Watchmen Review #1

It doesn’t take a genius to see that the world has problems

Dr. Manhattan believes that there is no fate, no destiny, that things happen as they are meant to, and as such it seems like things were happening when it came time to film the un-filmable. The world has become accustomed to seeing film versions of their favorite heroes. Technology has reached a point today, where anything imagined is possible. Projects that seemed too expensive have now reached a point where it is possible to fund an expensive endeavor and make back your investment. Zack Snyder, a promising young director has toyed with big budgets, technology, and has created some visually interesting films, only hindered by simple scripts.

Perhaps matching Snyder’s visuals with a Hugo Award winning graphic novel, once claimed by Time magazine to be one of the 100 best novels written in the 20^th Century, with the current climate of superhero films, everything seemed to have happened in sync with natural gravitation to a center: Watchmen.

Maybe someone’s picking off costumed heroes

Alan Moore is perhaps one of the best writers in comics today. His books are so intimate and complex, it takes more to unweave his narratives and reconstruct them into a cohesive unit. I think this version of Watchmen is the most accessible way to portray a film version of it. Books and films are two different animals; while they can be translated into each other, one must accept the medium’s way of existing to appreciate a translation. Books are as intimate as any medium. A writer can construct a narrative as personal as they wish, but when another writer attempts to adapt it into film, one must understand that the intimacy from the book must be sometimes lost to tell a story through moving images.

David Hayter and Alex Tse, the screenwriters have done a very admiral job of adapting this long, complex, holy grail of comics, into a filmable story. They do make some errors, one that is an unfortunate product of them trying to stick so close to the comic to appease the die-hard fans. It’s the way they choose to adapt the comic pages almost verbatim that is an attempt to please the loyal fans, that makes the film feel so stale at times.

While most of the film is exact in its translation from the page to the screen, the images ring hollow since there’s little straying away and exploring the images further. Allow these characters in this world, an alternate 1985, to breathe and live. They do not, especially in the beginning and only when the picture winds to its climax that it feels alive. It was a Catch-22 for them; stray away and alienate the fan base, or stick so close to please them. They didn’t find that middle ground that could’ve made this picture soar.

Why would I save a world I no longer have a stake in?

Whether Zack Snyder was the right man for the job will be debatable perhaps forever or until the world needs another Watchmen film, but he finds the middle ground between his visual style and the comic panel art by Dave Gibbons. He’s known for his use of slow motion, and in films like his 300, it stuck out as over-stylization. Here it works, and I think it’s because of the superhero action these films need that it works. I’m sure he’ll have his distracters, but his style never outshines the narrative or the characters and it flows perfectly with the images.

For anyone wishing they one day see a movie of Watchmen, I can’t imagine them thinking they get one where the comic panel art seem to be moving. Yes, one credit to the screenplay is the images are like Gibbons art, only with three-dimensionality and real actors.

If Snyder has one hiccup it isn’t visual but audio. His uses of licensed music, “All Along the Watchtower” by Hendrix or “Times They Are A’Changing” by Dylan, are meant to highlight the themes of Watchmen’s world but only aggravate the ears.  Tyler Bates crafted a decent score only served in limited use compared to the music he chose. It underscores some scenes, like Silk Spectre’s and Nite Owl sex scene with “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen.

The world will look up and shout “Save us!”…and I’ll whisper, “No.”

I tend to think of the film like a plastic funnel you use to pour oil into your car. At first, it’s full and thick, unable to go anywhere. The film starts too slow. I know it is setting up the film and its themes, but each scene followed by the next feels too episodic for us to be drawn in. The pacing of everything seems to be off and on. Anytime we’re given Rorschach the film feels alive for a rare time. He’s the star and Jackie Earle Haley shines in the role. Billy Crudup also excels in a pure motion-capture character of Dr. Manhattan. He collects this distance but is totally human underneath the blue CGI. In fact, the cast is all really good, but these two are the stars and excel at it.

As the oil slowly makes its way down the funnel, everything becomes organized much like here; the film seems at peace with itself by the midway point. Everything is starting to align and makes more sense. It was these earlier scenes, too episodic to help the picture than hindered it. By the time oil leaves the funnel completely, everything is clearer and is accomplished. The film by the end does benefit from the time spent setting up the theme and the climax, but it took a while to get there.

Watchmen is as good as it needed to be. It’s not great, but really good. Good enough to please most fans and the average film goer looking for something a bit more than action, but in the end, it failed to show why it’s like the Citizen Kane of graphic novels.

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