coolography

watchmen

Posted on: 7 March 2009

After over 20 years, stints in development hell and various legal wrangles, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s seminal comic book series is finally bestowed a film adaptation. Once deemed by Python Terry Gilliam to be ‘unfilmable‘, the Watchmen film eventually came to be helmed by ‘300′ director Zack Snyder. Though coolography believed 300 to be a perfectly good adaptation of the Frank Miller comic book, Watchmen exhibits an infinitely higher level of substance, nuance and storytelling.

Which is where coolography is at a quandary with Watchmen. As huge fans of the comic we knew that by definition the film couldn’t be truly faithful to to the medium, yet we remained curious as to how Moore’s words and Gibbons’ artwork would be brought to life on the big screen. And big screen indeed: procuring tickets on the opening day at Britain’s largest screen, the BFI IMAX, coolography was intent on doing this right…

Such a day and venue predictably attracted a varied selection of fanboys, geeks and film aficionados. The excitement of the crowd was palpable, though nervousness was evidently there; nothing draws the ire of a geek more than a comic adaptation done badly.

Though this is an adaptation, which for the most part, does amazingly well. A vast yellow enveloping the IMAX screen soon reveals the opening sequence: a dark, shockingly graphic ballet of violence, tempered by the off rhythm slow motion effect Snyder used so effectively in 300. The scene escalates, culminating in a brutal murder which effectively sets the film’s events in motion.

The opening credits then flesh out the background of the Watchmen universe, an alternate reality where costumed heroes are common place, and consequently have affected the course of American and world history. A slow motion photo-esque montage chronicles this history with a barrage of pop culture references, which, though mostly US-centric, are humourous and thought provoking.

Instilling a sense of nostalgia, the sequence brings us to the modern day where costumed heroes have been outlawed and their adventures are but a memory. Caught up in the midst of cold war paranoia, nuclear destruction seems inevitable, if not for the existence of former hero Dr. Manhattan. More super than hero, Dr. Manhattan’s godlike abilities help the Americans someway towards removing the mutual in mutually assured destruction.

Amidst this paranoia, a costumed vigilante, Rorschach, discovers that the earlier murder victim is a former hero, an elder adventurer who once went by the name of the Comedian. Seeking to warn other “masks” that a killer may be targeting them, Rorschach’s investigations soon uncover a plot even more elaborate and sinister.

Putting spoilers aside, the most impressive facet of this adaptation is that Watchmen’s cinematography is superb. Snyder, as he did with 300, used the original comic’s panels as storyboards, and it shows. Shot for shot sequences, obsessively detailed costuming (as covered in our previous post), easter eggs galore; anything less than an IMAX screen probably wouldn’t do this film justice.

The casting is also at times, inspired. Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach, the mentally unhinged vigilante crimefighter who is undoubtedly the star of the show, displays an initial hamminess but as the film progresses his performance soon transcends that of his co-stars. His brooding anger and detached moral absolutism is captured perfectly; from every violent interrogation to every disgruntled ‘hrmph’, Earle Haley fails to disappoint. Patrick Wilson’s Nite Owl II also bears an uncanny resemblance to his comic book counterpart. Gaining 25 pounds to portray the awkward ex-hero, Wilson perfectly charts the character’s rising confidence as he once again takes on his Batman-esque alter-ego. Billy Crudup’s mesmerising (in more ways than one) Dr. Manhattan also portrays the godlike being’s oft-sympathetic but ultimately detached humanity all his glowing blue glory.

For all its attention to detail, Watchmen fails frustratingly on a number of points. Most jarringly we felt the soundtrack, though topically appropriate at times, drew away from the atmosphere of the film. From the baffling appearance of Nena’s 99 Luftballons (whose original meaning may be lost on most) to a bizarrely employed ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen, the soundtrack failed to maintain the dark foreboding mood typical of the comic. Many times the film also veers into the comically explicit – from the punctuated violence, Dr. Manhattan’s complete lack of shame, and an overwrought sex scene that aroused only laughter in the audience.

The film’s ending, though controversially modified from the original, was far more palatable and worked well considering the context of the film, though its execution left a lot to be desired. The last 20% of the film dragged on unforgivably for such a lengthy running time, and some rather obvious plot points were granted lengthy exposition when other points more deserving were not, which could easily leave many viewers baffled.

And easily baffled the viewers could be. A casual viewer with expectations of a roaring comic book adventure will be severely disappointed by this Hollywood-ised deconstruction of the superhero, where morality is fluid and where the lines of villainy are blurred. Watching the film with a comic book fan’s bias, we probably appreciated the it more for the adaptation and less on its merits as a film. After all, the narrative has been ingrained on us after years of repeated readings; the film is merely an attractive layer of imagined lustre on top.

A fundamental flaw perhaps, considering the unfilmable nature of Watchmen. It is impossible to fit the whole story, and its essence, into a reasonable theatrical screen time. Admirable though the effort was, Watchmen remains, although not one of the best comic book films ever, definitely one of the best adaptations ever. Essential viewing for comic book fans, but a gentle word of warning to all others.