Watchmen
Starring: Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Malin Ackerman, Jackie Earl Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode
Directed by: Zack Snyder
About a year ago, I picked up a friend’s copy of the graphic novel Watchmen and read the first 20 pages or so. I was immediately gripped by the look and feel of the book, and had every intention of sitting down and reading every page and panel. It is without explanation that, a year later, upon the release of the feature film based on the novel, I have yet to read Watchmen all the way through. That being said, there will be no comparisons in this review of the book and the movie. As I am wholly ill-equipped to compare and contrast, I will stick solely to the merits of the nearly three hour feature film based on what may be sacred material to many of you. Apologies to all the die-hard fans out there.
It is a very strange time for the world. Things are tough across the globe. People are jobless, hungry, and getting desperate by the day. What we need is a hero. A superhero. Last year brought us not one, but two wonderful superhero movies in Iron Man and The Dark Knight. Now comes Watchmen. You will find no heroes here.
Set in an alternate version of 1985 New York where Richard Nixon is currently serving his fifth term as president (he removed the term limit himself), and Vietnam, thanks to help from Americas own superheroes, was an unmitigated victory. And yet, just a few short years after that war, superheroes, marked as vigilantes, were outlawed. With nothing else to do, the Watchmen, are left to rejoin society in whatever way they can. It’s a fascinating premise that The Incredibles blatantly ripped off a few years ago for Pixar, but remains virile and interesting in this original context…with fewer laughs and warm fuzzies.
The heroes in question are all but common citizens who dress up in costumes and go out after dark to kick some ass. There is Night Owl, Silk Spectre, Ozymandias, The Comedien, Rorshach, and Dr. Manhattan(the only character that actually possesses superhuman powers. He has been transformed into a glowing blue superhuman…who spends much of the movie naked. Yes…completely naked…swinging in the breeze…it’s sort of a laugh the first couple times.)
The movie starts with the brutal murder of The Comedien. A murder that puts the rest of the stories into motion. Rorshach, whose mask is simply an ever-changing series of ink blots, turns up to begin investigating the murder, convinced that there is someone out there targeting superheroes. This brings us to the doors and lives of the rest of the characters, and shows us just how far some of the former might have fallen. Silk Spectre is shacking up with Dr. Manhattan, who is working with Ozymandias and the government, trying to solve the worlds energy problems for good…and before the U.S. and Russia finally give in to the temptation of all out nuclear war. Ozymandias is running one of the biggest corporations in the world…and living quite comfortably. Rorshach is sort of the poet laureate of the streets, and his former partner, Night Owl lives a quietly disenchanted life as a common schlub.
The plot builds and twists and turns and jabs and taunts and titilizes all the way through its nearly three hour story (did I mention it is nearly three hours?)…and for the most part, I have to say that it is worth the ride. Sure, it drags sometimes, it’s horribly convoluted, jumps back and forth in time too much, and sometimes it feels like the actors are simply reading pages from the book, but the overall feeling of the film, and the general sense of wonder at, not just the characters actions and thoughts as heroes…but more on their actions and thoughts as humans (even if they technically are no longer human) keeps you glued to the screen throughout. As far as the actual plot goes…I don’t want to give anything away. I will say only this, there is a massive plot to do some very bad things…and your idea of what is heroic will be drastically put to the test.
As far as the film as an actual film? I have to say that Zack Snyder has made a tremendous piece of pop art…complete with wonderfully utilized pop songs and historical figures. Wait til you see what happened to Lee Iacoca. If nothing else, you should see the film for the virtue of its brilliant title sequence, nearly a mini-movie itself, all set to the tune of Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A Changin.’ I got chills when the song started, and fell in love with the movie in that instant. It’s also a great looking film, by the way. Even if you can’t keep up with the story, you will be amazed, and maybe a bit overwhelmed, by the images flying across the screen. Kudos to DP Larry Fong and the entire effects team for putting a really unique film on the screen. It’s an ambitious film to watch, and, I imagine, is quite rewarding in a second viewing. The actors all do good work here, especially Jackie Earl Haley as Rorshach, who has one of the most bad-assed moments in recent history with his prison fight scene. Patrick Wilson also stands out as Night Owl and his alter ego Dan Dreiberg.
In the end, Watchmen is a very good piece of entertainment. It lacks some of the world-altering impact that made The Dark Knight such a punch in the stomach last year. I think Watchmen sort of bogs itself down in its own self-righteousness and despair at times where The Dark Knight seemed to revel in it, and there is not one set action piece in this entire film to live up to one action scene from The Dark Knight. But that’s sort of the point…this is not a big action packed superhero movie. It’s more like a big, thought-packed mind fuck dressed up in tights and masks and lots of sex and violence. And there is much to love about that.
