Review of Watchmen (2001) by Adam K — 07 Jan 2017

Zack Snyder apparently has a reputation for not being a particularly smart director, and Watchmen is a phenomenally smart novel, so it may not seem like the best fit. And it may not be the best fit. But Snyder seems to have at least had the sense (and honestly I don't know enough about his work to think that I'm treating him fairly here) to let the work speak for itself. The directors cut, which I watched, his the most faithful adaptation I've ever seen, a nearly scene for scene, line for line representation of the graphic novel, even sharing the majority of the same composition, set design, color schemes, etc. So, insofar as watchmen itself is artful and character rich and intelligent, so is the movie. There isn't much additional artistry - the musical cues especially are often unsubtle, a bit too on the nose. And surely another director could have brought a more original vision that would take more advantage of the unique possibilities of film.

The one major change that Snyder and his team did make was, in my opinion, a very intelligent one. They removed the least relevant and stylistically consistent subplot and replaced it with a seamless and intuitive move relating to some of the main characters. It adds another layer of drama and tragedy and actually brings greater resolution to the relevant character arcs, without sacrificing anything that I felt to be terribly important.

The one major place I responded differently to the film than to the novel was the tenement fire rescue. It's interesting that this scene serves the same function for the viewer as it does for the characters, which I always feel is a really good sign. The unambiguous moral good of the situation gives us permission to just revel in the loud rock music, the fire, and the bad ass comic hero action. It is a touchstone for the simple moral dualism and noble derring-do that are deconstructed by the complexities of real life throughout the rest of the novel/film.