Watchmen (2008)

Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson Script: David Hayter, Alex Tse from the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Cinematographer: Larry Fong Director: Zack Snyder Plot:  In an alternate universe where costumed crime-fighters helped shape the Cold War era America, a masked vigilante investigates the murder of an ex-superhero colleague that leads him to a much vaster, more terrifying conspiracy.

Review:

In 1986, writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons created a 12-part comic book called Watchmen that helped usher in a darker more adult-oriented wave of super-hero stories. It was such a mature, complex, rich tale that Time named it one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. 

On the surface, it's a detective story played out to a background of the Cold War fear of nuclear destruction, in a world where Nixon is still president after five terms in office, a god-like Dr. Manhattan has helped the US win the Vietnam war, and super-powered heroes have been outlawed.

What makes the story so much more interesting than your average super-hero movie is the bleak, uncompromising turn given to every aspect of this world and its flawed heroes; these characters are victims of their own vanity, psychoses, human impulses and complexes that everyone else is, but the fact that they are "super" only makes matters worse. Readers could clearly see the negative-image depiction of classic heroes - the Owl is a cowardly copy of Batman, Dr. Manhattan is a Superman without any human feelings, Rorsarch a psychotic version of The Spirit, etc.

Despite the eagerness to put it on screen, the film adaptation has been marred by years of production limbo (directors from Terry Gilliam to Paul Greengrass have been attached since the 1980's), frantic rewrites, studio rejections, public litigations and more.

Finally, with the huge amount of buzz and anticipation given the adaptation, it was bound to disappoint some while delighting others.

Die-hard fans of the original material could not do better than director Snyder, a young director who came to fame similarly adapting so splendidly the graphic novel 300. If this isn't as "visionary" a cinematic version as one could have hoped from a more experienced director, it is probably the most faithful one. Obsessively following the comic panels as a basis for shooting each scene, Snyder mostly succeeds at getting the visuals and dialogue as close to the book as possiblewhile infusing his own brand of energy. 

Unfortunately, while Snyder is right at home with the stunning computer imagery, action setpieces, the gloomy atmosphere and the visually compelling sequences he is, unfortunately, not an actor's director. The real thrill in the original novel was the nuanced interaction between the characters, the sharp dialogue, the subtle, all-too-human relationships and failings; alas, even clocking at almost 3 hours the narrative and rich character detail of the book gets often side-swiped, with much of the depth missing on screen. Oh, some of the scenes are magnificently brought to life, the action quotient has been kept high to satisfy mainstream filmgoers with some terrific, vicious slo-mo fights, but others only leaden the narrative pace.

Perhaps a more experienced director could have provided his own vision of the film instead of relying so heavily on copying that of the original creators (up to, but not including, the similarly dastardly ending that would have been too much for unexpecting audiences); perhaps that would have made such a courageous, solid effort into a truly stunning one.

Despite this, there's never been something quite like Watchmen, and for those coming in wthout preconceived notions it's bound to be startling, as much by the amounts of blood and naked behinds as for its philosophical musings and harsh commentaries of human life.

Whatever may have been, kudos do go to the studio and the filmmakers to even attempt at getting this on celluloid; such a dark, nihilistic anti-hero flick must have been a hard sell. Good for us - we get to see the best comic-book story brought to life; hopefully this will entice even a handful of people to track down the graphic novel and read it for themselves.

Drama / Entertainment: 8/10

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