I never knew much about WATCHMEN until a few years ago when co-workers of mine introduced me to the story and talked about it being one of the best graphic novels they ever had read. A few months ago, one of my good friends let me borrow the graphic novel so I could bury my head into it and see what all the fuss is about. Well, after reading it, I have to say that it is one of the better stories I’ve read in a while. It is a whole new breed of superhero with a story that takes place in an alternate reality that mirrors our own during the 1980’s.
If you do not know the story of WATCHMEN, it iss kind of hard to explain. Therefore, I will try to make it as simple as possible. The film takes place in an alternate reality to our own time from the 1940’s until 1985. Masked heroes are the main crime fighters in our cities, but most of them are just humans hiding behind a mask and fighting crime. That is the way it gets started for the first team of heroes who then retire, and a new group takes over. The new group of heroes are retired as well due to a law that bans them from wearing masks. But they will need to come out one more time in order to stop someone who is going around and killing masked heroes for a an unknown reason. None of them has super powers except for one guy named Dr. Manhattan who, it seems, has the powers of a god. The Comedian is the masked hero killed in the beginning of the film and it is his murder that puts all the other heroes on edge. Rorschach, the only masked hero who did not retire is still on the hunt for villains and will stop anyone who is committing crime. He will even go as far as to kill them. He himself is a wanted man, but he will not stop until every criminal is off the streets. There are also other heroes, such as Night Owl and Silk Spectre, both of whom are second generation masked heroes who are trying to figure out who is killing masked heroes with Adrian Veidt, who is known as the hero, Ozymandias, and is one of the few who has revealed his true identity to the world when the law comes into play. He is known as the smartest man in the world and is very wealthy. Together, these heroes will try to band together to find out what is really happening. Meanwhile, tensions between the United States and Russia are mounting and the world is on the brink of a nuclear disaster.
WATCHMEN is very thick in plot and character development. There is a perfect balance between the two. Many people who saw the film that were fanboys of the novel who both like and dislike the film for their own reasons. There have been many debates between the lovers and haters of the film as to what Zack Snyder did with the story. I, for one, think he did a very good job. I say this because my background in television and film has given me an advantage in determining how to adapt a story to film. While reading the graphic novel, I read it as if I were the one who was making the movie. With so much to work with from the in novel, a lot must be sacrificed to bring the picture down in its running time. While watching the film, I took this into consideration when considering that it would be impossible to make a commercial feature that could have been many hours long. All the stuff he used was more than I expected him to use, and the parts of the story he cut out were what I would have also cut out if I were directing this film. I think the script was good. It was a bit long, but it was good nonetheless. [As someone who was very impressed with the graphic novel, do you not think that a six-hour film would have been too excessive?]
The acting in WATCHMEN is pretty decent. The cast is full of names that not many of us know as A-list stars, and that is a good thing. The characters are fairly complex, so the right actors need to be cast to play these roles. I think Jackie Earle Haley is perfectly cast as Rorschach and he easily has the best performance in the film followed by Billy Crudup who plays Dr. Manhattan. The rest of the cast includes Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre II (Laurie Jupiter), Patrick Wilson as Night Owl II (Dan Dreiberg), Matthew Goode as Adam “Ozymandias” Veidt, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian Edward Blake and Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter the original Silk Spectre. I’m not going to say that performances are perfect, nor that certain characters are cast right. I will not go into detail on who, but there is one small role where I felt the acting is not all that great, and it did take away from the film, in my opinion. But all that aside, I think the film’s acting is not half bad.
The production values for the film are top notch and really follow the look and feel of the novel. I was not practically fond of some of the music that Snyder picked to go along with some of the scenes. But, nonetheless, the majority of the music does go with the theme and flow of the majority of the scenes. The visual effects are very good, although I could have done without the very few scenes that involved Dr. Manhattan’s penis. (For those of you wondering, you do not see it as much as everyone made it out to be). There is a lot of nudity in the film and even some racy sex scenes as well. The movie is full of violent deaths and there is some gore and plenty of blood. We see things from people blowing up to people getting their arms broken. It is a very violent film and not for the faint of heart.
The Blu-ray Director’s Cut disc has a lot of features which includes twenty-four minutes of extra footage added to the theatrical version of the film. There is a great feature in which director Zack Snyder takes you on a tour of the film and the mythology of WATCHEMEN. It is a really cool experience. The set also comes with a digital copy of the film and blu-ray live features that can be shared on Facebook. The rest of the features include The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed the World- The Original Graphic Novel’s Groundbreaking Impact, Real Super Heroes: Real Vigilantes Explores How the Saga’s Characters Are Mirrored in Historical and Contemporary Real-Life Behavior, Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World, 11 WATCHMEN Video Journals and My Chemical Romance’s Desolation Row music video.
Overall, WATCHMEN does indeed do the celebrated graphic novel justice. I think Zack Snyder really captured the novel in this film. It does run a bit long and at times does move a bit slowly, but the story itself is very complex and full of all kinds of characters to develop. There are even two films that are made to go along with some of the stories that are in the graphic novel as well. Under the Hood about the first Night Owl and Tales of the Black Freighter. This is a must-see film for fans of the novel. Those who never have read the novel, I am sure, will enjoy it, although, like the many people with whom I say it might be confused by its place in history. The key is to remember that it takes place in a different reality from our own: A world in which we won the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon is president for four terms. If you are a fan of the graphic novel, you will not want to pass on this disc.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
