Watchmen Review

March 6, 2009 at 8:52 pm (Movies, Review)

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Well the most anticipated movie since The Dark Knight hits theaters today. And everyone is on the edge of their seats to see if Hollywood can pull off 4 (Iron Man, Hulk, The Dark Knight) successful comic book movies in a row. Although that raises the question of does Watchmen even qualify as a comic book…but that’s another show. So to answer the question before you all die of anticipation: Yes.

Zack Snyder seems to have an incredible talent for adapting still art into motion. However you feel about the quality of 300 as a film, you cannot deny that Snyder did what no one else had been able to do when making a comic based film, he made the move look and feel like the literature. Snyder accomplishes the same thing in Watchmen. Never for a minute do you doubt that you are seeing the world of Watchmen come to life before your eyes. The characters and costumes and environments are lifted beautifully right from the pages of Dave Gibbons’ amazing art. The writing in the film is word for word lifted from the novel throughout most of the movie. Even though some lines have been moved around or given to different characters, there is hardly a moment of dialogue in the film that you won’t remember Alan Moore having written. Visually the film is incredible. Aside from recreating perfectly the alternate 1985 New York City, the characters look remarkably identical to their original incantations. Notable differences include Silk Spectre II and Ozymandis. I really don’t think anyone is going to complain about the recreation of Ozy’s costume, lets be honest. And Silk Spectre’s change was an understandable one. Rorschach looks absolutely amazing, and the work done with his mask in the film is perfect. The film is absolutely beautiful. The colors and textures of the environments really work to serve as a visual representation of the current in film emotion. The bright colorful scenes are as vivid as possible, and the dark cold foreboding sets are as terrifying as any haunted summer camp.

Tyler Bates reunites with Snyder to provide one more incredible score. Though thinking back I really can’t think of a score that Bates did that was not amazing. But what really got me was not the original score, but how well the licensed music was used. Song’s like All Along The Watchtower not only fit in with the movies time but serve as a great narrative to what is happening on screen.

One of the largest problems with comic adaptations is finding the right people for the right roles (See: Ben Affleck in Daredevil, Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3, Nick Cage in Ghostrider, George Clooney in Batman And Robin) and amazingly enough every role was casted perfectly. Billy Crudup’s voice for Dr. Manhattan was perfect, depicting the absolute lack of feeling and caring and emotion that makes me hate the character so much. Jeffery Dean Morgan’s performance as The Comedian actually made me change my opinion as to who my favorite character in Watchmen is. I could keep going, but I would literally be naming the entire cast one at a time. Take my word, that every actor gives an amazing performance and brings the characters to life in ways that even the greatest optimist could not have predicted.

My one complaint with the film comes in it’s length. Clocking in around 2 and a half hours, naturally the movie drags at some points. Not that the story was ever really uninteresting, but there were a few times where I found myself actually bored with the movie, and just wanting it to end. This is not a movie for the casual film goer, or someone who just enjoys comic book movies. This film is for Watchmen fans. Not that it is impossible for someone who has not read the novel to enjoy it, but it will be very overwhelming for someone with no previous knowledge of the story.

Oh, and there is a lot of male nudity. Not something that really bothers me in films, but this time round enough really was enough. Credit to the filmmakers for not shying away from it, but really. But a small issue.

The final word is that this movie was great. The more I think about it the more I enjoyed it. Yes it is long, yes it tends to drag on in parts. But there is so much to look at and see that it is very easy to get lost in the film. And it is hard to ignore a film full of great performances. I am very glad this movie finally got made, I think right now was the perfect time for it. Watchmen is a thoroughly enjoyable experience.