Are These 'Watchmen' Worth Watching?

by Brett Parker

There are people who consider Alan Moore and David Gibbons’ Watchmen to be the greatest graphic novel of all time. I happen to be one of those people. Since the day I first read it, I’ve been in considerable awe of the novel’s multilayered genius. It’s a rich text filled with wonderful new things to discover every time you read it. Never before had a comic penetrated so deeply into the myth of the superhero, bringing to the forefront shattering revelations that were both disturbing and thoughtful. Watchmen forever changed the landscape of comics (some would even say pop culture) and its influence is still felt today.

Since the early 90s, Watchmen has been struggling to find its way to the big screen, much to the dismay of Alan Moore. Some say the novel’s imagery cries out to be put on film, while Moore states the comic’s structure is adaptation-proof. Ferocious visionary Terry Gilliam wrestled to get the project off the ground before deeming the material unfilmable. Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass tried to shake up the material’s relevance by updating the novel’s Cold War setting to the modern war on terror. In the end, it was Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead), who finally got the project to the screen in an adaptation he promised would be very faithful.

Watchmen fans had their worries about the project. Snyder is a competent director, but one of light pop. Does he have the chops to pull off such a complex and brainy adaptation of a visionary masterpiece? If Watchmen was a major supernova in the world of comics, can he make the movie into a force of equal nature? There's a sinking feeling within the fanboy community that perhaps the material would be served better in the hands of a more prestigious director.

Watchmen diehards would certainly be the harshest critics of Snyder’s final film. I know I certainly was. The first time I saw the film, I found myself nitpicking at the film way too much. I was so intent on doing a book-to-movie comparison in my head that I didn’t allow myself to sit back and let the movie soak in as a whole. Like most literary film goers, I found myself both irked and awed by specific departures from the novel. Certain subplots were dropped, dramatic developments were rushed, and lots of things were switched around. I was being so tough on the film for having the book so fresh in my head.

I knew I needed to see it again. This time, I would relax. I would let the movie just flow and see how it made me feel once the lights went up. After seeing it multiple times, I’ve concluded that Snyder’s adaptation fails to be a complex cinematic masterpiece but is, in fact, highly-elevated pop. In a way, the film could never achieve the meditative brilliance of the novel, but it does hold more bravery and ideas than the typical superhero film. So rich is the source material that even a half-baked adaptation would still resemble something exceptional. The film’s great failing is that it feels a tad like Batman Forever when what we truly want is a Children of Men impact.

The genius of Watchmen is the way it places the myth of the superhero in a real world setting. It shows, without compromise, what it would look like if superheroes actually existed amidst American history. According to the story’s history, masked vigilantes came into fruitation throughout the early 1940s and became commonplace. They even served as government agents before a bill came to pass in the 1970s that outlawed superheroes. The American landscape was forever altered, however, with the arrival of a God-like superman called Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), a glowing nuclear being capable of manipulating matter to his will.

The film opens in an alternate 1985 in which President Nixon (Robert Wisden) is still president and the Russians, terrified of Dr. Manhattan, threaten America with a nuclear attack. An aging superhero named The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is murdered in his New York apartment. An unbending vigilante named Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) believes this murder is part of a plot to wipe out the last of the remaining superheroes. There’s Night Owl (Patrick Wilson), a tech genius and impotent schlub, Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman), a second-generation avenger, Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), the world’s smartest man and biggest tycoon, and Dr. Manhattan himself, who wonders how he could possibly be stopped in such a plot. As the plot begins to unravel and nuclear war grows imminent, the heroes begin to realize just how bleak and dangerous a world they inhabit and how, most disturbingly, they helped contribute to that.

If you’ve never seen, or even heard, of Watchmen, this movie will certainly blow your mind. It’s a visual feast filled with uncompromising developments and thoughtful ideas rather uncommon in typical pop. It is certainly a grand entertainment filled with dazzling effects, great music, and fascinating characters. Unsuspecting moviegoers will be treated to an epic superhero tale that spans from Antarctica to Planet Mars, with scenes ranging from action-packed to attentively dramatic, unflinching in its dark analysis of the superhero mind.

Now diehard fans of the original graphic novel will feel that the film could never live up to the impact the book created. My gripes with this film are common with most literary lovers who have to watch a film adaptation of one of their favorite novels. Certain developments are too compressed or smoothed over. Specific moments miss the point of the novel’s original intent. Key moments in the novel that were startling and shocking (Silk Spectre’s attempted rape, Rorschach’s origin, Ozymandias’ elaborate plan) lack the same startling punch when translated to film. Even with all of these considered changes, we almost feel like the film is too faithful to the novel. It’s certainly an effective film, but we’re left wondering if Snyder’s faithfulness evoked a well-served film narrative.

Even if Watchmen isn’t as great of a film as it could possibly be, I still don’t feel the need to condemn Snyder for this. The guy knew he was taking on a project bigger than his entire filmography and he threw everything he had into it. Weekly web diaries document how Snyder paid obsessive attention to every aspect of this production and fans could sense that Snyder was pushing himself as greatly as he could. He knew that to serve this material great justice, he had to go beyond anything he had ever done in this business before. Watchmen is certainly Snyder’s best work and I give him great credit for pushing beyond his limits and making a mad dash for greatness.

Watchmen certainly has wonderful production values all across the board. Production Designer Alex McDowell helps to create a convincing 1985 that’s filled with small details that help make this lived-in reality all the more convincing. Tyler Bates creates a musical score that reaches sublime heights, evoking memories of the Blade Runner score. And while the film’s selection of pop songs may seem jarring and random, they help give the film a welcomed energy and color. I also admired Larry Fong’s photography, which captures the comic book colors of this world while also evoking a darkened atmosphere reminiscent of Seven or Taxi Driver.

Since Watchmen is essentially an elaborate character study, the material lives and dies by its casting of these superhero figures. I’m happy to report that the principal cast perfectly embodies the characters as we would picture them in our minds. The complexities and depths of all the main characters are nailed perfectly by the cast. I was also surprised to discover that my least favorite part of the novel became my favorite part of the film: the romantic subplot between Night Owl and Silk Spectre. Wilson and Akerman bring a touching poignancy to their scenes, as two heroes who feel internally lost in a world that has no more room for masked heroes. It’s through this plot that we feel the material’s sad truths about superhero archetypes.

I’m of the opinion that anything can be turned into a movie, so I was never down with the popular opinion that Watchmen could never work as a movie. This one certainly does. Yet as grand and entertaining as Snyder’s adaptation is, one can’t help but wonder if a better translation could’ve been made. What dramatic heights could Darren Aronofsky have taken us too? What would Watchmen have looked like basked in Terry Gilliam’s deranged creativity? Or perhaps no film could ever live up to the greatness of the novel, so sublime is the source material. But you can almost drive yourself mad thinking of such possibilities. Snyder’s Watchmen is certainly worth your investment, both financially and intellectually.