Watchmen is one of those dangerous works in contemporary culture for anybody to touch. It’s a seminal work in the superhero comic genre, which comes with all kinds of nasty fanboy baggage, as well as being highly political. It also presents many challenges for a film maker, even given today’s amazing technology and recent successes with comic book adaptations.
And so it was with a little trepidation (mitigated somewhat by FSR‘s coverage of the whole thing) that I went to see it. I’ve only recently read the original graphic novel myself, but I could already see that the plot was compex and the visuals and narrative subtly nuanced such that there was plenty of room for error.
Overall, I was happy with Zack Snyder’s work. Obviously his previous successes with adapting comics to the big screen have not been flukes. The script kept the essentials of the long and detailed plot together coherently, and captured the essence of the story, and the dialogue was engaging enough (in that stilted comic book way) that I kept my disbelief suspended for the whole movie.Visually, the movie is stunning. In true Snyder style, much of the film uses the graphic novel as a storyboard. The fight scenes were well-choregraphed. And I’ve had my annual quota for glowing blue phalluses completely used up. The violence was very graphic, and the constant reminders that this was set in the eighties did not intrude on me.
I have to admit that I was captivated by the opening credits. Watching the twentieth century America summarised to Bob Dylan’s “The times, they are a-changin'” was a real treat, and really helped to position the movie. Because of the limited timeframe enforced by the movie format, much more was explained to the audience than in the book, but I feel that it was mostly necessary. It glosses over what you don’t need further detail on (eg, what happened to most of the other Minute Men), but is very up front about the political climate engendered by the existence of Doctor Manhattan.
The ending is changed slightly (the world is still unified against a perceived external threat), but it’s a good modification that helps tie up many loose ends.
Watchmen may be a seminal work in comic book literature, but it’s far more important as an examination of the Cold War. The super heroes depicted are called “vigilantes”, and are a metaphor for the “above-the-law” behaviour of the superpowers of the 1980s. Even a peace forced on the world by these heroes is hollow because of the cost involved and the lack of consultation regarding it.
All in all, I was happy with Watchmen, but feel that perhaps we could have got away without having had it made. It certainly hasn’t added to the world any more than the original book had. Imagine the amount of advertising that they could have given the book with the money that they spent on making the movie!