I’ve been a big fan of Moore’s Watchmen ever since I read the graphic novel last month, and have been eagerly anticipating the film adaptation. Perhaps like a lot of the other fans of the comic ([intlink id=”7795″ type=”post”]read the review[/intlink]), I was interested to see if the film offered the same great storytelling, immersion, suspense and humour that is present in the comic.
Watchmen is set in an alternate history of 1980’s United States, an America that has had a ‘masked superhero’ trend since the early 20th Century. With the introduction of the Keene act by ‘Tricky Dick’ Nixon, who has also weaseled his way into a third presidential term, these superheroes have become outlawed. The film begins with the murder of superhero The Comedian, and follows the masked vigilante Rorschach as he investigates why his former comrade was killed.
When I read the comic, throughout Rorschach’s investigation I began to get the feeling that something huge, intense and terrifying was coming (just like in Grover’s There’s a monster at the end of this book)—a feeling I didn’t get watching the movie. I imagine this is not the result of actually knowing what was coming (although the ending was different), but because of the inevitable sacrifices that were made in order to bring the story to the big screen.
Despite this ‘dumbing down’ for mainstream cinema, Watchmen is still worth seeing. Worth it for the well-developed human characters and storyline; worth it for the great 1980’s soundtrack (including a personal favourite by Nena); worth it for its beautiful look and feel; worth it for its well executed fight scenes; but most importantly, worth it to see Rorschach kick some serious butt. This little guy is the man, single-handedly taking on an entire SWAT team and cracking great one-liners that had the audience cheering.
I know this movie probably isn’t for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. If you want to see an epic movie of 2 hours and 43 minutes, go see this movie. If you want the full Watchmen experience (and it is an experience), go read the graphic novel.
Directed by Zack Snyder.
Written by David Hayter and Alex Tse, based on the graphic novel by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore.