So, I Watched the Watchmen

I know everyone hates the recent trend where reviewers spend half their review laying out their geek cred. While I will not spend much time splaying out mine, I do believe that people who are familiar with this book and those who are not and everyone in between will have different views on this film. That said, yes I read the book back in the day and twice recently and I do like it quite a bit.

I had fairly cautious expectations for this film. I thought the trailers looked great, but some of the advance videos online not so much. I saw the film at a preview showing with a fan and two guys who had no idea what it was all about.

Those two hated it.

As for me, I walked away a bit depressed. And here is why. I do not understand how a film can spend so much time getting the look of the graphic novel so perfect, but at the same time ignore the whole point, the whole soul of it. Zack Snyder and his crew have done a brilliant job bringing the comic panel portion of the novel to life. It looks great. Each panel comes to life on the screen and looks amazing. You could almost reach out and try to turn the screen as though it were a page in the comic. As a live action interpretation of the book, I think its great.

But that is about it. The tone, the feel, the vibe, the essence of the Watchmen is what is missing here. While Watchmen looks very much like Watchmen, it doesn't feel very much like Watchmen. At all. In fact it feels very ordinary. That is the problem, the movie feels like a regular comic book movie. It could have been Superman, or Batman or Hulk. It felt like a regular comic book movie. And Watchmen is not a regular comic book.

Alan Moore's intent and success with the Watchmen was how it was a deconstruction of the modern comic. It brought a sense of realism to the world of comics, by setting it squarely in a real, albeit alternate, reality. The book then deconstructed the idea of the superhero by playing it up a bit, poking a bit of fun and creating something...different form the norm. The book succeeded by turning the idea of the "comic book" upside down, twisting it and leaving in its place a very raw, very unique interpretation of the medium. The story was complex and detailed, the characters flawed and interesting and the way the plot and the stories of our heroes wound tightly around each other made the book something more than a comic.

The film misses this completely.

Remember how in school you had to memorize the Gettysburg Address and recite it? I imagine that none of us in our rote presentation of the speech delivered it with anything close to resembling the feeling, tone and importance that was likely present when Lincoln gave it. Sure we had all the words verbatim, a perfect copy and we may have even presented it very well, but the emotion wasn't there. The complex gravity and reality and subtext were not there. That is Watchmen. It is the Gettysburg Address recital of comic book movies.

Harry Knowles of aintitcoolnews.com said in his review "Someone asked me if I felt the film sent up Superhero movies, like the books did comics and I have to say. Man, that’s something that I can’t say on a first viewing. I think its possible that its there, but I was so captured up trying to absorb everything coming at me, just enjoying that wonderful experience of seeing WATCHMEN for the very first time, that I didn’t care about that part yet." He cannot say it was there, because frankly it wasn't. And he makes a good point at the time he didn't care because he was so blown away by seeing the movie. Seeing Dr. Manhattan realized on the screen. Seeing Rorsharck's mask. Mars. The button. It was all cool and looked great and almost overwhelming. So much so that I think Mr. Knowles and many fans, both hardcore and casual, missed that the overlying themes and tone of the story were absent. The subtleties of the deconstruction of the medium of comics did not translate. The subtext of it all is lost in the otherwise gorgeous translation to live action film.

And that's too bad. Because to me that is what made Watchmen so unique and so special.

Zach Snyder said they had a copy of the novel on his monitor at all times. And it shows. Some of the panels are painstakingly recreated here. And in doing so a lot of the emotion of the story does come through. The attempted rape scene is terse and uncomfortable. The graphic violence is gory and well done. Particularly during Dan and Laurie's fight in the alley and when Rorsharck finds the child kidnapper.

The little changes such as the condensing of the police psychiatrist sub story, we never see him at home with his wife and really do not need to, and not seeing Hollis Mason more than once are no big deal. The big change, yes I am talking about the squid, are also really not that big of a deal. I was one of those pro-squid fanboys, but the "manhattan" ball of destruction is fine here. The only problem I have with this is the end is a mostly bloodless affair. I always got the idea that part of the thing with the squid was that it was so overwhelming and horrific that it brought the world together. And while the giant hole that midtown Manhattan becomes is very impressive and certainly terrible it seems almost sterile especially with the blood and gore we see earlier in the movie.

Like the book there are some great iconic scenes here. Manhattan and Laurie on Mars. The Comedians funeral. The photo shoot. Archie emerging from the river. There are some really gory scenes. The broken arm. The sawed off arms. Rorsharck's cleaving of the kidnapper. The deep fried convict. Mmmmmm deep fried convict....

Unlike the book, subtlety and subtext is glaringly absent.

Had Watchmen been just another comic, a Batman, an Iron Man, a Spidey. Had the stories and the characters been created and presented that way, this film adaptation would be a success. But without the richness and complexity of the novel's story I say this is a failure. Kudos to Snyder and his team for capturing the look of the graphic novel, a note of disappointment for missing the point of it.