Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earl Haley & Malin Akerman
A very enjoyable and successful adaptation of the critically acclaimed comic book series that manages to remain largely faithful to the original material’s story and themes.
It would be an understatement to say that Zack Snyder had a huge task ahead of him with pressure to match in regards to him signing on to adapt Watchmen for the big screen. Watchmen is widely considered to be greatest comic book series ever told, receiving much critical acclaim, adoration from fans and also held responsible for ushering in a new era of mature superhero comics. On top of that and over 15 years of failed attempts to adapt the series for film featuring attempts by such directors as Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass, also following the massive critical and commercial success of The Dark Knight in 2008 and also being a story featuring characters that are largely unknown to audiences who’ve never a read a comic book before, it would seem almost impossible for Snyder to make a film that could do the material justice and achieve success. Luckily Snyder has in fact succeeded in making a very faithful, yet accessible, adaptation.
Watchmen deals with a lot of mature themes, posing the question of what would have actually happened to the world if superheroes had existed and how would they change world events and what does it mean to be a superhero anyway? In this world heroes worked for the government even intervening in Vietnam. After succeeding there and Nixon continuing as President beyond two terms and facing rioting and accusations of authoritarianism, superheroes were forced to retire or be arrested. Now, there is the threat of war against Russia’s arms build up, a response to America’s superman Dr. Manhattan, with nuclear war beckoning when a former hero is found murdered. Is someone out to kill heroes and, if so, why? Could it be to ensure no one interferes with the threat facing the world? We get to see what has become of the world’s former heroes in their retirement s the threat of war increases. Rorschach never retired, fighting alone and, under threat of arrest, has become increasingly violent and alienated; Dr. Manhattan, the only hero with actual powers making him almost God-like has grown emotionally distant as he loses his human perspective; Nite Owl is retired, missing the old days yet never admitting it, becoming out of shape; Ozymandias traded in on his fame as a hero and now runs a multi-billion dollar industry looking to help the world in other ways and Silk Spectre sticks by Dr. Manhattan despite his distance leaving their relationship loveless. As events conspire to harm or otherwise prevent each hero from being able to intervene in any upcoming conflict they face an unseen threat to themselves and to the world.
Staying largely faithful to the look and the pacing of Alan Moore’s original comic book, Snyder surprises at how faithful to the text he has been. Visually constructing many scenes to resemble the way they were depicted in the comics whilst also keeping the script and dialogue faithful to that of the comic it is hard to imagine any film succeeding as being as faithful to its source material as this adaptation within and 2 & ½ hour film. For fans of the original comics this film should be very satisfying. Whilst not everything makes it into the film, the amount that does is impressive whilst some of the extra touches that Snyder adds to the material are often entertaining. An opening credits sequence that portrays the history of the superheroes from their appearances in the 1930s until the present day (the 1980s) is one of the film’s most impressive sequences taking additional material from the comics that wasn’t portrayed in the stories themselves and working it into the film to give the characters and the world depicted in the film’s plot plenty of context and insight. Also, a change to the ending that removes an element that new audiences may have found silly, results in a replacement element that works just as well and maintains much of the themes and events of the comic book’s conclusion. However, not all new elements or changes work. Some of Snyder’s soundtrack choices fall flat including one moment during a love scene that provokes laughs and the enhancements to some of the story’s action sequences feel more suited to a film like The Matrix or Snyder’s previous film 300 than in Watchmen. Also, the absence of many of the man-on-the-street scenes which gave a sense of the fear and desperation the average person felt in the face of nuclear war is instead replaced with scenes in the Pentagon that are less effective in generating the sense of hopelessness the world faces. Fortunately, what Snyder does right, and does right often, more than compensates for his missteps.
On the acting front, Snyder has been smart in casting actors that are not big names allowing for more believable performances. Patrick Wilson gives Nite Owl just the right amount of reluctance and regret that a man retired, feeling guilty for retiring and also feeling apprehensive about his ability to regain his glory days. Jackie Earl Haley is very impressive as the violent loner Rorschach, delivering punishments to law breakers without remorse and delivering lines with the right amount of hatred despite wearing a mask for most of the film yet demonstrating heart-breaking emotion and humanity in the film’s final scenes. Haley’s performance is, perhaps, the film’s most memorable. Billy Crudup gives a deliberately emotionless performance as the God-like Dr. Manhattan, seeing the world from a detached point of view as if human existence is a science project just to be observed. While Crudup’s performance sometimes suffers from some poor CGI that, while effective when his character is viewed at a distance, looks stiff in many close ups but still Crudup gets the character’s tone right. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is impressive as the Comedian, the dead hero whose life is seen through flashback. His character is one that is truly unlikeable and Morgan catches the character’s sleazy, selfish and amoral nature very well whilst also being an imposing screen presence. Slightly weaker are Malin Akerman and Matthew Goode as Silk Spectre and Ozymandias, the first manages to be very likeable yet Akerman struggles to maintain a strong impression in scenes with Crudup whilst also sometimes being unconvincing as a fighter while Goode, who initially captures Ozymandias’ smugness and sense of self-righteousness in early scenes fails to be as impressive in the film’s later scenes, sometimes coming off too weak instead of being suitably imposing or convincing with his words or actions.
Overall though, Watchmen is a film that succeeds far more often than it fails. Despite a few average performances and a few story and stylistic changes falling flat, the film impresses with the rest of its performances, its faithfulness to the complex plot and to the depth of its themes so that the overall experience is a very positive one and one that will hopefully satisfy fans of the comic books, entertain new audiences and highlight a different type of superhero story. A very satisfying experience.
Rating: 4/5
