Review of Watchmen (2009) by Darien S — 26 Jul 2015

Alan Moore once created a comic, so densely packed, so thematically pumped and totally rotted to the core, some deemed it unfilmable. A master piece in its own right, Watchmen was a feast for mature comic book readers, one that dipped lower than 2000 AD and went blow to blow with the likes of Frank Millers graphic novels Sin City.

This work of art was marked from the get go, going through multiple stages of production, with different different writers, directors and actors, for almost a decade and when Zack Snyder decided to take on this methaphorical and hyper realistic take on a world where the Americans won Vietnam, people ultimately shrugged his pre production off as a phase.

Moore's classic is set around a group of vigilantes called the Watchmen, who grow up in the shadows of their predecessors the Minute Men, who brought justice to a chaotic world. However after the accidental creation of a god Mr Manhatten, American attempt to turn him into an ultra weapon and deterant, which may win the war in Vietnam for them but changes the face of history and puts the world on the brink of a nuclear holocaust.

During the countdown of the doomsday clock, a visual aid of letting the worlds governments know how close they are to all out armageddon, one of the Watchmen, The Comedian, is brutally murdered and its not long before the decommisioned group of rogues begin to dawn their masks again in order to save humanity.

I've not ever scratched the surface with that over bloated synopsis and if I was to do so, I would be up for 3 weeks writing a thesis on the piece, however you can completely understand how a film adaptation was close to impossible to pull off.

Now I understand there are naysayers, however for me Watchmen is a brilliant achievement in cinema and for Zack Snyder, you have to give him credit for even tackling this behemoth and managing to come out the other side with a film that makes sense and works on its own merit.

Is it perfect, not at all, will it feed rabid fan boys, reasonably. Watchmen is a mixed bag and although the original cut is just shy of 3 hours, I am led to believe a longer cut has emerged with some animated additions and a plethora of more contextual scenes, but here I'm looking at the theartrical cut, it is entertaining.

Zack Snyder was riding high after his successful Dawn of the Dead remake and the machismo fuelled 300, so he seemed like a viable choice, and he pulls out a pretty big arsenal of tricks here. The cast are a mixed bag, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earl Halie, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup and Matthew Goode make up what appear, at least on paper, to be a formidable ensemble.

However the final result is far from the case. The positives first are of course Morgan as the diabolical Comedian, a character who is so integral to the source and the movie, that having his death in the opening 10 minutes is not only shocking but lays a wonderfully crafted insentive to set up the characters, the history and of course the tone of the film.

Even after hes gone he effects everyone, constantly and with the limited time Morgan has to play with, he does a fantastic job of not only portraying the raw and disgusting side of this character but the physical aspect as well.

Billy Crudup is equally spell binding, although he has a lot more to play with, his take on Manhatten is alien yet human, and he gives a whopping performance for a guy motion captured beyond recodnition.

Jackie Earl Halie as Rorschach is fittingly distrubing and equally another man without a face, per say, brings a overdose of film noir and perversion that very few actors could to the role. We then have the not so great, now before going any further, I love Patrick Wilson and Matthew Goode, I think they have done some fantastic work over the years and their attempts and Night Owl and Adrian Viet are not completely shambolic, however, something within the writing and directing of these characters just seems to be mistreated.

Wilson is okay as a down trodden version of Batman and Goode, is sinister enough as the smartest man on the planet but neither of them really have a chance to shine a lot, if at all during this epic and for Wilson its made even worse as he spends a good portion of the film acting beside Malin Akerman, who I'm sure is a very nice person, but here she is horribly miscast, she lacks the emotional depth and range to pull of a complex character like Silk Spectre and because of that, a lot of time, whens shes not kicking the shit out of someone or boasting her good looks, she just doesnt cut it and this of course has a knock on effect as her and Wilson are both the human gateway into the hell.

So when those characters to gel and come across as almost comic relief, it really brings the film down several pegs. The writing is also a mixed bag, there are some excellent moments of dialogue and monologue that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand tall and a huge tonne of character exposition and arcing, but equally we also find huge chunks of clunky and forced moments that just dont feel part of the universe we are in.

Halie gets the best stuff to work with here, as he wanders through the night, playing detective and narrating his own take of a bile ridden existance, where as equally we are forced to endure some really ropey and forced romance from Akerman and Wilson.

To the films merit, it does have a lot to say and address and it manages to convey most of it, however some fair better than others. It knocks the tone and distress bang on the head, with praise worthy apocalyptic over tones and scientific and political break through's, also taking time to investigate how being a vigilante would effect you as a person, however yet again, to often is this glossed over or treated half arsed, in favour of destruction and catastrophy.

So how does the visual aspect hold up? pretty freaking well actually, all be it some of the CGI has aged but this film actually has some extremely potent and iconic imagery throughout. There are tonnes of moments that this film visually throttles the viewer and there are times when Zack Snyder goes into slow motion over drive.

It works for some of the film, but there is slow motion for slow motions sake a lot and by christ does this film have one of the worst and hilarious sex scene ever committed to cinema. On the whole however, Snyder does manage to deliver and bold and entertaining film, even if its not quite what purists hoped for, however the graphic novel still exists for them, they can wash this aside if needs be.

Watchmen is a mixed bag of treats, there is a lot to like here and at points its great to feel like your watching subject matter that actually matters in a comic book film, instead of Loki being all pissed off at the Avengers, it has a huge weight and depth behind it and for that its commendable, it appeals to adults, while still trying to possess something magical about the whole affair.

However a handful of ropey performances, jilted dialogue and an over abundance on slow motion make this film really suffer at points. Its no Dark Knight but its a lot better than some of cinemas more recent comic book outputs.