"Watchmen"
Starring: Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Malin Ackerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Carla Gugino, Matthew Goode
Grade: B/B+
There is a scene in "Watchmen" in which a blue character named Dr.Manhattan flees to Mars to escape the follies and madness of New York, circa 1985. While on Mars, he narrates his existence and how he came to be Dr.Manhattan. His human name was Jonathan Osterman. When he was transformed due to an untimely experiment, he gained superpowers and could basically control anything he wanted to. This character is so out of touch with existence and society, that he reminds me of many audience members who will visit this movie and feel out of touch with it.
"Watchmen" written by Alan Moore in 1986, it tells of an alternate America where Nixon is in his fifth term as President, and Cold War paranoia has taken a hold of Americans. Superheroes are also banned, stemming from The Keene Act that Nixon also executed.
At the beginning of the film, a man named Eddie Blake, or The Comedian, is thrown out of his apartment window as his body splatters all over the pavement below. This death is important to a masked vigilante and misanthrope named Rorschach, pronounced "Roar-Shack" . We hear from his journal entries and narration that Rorschach is fed up with society and it's ugliness, much like the character of Travis Bickle from "Taxi Driver." Roarschach was a former member of "The Watchmen," a group of superheroes who protected New York from crime, he believes whoever killed Blake will come after the rest of the retired Watchmen and do the same.
The rest of the cast is rounded out surprisingly well, save for a few people. Billy Crudup plays Dr.Manhattan, a man who can control space, time, and pretty much everything else. Patrick Wilson plays Dan Drieberg, or The Nite Owl. Malin Ackerman plays Silk Spectre II, the daughter of Silk Spectre I, played by Carla Gugino. Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays The Comedian, and Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt, or Ozymandias. Remembering these characters for newcomers to the story will be quite the task, one of the many that film presents.
We learn through the opening montage that starting in the 40's there was a superhero group that came before the Watchmen, called the "Minutemen." We also see true U.S. events that have been fictionalized to set up the mood of the story. The opening credits are tuned to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A Changing," one of the many soundtrack choices that director Zack Snyder chose to use, some succeed, some fail.
For newcomers to this material, the story and the way its presented will seem foreign and out of place. For readers of the novel, they will be able to pick parts of the movie that have transitioned perfectly from the novel, and those that haven't worked as well. For one thing, the ending has been changed, Fan-Boys have looked down upon this, but Snyder made it work to an extent.
The visual effects are all superb, Snyder once again uses slo-mo as he did in "300," but in this film it works better. The fights and action sequences are all choreographed pretty well, and Snyder takes all of the big moments from the novel, and pays them respect.
The art design creates a seedy New York, much like ones depicted in "Seven," and "Blade Runner." New York seems like a grim metropolis, instead of an upbeat city. Some of the makeup doesn't work so well, Silk Spectre I and Richard Nixon are poorly conceived and look almost like caricatures.
Most of this review has been positive, I will now speak of the stuff I wasn't so happy about. First of all, the film is 160 minutes. Some may complain that this is too long, but Snyder needed every minute of that to adapt this story the way it should be. There are some parts that fell flat, including the relationship between Dan and Laurie, which is a pretty important part of the book. Some of the song choices were awful, including Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," and Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower," they just didn't fit with the scene. The pacing was off to, some scenes felt rushed, or too slow, Snyder could improve in that department.
To the acting. Jackie Early Haley and Billy Crudup were easily the best, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan now far behind. Haley plays the perfect outsider who wishes pain of anyone who crosses his path. Crudup plays the stoic and emotionally detached Dr.Manhattan who can't give Laurie the companionship she needs, his origin/back story, is worth the price of admission alone. Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays the maniacal Comedian to a tee, rough around the edges and brutal, The Comedian really gets under your skin. Patrick Wilson and Matthew Goode were just average in my opinion. Wilson is supposed to play the character the audience can most relate with, but most of the time we don't care about him. Goode is average, with his better scenes coming towards the end. Malin Ackerman turns in the worst performance of the movie, she looks as if she's reading of cards in all of her scenes. She portrays no emotion in the scenes that audience are supposed to be invested in.
In "Watchmen," the good segments outweigh the bad resulting in a solid comic book adaptation. The first hour had my hopes up, but the rest was sub-par. All in all, "Watchmen," should please readers of the novel, and hopefully those who haven't read it. It's truly an ambitious film that surpasses other comic book films in terms of scope and originality, that reason alone is worth seeing it again and dissecting it even more.
