Screenplay by David Hayter and Alex Tse
Based on the Graphic Novel by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Directed by Zack Snyder
“In my opinion, the existence of life is a highly overrated phenomenon.”
So…what on earth do I say about Watchmen, the film? First of all, it’s a near faithful re-telling of an amazing story, with some beautiful re-creations of key pages and panels from the graphic novel. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is sickeningly good as Edward Blake/The Comedian, and Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach is as dark and disturbing as he should be. The divergences are where things begin to go all pear-shaped. Some of the changes are surprisingly good…others are disappointingly brutal.
(1) THE VERY VERY GOOD…
Patrick Wilson as the Nite Owl transcends the role written for him in the graphic novel. He infuses his character with far greater depth, far greater humanity, and far greater heroism than seen on the printed page. Perhaps this takes him slightly away from the point Alan Moore was trying to make, but the redemption of his humanity, and his spurring on of the Silk Spectre (who also manages to transcend her role in the novel, thanks to wonderful, understated performance from Malin Akerman) makes for a wonderful and compassionate story arc that satisfies far more than the graphic novel’s muted, downbeat vision.
(2) …AND THE VERY IRRITATING
Where do I begin? Matthew Goode’s Ozymandias is a pale shadow of his graphic novel progenitor. He claims he’s not a cartoon villain, but in every way that counts, he is! The performance is as stiff as a wooden board, and none of the flashbacks of the novel are used to fill in his background, or try to explain his motivations. He is 100% plastic. Department store mannequins would be jealous.
Watchmen is set in an alternative, darker 1980s…but none of that translates to the big screen. Not for one moment. It could have been set anywhere, any time…as if the director was too uncomfortable (or too lazy) to try and re-create (or should that be re-imagine) a particularly close-to-home era.
The ending…oh god, the ending. Did you think you were going to get your giant alien-ish squid, and the dead-and-bloody bodies of millions of New Yorkers, hanging out of the broken windows of countless, devestated sky scrapers? Fat chance! The film makers changed the ending into something they believed would be (1) more palatable, and (2) more rational. Unfortunately, they failed to realize that (1) the existing ending was more than rational, thank-you-very-much, and (2) well…hard as it may be to believe, I’m beginning to think they didn’t want to be accused of being TOO geeky…even though the original graphic novel manages to avoid this label.
To be blunt…they chickened out.
Watchmen the graphic novel left me shaking with disbelief and wonder. Watchmen the film simply left me cold. It’s all gorgeous surface gloss, but the few times that surface is scratched with any quality, it only magnifies the overarching, generic emptiness of the remainder of the movie. Technically brilliant, but lacking heart…and the courage of its convictions. This should have been so much more epic, so much more emotional…
…so much more like Watchmen!
6
