Ok, so this past weekend was huge for you if you are
a) A comic book nerd
b) A movie nerd or
c) A Literary nerd
Why is this you might ask? Because the greatest graphic novel of all time, winner of the Hugo Award, one of Time Magazines 100 Best Novels of the 21st Century, the 'un-filmable Graphic Novel' was in fact, filmed. It's called Watchmen and it came out in theaters this weekend. And for the most part, it was great.
For those of you that don't know what Watchmen is about, here's the short version: Its a series of 12 comic books written by Alan Moore (who also wrote such famous titles as V for Vendetta and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, and YES both of those were movies and are also graphic novels, betcha didn't know that one). Anyways, here's the whole wikipedia link, but to quickly sum it all up, here's the plot:
The year is 1985, an alternative reality. Nixon is president still (for his...5th term?). The Americans won the Vietnam War. Masked vigilantes (aka superheroes) were around since the 30's and on, but a law called The Keane Act has outlawed them. The Death Clock is set at 5 minutes to midnight, and the Russians and the Americans are close to nuclear war. Interested? I know I was.
The graphic novel really is astounding, showing that comic books aren't just for kids. Alan Moore did for graphic novels what Ralph Bakshi did for animation in the 70's: he took a medium that was under rated and thought by all to be 'for kids' and made it a real art form that could be intelligent, thought provoking, mature, etc. In other words, Watchmen changed the industry, and the way that everything was made from that point on.
So of course Hollywood wanted it. And bad. The rights to make Watchmen had been tossed around for years, with different studios and directors clawing each other for the opportunity to make it, but nothing came of this, especially when Terry Gilliam himself (famous director and former Monty Python member) deemed it 'un-filmable'.
The person that DID end up directing it was Zack Snyder, who has also done the comic book adaptation 300 (wow, ANOTHER comic book movie? Who knew?!) and the recent remake of Dawn of the Dead. Many were critical of Snyder, due to his slow mo, over saturated way of filming things, and while that did come out in Watchmen it did little to tarnish the film. But ANYWAYS on with the actual review!!
With a running time of an astounding 2 hours and 45 minutes (with more bonus material and deleted scenes to be included in the directors cut edition of the DVD!!) it was obvious that A LOT of time went in to filming this sucker, and it really does show: if you've read the graphic novel, the film looks like Watchmen should. Though its apparent to veteran movie goers that most of it was filmed on a sound stage, they did a gorgeous job of using the right architecture, colors, etc to make it a visually appealing and comfortable film to look at. As for casting, it was pretty good (especially Jackie Earl Harvey as Rorschach), but my only problem is Matthew Goode as Adrien Veidt. For a guy who
a) rules the world (practically)
b) owns the world (again, practically) and can
c) throw 240 lbs guys all the way across the room...
he looked scrawny, and much too young. Seriously, he was frat boy material.
Also, they changed the ending. What. The. Hell. I knew this was coming, and I won't spoil either ending for those of you who haven't seen the movie OR read the novel, but I can tell you this: the graphic novels' ending is so much better. It makes more sense, it has more emotional impact, and its just plain BETTER. Trust me on this. Another thing that agitated me to no end was the fact that Snyder was bashing the audience over the head with the message of 'COMIC BOOK MOVIES AREN'T JUST FOR KIDS!! GET IT YET? NO?! MAYBE I SHOULD THROW IN MORE BLOOD AND MORE SEX SCENES!! THAT WILL SHOW YOU!!'
Really, Zack. It's okay. You can put down the fake blood and sit down now. We all understand, now please go off and just sit for a minute.
Other than those major complaints (which I could rant about for days) I didn't have any more issues with the movies. Sure, Dr.Manhattan is naked most of the time, sure the sex scene in the Owl Ship is the cheesiest thing to ever hit the big screen ( I laughed out loud, especially due to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah playing in the background), and yes, some of the music as stated before was way, way WAY out of place. But I can forgive most of that.
Why? Mainly because of the fact that I liked it. I was never bored, I was entertained, the movie looked gorgeous, it was a great film, and an above average adaptation. But more over, this movie has shed so much light on the original graphic novel that millions of copies were being sold every day. This means that more people are going to take comic books seriously, and that this could be a big jump forward for the entire industry.
To sum up, a 4.5/5 stars. I'll defiantly be buying the DVD (directors cut, extended version, etc). But please, if you want to see the movie, read the graphic novel too (ideally, read it first). This movie and the graphic novel deal with politics, morals, and complex ideas of society, human nature, and morality. Who watches the Watchmen? I do, and I'll continue to.
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