Watchmen - first review
Billy Crudup plays Doctor Manhattan in the amazing Watchmen
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Friday, 27, Feb 2009 04:32
By Lewis Bazley.
Directed by Zack Snyder, out March 6th in cinemas, starring Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Malin Akerman, running time 160 mins.
In a nutshell...
At midnight, all the agents, and superhuman crew, go out and round up everyone who knows more than they do...
What's it all about?
Adapted from Alan Moore's classic graphic novel - named in Time magazine's list of the best 100 novels of the 20th century - Watchmen tells of an alternate 1985 in which Richard Nixon has won a third term as US president, masked vigilantes have been forced into retirement through an act of Congress and a genuine superhero exists in the form of godlike Doctor Manhattan (Crudup).
But when one of their ex-comrades The Comedian (Dean Morgan) is murdered, there's a reunion of sorts for Watchmen - sociopath Rorschach (Haley), paunchy and pathetic Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl (Wilson), leggy Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre (Akerman) and 'world's smartest man' Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias (Goode) - to discover a plot that threatens more than just costumed crimefighters.
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Who's in it?
Not quite the all-star cast that many had expected when a Watchmen adaptation was finally announced, the film instead features an assortment of former supporting players who revel in taking the lead.
Billy Crudup (Doctor Manhattan) is the best known, having broken hearts in Almost Famous, while Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach) and Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) co-starred with Oscar winner Kate Winslet in Little Children.
Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre) steps away from her usual romcom territory, Matthew Goode (Ozymandias) was last seen in the recent Brideshead Revisited adaptation while Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian) is best known as the late Denny on Grey's Anatomy.
A former advert director, Watchmen is, amazingly, only Zack Snyder's third film after his Dawn of the Dead remake (2004) and the box office success of 300 (2006).
As an example...
"The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!'... and I'll look down and whisper 'No'." -Rorschach
"All we ever see of stars are their old photographs." - Doctor Manhattan
"I'm used to going out at three in the morning and doing something stupid." - Silk Spectre
"None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me!" - Rorschach
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Unlike The Dark Knight it doesn't reinvent the genre and even Christopher Nolan's film received little recognition from the Academy, so Snyder's inferior effort has little chance. Still, it'll clean up at the sci-fi and comic book ceremonies.
What the others say
"Okay, it isn't the graphic novel, but Zack Snyder clearly gives a toss, creating a smart, stylish, decent adaptation, if low on accessibility for the non-convert." - Ian Nathan, Empire
"The movie is ultimately undone by its own reverence; there's simply no room for these characters and stories to breathe of their own accord, and even the most fastidiously replicated scenes can feel glib and truncated." - Justin Chang, Variety
So is it any good?
Zack Snyder deserves an ovation merely for getting Watchmen into cinemas. Labelled 'unfilmable' by Terry Gilliam, who - rightly - suggested the book would suit a five-hour miniseries, Moore's brilliantly dense mid-80s novel nearly made it to the screen in the hands of David Hayter, Darren Aronofsky and then Paul Greengrass, only for Paramount to put the project on standby. With Moore distancing himself from any adaptation and a legal spat between Fox and Warner Bros threatening to have Snyder's eventual effort barred from release, fans of the gloriously gloomy tome could have been forgiven for believing Watchmen would never see celluloid.
That is has is remarkable - that it's incredibly good is cause for rejoicing. From its outstanding Dylan-soundtracked opening credits - which move us through newsreel tableaus and a Minutemen Last Supper to create a back story and an entire world in under three minutes - there's never any doubt this is an undeniably faithful Watchmen film made for fans by a devotee.
Though much of the graphic novel's supplementary material has been necessarily excised (the horrifying pirate saga Tales of the Black Freighter will receive an animated DVD release) its central theme - one of many - of Rorschach's search to find the truth behind The Comedian's death is adapted almost entirely. Snyder establishes both the slightly alternate universe and the six complex leads with incredible aplomb.
Rorschach's journal is included word-for-word, panel-for-panel - as if anyone would ever need to change Alan Moore's words - and in some scenes, Snyder has realised what was thought impossible, with dreams, memories, panels and design brought to life like a perfect facsimile of the page.
The Philip Glass-backed, layered flashback sequence of Doctor Manhattan's self-imposed exile on Mars is a particular highlight, a majestic, hugely affecting tour de force, all the more remarkable thanks to the literally inhuman behaviour of the character.
The cast, by and large, are also at their best. Haley essays Rorschach as a jerky, snarling caged beast - just as in the comic, we find ourselves rooting for a resolute, psychotic anti-hero - while Wilson is compelling as sad sack Dreiberg and Dean Morgan grimly watchable as the fascinating yet deeply amoral Comedian.
Carla Gugino is soulful and sensual, adding layers of heart to Sally Jupiter, but Akerman's sexiness is her only plus point as her portrayal of the second Silk Spectre comes across as a moronic spoilt brat, rather than the book's pained grown woman searching for her life's missing ingredient. Not all of the Doctor Manhattan CGI is a success either - namely his lips - but Crudup conveys the character's serenity and overpowering intelligence; Goode, however, is overly slight and undone by his fey, non-regional accent as Ozymandias.
In adapting such a dense and profound work for the screen, plot devices are inevitably going to be lost and it's here that aficionados of the novel will notice that much of the success of Watchmen in print comes from the dazzling storytelling style rather than the fairly straightforward story itself. On film, it falls prey to genre conventions during its climactic action sequence but this at least helps the film resonate with audience members who've never read the book.
It's for those viewers that Watchmen will be most divisive. Not only is it intensely violent and deserving of its 18 certificate, it ignores many of the 'rules' of comic book movies, steering clear of an origin story and plunging the audience into the black, icy waters of Moore's thought-provoking plots, littered with not entirely likeable characters.
And while fans will nod approvingly at the seamless flashes between past and present and steadfast desire to show fidelity to the source, those who've never turned a page of Moore in their life will be frequently confused and dislocated from the plot.
But for the faithful, this is a violent, bleak and morally ambiguous adaptation that retains the majesty of the tale, but loses some of the might of the telling.
8/10
Lewis Bazley