This March sees the long-awaited release of Watchmen, directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300). Adapted from the classic comic book series first released in 1986-87, Watchmen has had a long and painful gestation from page to screen with Terry Gilliam, Paul Greengrass and Darren Aronofsky all attached to direct at some point, before the project finally got the greenlight at Warner Bros with Zack Snyder attached following the huge success of 300, another comic adaptation.
The original series that came out on DC comics, written by comic book royalty Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, was regarded as an instant classic upon release and is often named amongst the greatest comics ever written for it’s deconstruction of the superhero concept. The story is set in the USA in an alternate 1985 where Richard Nixon has just been re-elected for a third term, and the country is edging ever closer to a nuclear war with Russia. America has the advantage, with the only real superhero, the blue-skinned Dr. Manhattan on their payroll. Costumed heroes have been outlawed; ex-capes are dead, retired, insane or working for the government. When one of the government funded heroes is brutally murdered, the ex-heroes, formally known as the Minutemen, suspect that someone is out to take them down, so begin to investigate the killing with Rorschach, a hard-boiled Travis Bickle-esque, detective leading the way.
Alan Moore is famously protective of his work after the disastrous adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and distanced himself from Hollywood for the big-screen versions of From Hell and V for Vendetta, and has similarly distanced himself from this version of Watchmen saying:
'Watchmen' film sounds like more regurgitated worms. I for one am sick of worms. Can't we get something else? Perhaps some takeout? Even Chinese worms would be a nice change."
If you’ve ever read League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and then seen the film version, which stars an extremely pissed-off looking Sean Connery, then you could understand Moore’s disappointment, but Watchmen director Zack Snyder is a confirmed fanboy of the book, so surely the adaptation is in safe hands? Upon hearing the new that Snyder was attached to helm, fanboys were up in arms, how could an adaptation of such levity be trusted to a director renowned for his frenetic direction (Dawn of the Dead) and frankly homo-erotic stylings (300)?
The film has been the subject of the level of hype reserved only for the big comic book films a la The Dark Knight, with set videos, photos, clips and trailers surfacing online for nearly a year now, but now then time has come, does the film live up to the hype?
I was lucky enough to bag a ticket to the first British Imax screening, so as a confirmed fan of the comic, we sat and waited, and when the huge Imax screen filled with bright-yellow, I took a deep breath. The time had come.
At a weighty 157 minutes, the film never suffers for lack of pace, with Snyder clearly looking to cram in as much detail from the book as possible, the time flies by. He is clearly a big fan of the book, and many scenes occur with lines delivered verbatim, and framing lifted straight from the cells of the book. But herein lies the problem. If you are a fan of the book, you love it for what it is, a beautifully crafted, weighty, intelligent piece of cold-war paranoia, an insight into the superhero psyche, with incredibly realised interaction between the characters, and their place in the grand scheme of the world. Can that really be translated into a popcorn movie? Probably not, so how do you adapt it? Snyder has taken a slavishly reverent approach to the source material, and it shows, but for any non-fans, what is the point? It comes across as a futile exercise in animating the comic, which has already been done to great effect for the Watchmen website. For a fan such as myself, yes, it was great to see how Dr. Manhattan was going to be done, but for anyone else, will they care? Dr. Manhattan is one of the films triumphs, with CGI proving to be most effective in close up, his ethereal other-worldliness comes through in every scene (thanks to a decent turn from Billy Crudup), but having his knob out and on show in nearly every scene that he is in is a bit distracting, especially in Imax, as you can imagine. Which leads me to another gripe about the film. The film is being released as an 18 certificate, making it the first comic book film truly for adults. The book is a violent, bloody and explicit piece of work, but in the context of many comics, it’s fairly tame, so pushing for an 18 rating seems very strange, and every moment that necessitates the rating seemed forced to me. It’s like Snyder felt he had to crowbar torture-porn-esque moments, full frontal nudity and explicit gore in order to give the film some sort of credibility, where with a few choice cuts and trims, the film could have easily have been PG13 or 15. You just don’t need to see Dr. Manhattan in all his glory in every scene he’s in.
Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson as Rorschach and Nite Owl are well realised with Rorschach brimming with menace and rage in every scene, particularly the prison break. Matthew Goode is ok as the Lets Dance-era Bowie styled Ozymandias, but he feels underused. Malin Akerman is cute as the Silk Spectre, but comes across a bit soap opera at times, as does Carla Gugino as her mother, who has to battle her way under a ton of crappy ageing prosthetics for most of the movie. The poor make-up is one of the many things that unfortunately, despite it’s rumoured $120m budget, makes the film seem cheaply made and far from epic. Richard Nixon keeps popping up to bang home the imminent threat of nuclear war, but unfortunately for the poor actor, the cinema broke out in guffaws every time he appeared, because of the incredibly naff looking prosthetic nose and chin, and visible skull cap that made him look like an character from one of Eddie Murphy’s recent dire outings. The prison break scene appears to occur in an anonymous mid- sized corridor, and Bubastis (a genetically engineered purple lynx for the uninitiated) looked like the “Walking With Dinosaurs” team had animated it.
Somewhere the budget had clearly been invested was in the soundtrack. The film is set in 1985, which you would think would have been rich picking for the soundtrack, but somehow Snyder cocks that up too. Obvious choice (Ride of the Valkyrie for Vietnem), followed by stupid choice (99 Red Balloons), followed by groan-inducing choice (Hallelujah for the sex-scene, which was bad enough in itself without this massive cliché blaring over the top), Snyder maybe thought he was making a feature length music video?
The ending has been changed from the book, but for me it worked. Somehow I think a giant squid would probably have got bigger laughs than Nixon nob-nose. But in the grand scheme of the film, it seemed to fit, even if you never really felt the epic sense of conclusion that the book has.
That said, the film is an entertaining and well paced, glossy piece of work, but as a fan of the book ultimately disappointing. It’s a catch 22 with such a seminal work though. I feel this hagiographic approach to the source is too much, and Snyder is clearly trying to impress the fans, but a looser approach may have worked better. However, take it too far from the book, and fans would be up in arms at the liberties being taken. It’s catch-22 and may prove to have been a pointless exercise if it flops at the box-office.
3/5
A bloody, brutal and adult comic-book adaptation that may confound and beguile fans and non-fans in equal measures.
