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 I sat looking at the cursor blink for a while before I could start typing this review. This is a momentous day for long time fans of the Watchmen in its original sainted form and thus unavoidably carries an emotionally charged assessment in its wake. Wow, here we are! I honestly never thought we'd see Watchmen on the big screen.
For those who haven't been comics fans, or those who are, but haven't ever read the source material, the Watchmen is considered to be amongst the high-water marks in comics literature. And, contrary to the advertising trailers for the Watchmen film, it is not simply because Rorschach has a jaw-shattering roundhouse kick to the face in his arsenal.
I have the itch to start a separate conversation about the original comic book, so I'll shove those thoughts to another thread. Just for the sake of this review, accept that the full impact of the original 12 issues of the Watchmen are simply unassailable within the limitations of the "less than 3 hour" blockbuster movie format. It is impossible for any producer/director combo lesser than Budda and Ghandi to capture the brilliance of the source material in 35mm widescreen inside one sitting.
So my review starts from that premise. I know going in that something's gotta go, and I know they're going to abbreviate great swaths of territory. My gut feeling was: If the creative team demonstrates an appreciation for what the original story is all about, then I'll enjoy it.
I can say right off the bat: If you're thinking that you really liked Spiderman and X-Men so this is something similar. It's not. This is not a superhero movie. The Watchmen is a darkly brooding literary baseball bat which bashes you in the head as you read it. But somehow you find yourself shouting "Thank you sir, may I have another!" It's brilliant and sad and inspiring, all at once.
And the first 10 minutes of the film did not fail to deliver on that promise! The sequence through the credits was heart tuggingly sentimental and gave us our framing historical context for the events to follow. It was also a nice nod to the fanboys to give us a few visual snapshots of things only alluded to in passing in the comic.
The rest of the film takes turns both maintaining that reverence, and then sometimes for no obvious reason, tossing it aside. For the most part, the elements of the story that they have jettisoned to save time are no real surprise. The Black Freighter sequences are an obvious choice to come out, for instance.
But a few choices did have me scratching my head. There is a major difference from the original Rorschach material in the case of how the pedophile killer meets his end. It really has a different feel in the emotional build-up of who Rorschach is, and I don't understand why they'd feel the need to change it. They did that in a few places, changes that feel mundane and arbitrary. Adding characters to scenes that aren't there in the original material, saying lines that don't really add anything.
Aside from that, I thought the ride from start to finish was great. The serious questions that the Watchmen raises about what is morally right and wrong, and is the modern world able to be saved anymore? Yes, all present and accounted for. The great dialog and character development, check check. Very well done.
The last critical thing I'll say is that the violence feels to be turned up a few notches beyond where it should be for the material. The story of the Watchmen is dark and certainly does contain violence, but the overblown visceral blood sprays in nearly every scene where someone throws a punch...to me it feels like a studio desperate to sell every possible ticket, so they're reaching for some of the slasher crowd demographic. She just ripped that guy's head clean off! *squeal* ...it feels misplaced.
This is not "Saw" and these are not super-powered beings, after all. Other than Dr. Manhattan, they're just people wearing costumes. I don't buy punching through brick walls and twisting people's heads off. But that is a minor grievance in the face of an overwhelmingly well done film.
Go see it. Whether a fan of the comic or not, the Watchmen is a must-see event, and it will have you talking about the implications long after you've finished watching.
My final analysis: 4 blot tests out of 5.
One last note: If you haven't read the original graphic novel yet, I'd suggest seeing the film first and then reading the comic afterward. You'll do better seeing the surprise plot twists up on the screen, and then delving into the details of the how & why in the book afterward. And, trust me, you will want to read it after you see the movie! |
