I find myself at this moment with the difficult task of explaining to you my thoughts and feelings about Zack Snyder's adaptation of The Watchmen to the big screen without giving anything really important away. It's harder than it sounds, trust me. So here's what I'm going to do. I promise right now to not give away any spoilers from the Watchmen movie of any kind.
However, I will be discussing events that happened in the Watchmen comic books. I'm doing this because the comics are over 20 years old, therefore I'm not really giving away any spoilers whatsoever. If you've read the comics, feel safe to continue reading and know that I will not mention anything that has been changed for the movie. I will only be discussing events that take place both in the movie and in the comics.
If you haven't read the comics yet, and don't want any major spoilers for the film, please stop reading now. Instead, you should go out and buy the graphic novel instead, read that cover to cover in one sitting (allow yourself a full day to do this), then come back here and read my review.
Ok. With that said. Here we go!
Let me just get this out of the way right now. The Watchmen is an amazing movie. And when I say that, I mean that it's AN AMAZING MOVIE!!! If you are a fan of the comics at all, let me reassure you right here and now that this film does not in any way detract from the greatness that is the Watchmen in its original form. Zack Snyder has gone above and beyond the call of duty here and has created a film that is, in my mind, the most faithful comic-to-screen adaptation that I have ever seen. Only Sin City is really comparable in level of adaptation accuracy.
Everything that we as fans could have possibly ever hoped to see in the Watchmen movie is in there. And the vast majority of it is delivered in an almost panel by panel translation from the comic. There are so many moments in the film where I recognized exact panels from the comic that had been converted into a moving image. I honestly believe that the film crew just opened up the graphic novel and used that as their storyboards when making the movie. The film feels like the comic in just about every possible way. The colors, the images, the settings, the dialogue, the nuclear paranoia, it's all there.
Have certain things been changed? Yes. Of course they have. Whenever anyone is ever adapting a story from one form of media to another, there are always going to have to be small things that get changed. To expect a complete 100% translation of a written work to a theater screen is ridiculous, but I am sure there are going to be plenty of purists and die-hards that will find something to nit pick about the film.
But that's just it though. All that there really is to complain about are tiny, nit-picky things. For a book as complicated as the Watchmen is, to be adapted to the big screen and only have small things to complain about is an amazing accomplishment. This film could have gone wrong in a million different ways, but it didn't and I really feel that it was because it had a director that was trying his damnedest to stay as faithful to the comics as possible. As for things that just weren't included at all, from what I could tell the only things that were cut were minor background things that weren't really needed for the main story. Even then, Zack Snyder has said in many interviews that a director's cut of the film will be coming out on DVD that will include a ton of scenes that had to be cut due to time constraints. Chances are then, that if you're upset about something that had to get cut, you'll still get to see it when Watchmen hits store shelves this summer.
On of the things that really amazed me about the film though was how powerfully it was able to control the audience that was watching it. The Watchmen is a multifaceted story that throws comedy, drama, horror and action all into one big pot and stirs it all up into a seamless blend of storytelling greatness. Asking a film to do that too is a tall order indeed, but this movie pulls that off. In any ten minute span, the Watchmen movie can make an audience laugh at the nerdiness of Dan Dreiberg, squirm uncomfortably in their seats and actually gasp as they watch the Comedian beat up and attempt to rape the original Silk Spectre, and then take us right back to the riveting drama of Rorschach as he investigates the death of the Comedian.
The characters are played perfectly by an amazing group of actors. Doctor Manhattan has that right amount of far-awayness that he had in the comics, Ozzymandias is aloof and superior, Laurie is anxious and confused, and Dan (as I mentioned bef0re) is so perfectly nerdy you can't help but love the guy. By far though, the standout performances go to Jackie Earle Haley and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Rorschach and The Comedian respectively. Both of these men bring in incredibly powerful performances that manage to capture the nuances and complexity of their characters with amazing faithfulness to their comic counterparts. Jackie Earl Haley even manages this while wearing a full mask for most of the film. During the scenes though where he has the mask off . . . . . wow. I never would have imagined getting to see Rorschach depicted as accurately as he was. The intensity, the violence , the determination, the psychosis . . . . . it's all there.
Of course, the biggest and most well known of the changes to the original comic story is the ending. Yes, it is true that there is no giant squid in the film. That fact is well known and has been reported about on this site many times before. About the new ending I will only say this. It works. It works really, really well. Even though there is no giant squid, trust me when I say that after what happens at the end of the movie happens, everything is left as it should be per the comics. Nuclear war is averted, but at an incredibly high price. The world is unified through fear, and all of the remaining characters are left with the same hard moral question of whether what was done to save the world was right or not. As audiences walk out of this film, if they were paying attention, they'll be left with all of the same questions that the readers of the comic were when they finshed the books. All of the moral ambiguity is still there, and it's still left open for the viewer to determine on their own what they believe.
To be honest, I actually have to say that I like the new ending that the film presents better than I do the original ending. The giant squid, while amusing, never really sat right with me. I always thought it was a little too out of left field, too deus ex machina. The new ending is more logical, more plausible, and it makes more sense in how the world would react to the events depicted. This is just my opinion though. I'm sure others will differ with me on this.
My only worry about the film is how well it will perform with mainstream audiences. This is a superhero film like none the world has ever seen before. It's rated R, it's dark, it's complex. The heroes involved aren't cookie cutter representations of good and evil. The film is long (about 2 hours and 40 minutes), it's very slowly paced. There are long periods of talking that are only occasionally broken up by quick scenes of brutal action. This isn't what most audiences, I fear, will walk in expecting. The standard movie-going audience is accustomed to films like Iron Man and Spider-man or the X-Men. They expect big action blockbusters when they go to see guys running around in capes and masks.
The Watchmen just isn't that movie. Yes, those elements are there, but that's not what it's about . . . . . not really. This is a very slow, very deep film that takes a goodly long time to build, and I'm really worried about whether standard mainstream audiences will sit through the hour of talking that takes place between the Comedian's death at the start of the film and the next major action scene of note. Will people who haven't read the comics care about the film? Will they get it? I certainly hope so.
In the end, all I can say was that I walked into this movie with incredibly high standards and even higher hopes and by the end of the film each and every single one of those had been either met or exceeded beyond my wildest dreams. This is going to be THE comic book movie to see this year, and I can't wait to see it again and again and again.
Final Grade: A+
No comments:
Post a Comment