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• Alan Moore's classic graphic novel, Watchmen, hits the big screen

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Watchmen

Buzz says:   MPAA Rating: R
Current Showtimes: No showtimes available

Many people brushed off Zack Snyder after 300, acknowledging his visual style, but criticizing the shallowness of everything else in the movie. The shallowness was not his fault, though. He took a gorgeous graphic novel that was more about style than substance and turned it into a gorgeous movie that just so happened to be more about style than substance. Now, with Watchmen,, Snyder attempts to adapt another graphic novel onto the big screen. This time around though, the source material is both stylish and contains one of the greatest stories ever penned for a graphic novel. Snyder had a huge job on his hands, adapting one of the most beloved graphic novels into a movie -especially with Alan Moore, the author of Watchmen wanting absolute nothing to do with the movie – and for the most part, he does a fantastic job.

One of the greatest strengths of the film is how faithful it is to the graphic novel. Many of the scenes, including the dialogue, are taken directly from the book. Fans of the original should take comfort in this. Snyder doesn’t take any chances changing things around too much and does exactly what he set out to do: transform Watchmen into a movie. It is one of the greatest and most faithful novel adaptations ever. Watchman has an epic story, and the film does a good job of cramming most of it in into a two hour and forty minute movie. Some major scenes were taken out or altered though, including Hollis Mason’s death, which was not included in the film. The ending was also changed, but the new ending actually works rather well in the context of the film.

Visually, the film is a treat for the eyes. Snyder proves once again that he knows how to make a pretty movie. From the costumes to the sets, everything is beautiful. The attention to detail alone merits this film as a huge technical feat. There is so much to notice: Rorschach’s ever-changing mask, newspapers scattered everywhere, pictures hanging on the wall; each little detail shows the care that Snyder put into the film.

The casting and acting were almost all spot on as well. Everybody looked the parts and most of them nailed acting like them as well. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jackie Earle Haley were both great as The Comedian and Rorschach and Patrick Wilson was perfectly cast as Nite Owl II. Even Matthew Goode as Ozymandias, who I thought didn’t fit the part in the trailers, proved to embody the essence of the character. The biggest letdown was Malin Akerman as Laurie Jupiter, a.k.a Silk Spectre II. She definitely looked the part, but her acting could not compete with the work of her co-stars. Her character shows some great emotion in the book, but her acting hardly ever conveys any of it.

Another major plus is the way in which the film sets up Watchmen universe. Snyder creates a convincing 1980s America on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The musical choices play a big part in this. Most song choices are great, but some verge on terrible. Dylan’s "The Times They Are A Changing" during the beautiful opening credit sequence (one of my favorite parts of the film, actually) was a stroke of genius. There is also a great Ozymandias scene where "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" can be faintly heard in the background. It is scenes like this that gave me hope that this film would be a modern age masterpiece. But then, there were scenes like a certain sex scene with Leonard Cohen’s "Hallelujah" playing that made me want to scream “WHAT DID YOU DO TO Watchmen?!” at the screen.

For as much as the film gets right, there are too many things that it does wrong for it to be the epic that it could have been. The film never establishes a solid rhythm. What made the book so cohesive is the way the story flowed. The addition of chapters from “Under the Hood” and “Tales of the Black Freighter” in the graphic novel helped add a much-needed break from the storyline. The film omits these, most likely due to time constraints, and their absence is felt. The movie goes from over the top violence to somber scenes like a funeral without almost any transition. This makes for an uneven viewing experience. Snyder is supposedly releasing a director’s cut in a few months that should incorporate “Tales of the Black Freighter” and a few cut scenes into it. Hopefully it takes or changes a few of the scenes that were left in too. Seriously, that certain sex scene I mentioned earlier almost ruined the film for me. It was unbearably cheesy.

I purposely neglected to go over the plot of the movie in this review, because I strongly feel that everyone should read the graphic novel before seeing the film. I can’t imagine what it would be like seeing that movie without any prior knowledge of what the story is about. Watchmen has a heavy plot that is much deeper than any other comic book movie out there. People expecting a movie like The Dark Knight or Spider-Man may bit a little disappointed in what they see. Snyder fleshed out the violence and sex to appease modern day moviegoers, but Watchmen is not about fight scenes. It is about the human condition, the worth of life and living in a world where humanity is on the brink of destruction. The graphic novel should be required reading for everybody, and the movie should be viewed as an homage to the book. While not perfect, the movie is extremely respectable. Snyder did the near impossible and transformed Watchmen into a coherent, beautiful and entertaining film.