ChristianityToday: A much more in-depth, balanced review, with plenty of resources including discussion questions.
- Looking Closer: Jeffrey Overstreet has posted a group of various reviews featuring differing perspectives.
So, the big question for me, who has never read any of the book is, “Will I get it?” Is it one of those movies where you’ll be lost if you’re not familiar with the original work?
Is it anything like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w
Justin, I would say that unless you have read the book, or taken the time to find out what the graphic novel is about, you may not “get it.” Candess and I just returned from Watchmen and I describe the film in one word; “Heavy.”
Once I found out that the film was being made, I reserved and checked out the graphic novel from the library and took the time to dive in. Being familiar with the story, I went in basically knowing what to expect but also anxious to see how they adapted the ending (which I found a tad odd in the book).
Watching the opening credits, I enjoyed seeing this alternate reality reveal itself, but started wondering how, or when, they were going to explain all of this. I realized that, unless you pay meticulous attention to the vast detail of the film, there was going to be a lot that would go over your head. And there is a LOT of detail, which is fantastic! There’s no doubt in my mind that Snyder was the man for the job. However, his “creative liberties” taken with the sex and violence, came across as juvenile and immature. And considering this movie was rated R, playing to the young male audience shouldn’t be in consideration, but that’s Hollywood for you. And sadly, I saw more than one youngster brought to tonight’s showing by less than wise parents.
I grossly apologized to my wife for having convinced her to sit through this butt-numbing epic. Not only did she not “get it”, but she called Watchmen one of the worst films she’s ever seen. I can understand why she would have that opinion of the film. I, however, loved it! Those few mentioned faults aside, I let myself be engrossed and swarmed by the characters and plot. All of the actors were fantastic, but I gotta say my favorite one to watch was Haley as Rorschach. It seems they took the most time fleshing out his madness and the film was unforgettable in those respects.
For the Watchmen purists and loyalists, this was probably their “Dark Knight”. Being a mild admirer of the book, I think they just barely missed that mark. It was a fantastic film, but I, too, would have a hard time recommending it to others who may be expecting the typical super-hero film.
I’ll offer another two cents on this since I didn’t go into this particular thing very much in my review. I disagree slightly with Drew on this, that if you haven’t read the book, you still can enjoy the movie. However, like any adaptation, those most familiar with the source material will get the most out of the adaptation. They’ll pick up on the more nuanced references, and understand how things fit together without having to think as quickly or as hard.
As I said in my review, and as Drew said, it’s not a casual film, and one needs to really be paying attention to every detail (especially because it moves so quickly…I’ll again express my hope that some areas of pacing slow down on extended DVD releases that allow extra footage to be added back in).
While I do highly recommend a knowledge of the source material (and heck, it’s the only graphic novel on Time’s list of top 100 English-language novels of the modern age [1923 to present] so you’d do well to just read it anyway), you can enjoy the film on its own merits; just be forewarned that it won’t jive with any expectations you may have, and that your head may hurt afterwards.
For those with little to no experience with graphic novels who are somewhat interested in reading Watchmen, you may find helpful my previous post on “Preparing for the Watchmen Movie.”
My husband had never read the graphic novel before. I gave him a very brief overview today before we went (I doubt he understood it since the book is really hard to summarize) and he said he understood it. He actually really loved the movie, probably even more than I did.
I really <i>liked</i> the movie and I will definitely see it again. I thought it translated an incredibly dense book very well onscreen. I think it actually made me appreciate the graphic novel even more than I did when I first read it. It boiled down all the extraneous plots to the central themes of the book. I especially enjoyed the Dr. Manhattan sequence on Mars where he remembers his life, past, present and future, reflecting on the things that he can’t change in life, despite his incredible powers. And I found myself really enjoying the final conclusion way more than I did when I read the book.
My one and only complaint is that they made the violence way more extreme than the graphic novel. I do not enjoy violence for the sake of violence, and some of the scenes seemed to get to that point.
Not to minimize the rest of the movie elements, but did anyone else LOVE the sound track to this??? I mean playing The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel at a graveyard scene…WOW! I want to give a major hats off to the production team on this one.
Also, the pacing of the movie was fantastic. It was not a long 3 hours if you know what I mean.
I must say though, Dr. Manhattan was cool and all, but Rorschach was definitely my favorite character. He put Batman to shame… I know, right?!
The director did a fantastic job and I left this film, just like I did 300; with a subtle urge to go out and blow the heck out of something. What a way to get the adrenaline pumping!
I had a nagging feeling throughout the movie that the they chose the wrong girl for the (younger) Silk Spectre; all the other character choices were perfect tho