Dir. Zack Snyder, US, 2009, 162 mins
Cast: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson
Review by Martyn Bamber
And so, at last, the long-awaited film adaptation of the classic Watchmen graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons has arrived in cinemas. But is it worth the wait? It's a relief to say that, on the whole, yes it is. With the bar for comic book films being set high in recent years by films like the first two X-Men and Spiderman movies, and more recently with the sombre crime saga The Dark Knight (2008), Zack Snyder's film of Watchmen has a lot to live up to. Fortunately, this is a unique and compelling look at costumed heroes that, like Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel, represents a major step forward for comic book films.
Set primarily in an alternate America in 1985, where costumed heroes are part of everyday life, the cold war is heating up and tension between the USA and the Soviet Union is at breaking point. As the film opens, an old costumed hero named Edward Blake/The Comedian (Morgan) is brutally beaten and killed by a mysterious assailant. A vigilante named Walter Kovacs/Rorschach (Haley) - dressed in a hat and trench coat, and wearing a mask with eerily shifting patterns - investigates the crime and tries to determine who killed The Comedian.
Rorschach thinks that someone is trying to eliminate costumed vigilantes, and he seeks out his old allies who have all retired as heroes, some of whom live in the public eye and others who remain anonymous. The Comedian's murder is the catalyst for exploring the back-story of these heroes, revealing them to be a disparate group of flawed individuals. Among these heroes are Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre (Gugino), who was famous in the 1940s, and her daughter Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre II (Akerman), who has taken on her mantle. There's also the smart and introverted Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II (Wilson), Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias (Goode), an ultra-rich businessman, and Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan (Crudup), the only hero with superpowers, which he gained after a laboratory accident.
This brief synopsis barely sums up the intricate story and fascinating characters in the film. Snyder and his collaborators have taken on a mighty task here, but right from the opening credits (which deftly outline the history of the heroes and quickly establish the world they inhabit) it's clear that Watchmen is a bold and ambitious comic book film. There have been a few films that have deconstructed the myth of costumed heroes before (such as Mystery Men, 1999, with its eccentric group of characters, and Fantastic Four, 2005, which treated its heroes like modern day celebrities), and so it's all the more impressive that this new film makes the idea still seem fresh.
Watchmen shows how these costumed protagonists don't fit the idealised image of the brave, upstanding and selfless comic book heroes that film audiences are used to seeing. While all of the heroes are shown as exceptional people, they've also all got serious flaws and hang-ups. Batman may brood alone and Spiderman may suffer teen angst, but Watchmen presents heroes who suffer from self-doubt and impotence, and who commit rape and murder. The Watchmen graphic novel and the film contain the iconic image of the bloodstained smiley-faced badge that's all too symbolic of the flawed and tarnished image of these protagonists, who struggle to survive and remain relevant in an ever-changing and increasingly hostile world.
It's inevitable that the film will be compared to the graphic novel, and some of the filmmakers' changes and choices will inevitably not be to everyone's taste (the biggest alteration is to the end of the story, which may prove controversial with fans of the graphic novel). But judged on its merits as a film, are there drawbacks? Well, some of the makeup is poorly realised (though giving Richard Nixon a Pinocchio-like nose may be a deliberate sly joke), and the violence, while jolting, is occasionally rendered with unconvincing CGI. And although Dr. Manhattan is the only one with superpowers, the other heroes are given to performing feats of almost superhuman strength and endurance (punching fists through walls or being slammed against walls with little or no injuries sustained) that undermines the realistic feel that the filmmakers seem to be striving for. And while the length of the film allows the filmmakers to devote a lot of screen time to all the major characters, the third act resolution feels a little drawn-out, but that seems to be a common occurrence with comic book films (and, to be fair, this is consistent with the graphic novel's conclusion).
Still, these are minor quibbles. The world of Watchmen is convincingly realised and is probably as close to the graphic novel as it could possibly be. All the performances are convincing and are in the service of the material (there are no star names to take an audience out of the film or detract from the story; this is, quite rightly, an ensemble piece). Watchmen will no doubt be seen as one of the definitive comic book films, ranked in significance alongside such highly regarded films as Superman: The Movie (1978) and the aforementioned The Dark Knight . Given the protracted production period of this film and the burden of expectation it has, the fact that Snyder and co have succeeded in creating a faithful adaptation of Watchmen and an exceptional costumed hero film should be cause for celebration. Comic book fans and film buffs can celebrate; this is easily one of the most complex and original comic book films of the last ten years.
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