Watchmen is a flawed movie, but still a good one. For an adaptation of a comic-book, it was very faithful to the original. There are, of course, a few discrepancies (especially the end!), but the overall mood and feel of the original novel is preserved. To keep so much of the original material, however, means that it's going to be a long movie. (2:45 for the theater, at least 3:10 for the director's cut, not including the Black Freighter sub-comic) Since I am a fan of the comic, I'm glad that Zack Snyder (the director) decided to keep so much, but other people, especially those who haven't read the comic, may not like the decision.
I thought that the special effects in the movie were very good. Perhaps too good. The flashy fight scenes and striking visuals are well-done, but they can sometimes distract the viewer away from the central focus of the film, rather than enhance it. And I was surprised that the movie was so explicitly graphic. It is not in-of-itself a bad thing, but much of the violence in comic form happens "outside of the panels." It's one thing to see comic-Rorschach kill a guy, it's another to watch movie-Rorschach kill that very same guy in the very same way. I'm not trying say that it was bad, or even that I disliked it, but just that it's a lot more striking to see it in live action on a 50-foot screen than it is to read it in animated form on a 5-inch panel.
My next issue is also related to the fight scenes. None of the characters have super-powers, (except Manhattan of course) but the movie version of the characters did make them seem more "super-human." The characters seem much more vulnerable and, well, human, in the comic. Whereas in the movie, the fighting has been glitzed up so much that the heroes seem to have super-strength/super-speed, and never seem to be in any real danger. The fight scenes look cool, don't get me wrong, but I think that they set a different tone than in the comic. Again, this may be because of the "outside the panels" effect. What might be only 2 or 3 panels in the comic becomes a 5-minute fight scene in the movie. (For example, the opening scene with the Comedian. We didn't see any fighting in the comic, only the detectives talking about the crime scene.)
Lastly, I did not like the music selections in the film. The songs didn't seem to fit the mood of the film. For example, Simon & Garfunkel's Sound of Silence. It's a great song, but it seemed out of place and intrusive, and I think it set the wrong tone for the scene. Obviously it's subjective, there was of course no music in the comic version. I guess what I mean is that the movie soundtrack didn't match the soundtrack in my head.
Overall though, I think Snyder deserves a lot of credit for making this type of movie. Most people thought that the comic simply could not translate to the big screen. And I suppose some people still feel that way. (Including Alan Moore, co-creator of the original comic...) But for an impossible task, I think Watchmen is an excellent attempt, even if it falls short of the ideal. 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.
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7 comments:
1 out of 5.
I agree with most of what you said about the movie, but in the end I was just not a fan of the story. I thought it took too long to develop and was kind of transparent. I felt as I was sitting there that I was just waiting for stuff to happen that I knew was going to happen...and if I had read the book that'd be okay, but I hadn't.
All that aside, the special effects were pretty good. It's hard for me to notice special effects anymore in movies because they are all pretty well done in these types of movies now. I do wish we could have seen some more fight scenes here and there. We really only had one, with a sprinkle of some small meaningless ones on the side. Perhaps that's keeping with comic book, or as close to it, as you mentioned.
And seriously, put some pants on Manhattan!!! =)
Maybe you should read the graphic novel. You might like it more.
...but I kinda doubt it....
Why do you say that?
But if you do read the novel, I guarantee that you will not be able to guess the way NYC is originally destroyed.
I am surprised that you thought the plot was transparent. I would have thought that the story would be difficult to follow, let alone predict, for anyone who doesn't know the story beforehand.
I'm only guessing, but I bet the novel does a better job of disguising the plot than the movie.
For a superhero, Adrian was very dark...like he was up to something. And when he was attacked in his office, it was nothing like the attack on the Comedian. It was short...whereas the attack on the Comedian was relentless- and the Comedian didn't stand a chance. I just found it odd how easily he won that fight.
I mean, I didn't know what Adrian was going to do (nuke the world), but I knew he was up to something. When Rorschach was trying to figure out the Transnational thing, I knew Adrian was involved then. I was still surprised he nuked the world though.
If you don't like the story and want a lot of fighting, then Watchmen probably isn't your thing. But who knows? The pacing and style of a comic is different than a movie, maybe the story would be more appealing to you from a different perspective? But it's still a lot of backstory and little actual fighting.
Veidt's character is a little more transparent in the movie than in the comic. In the comic, there is more of a relationship between Veidt and the rest of the characters, and that makes him harder to identify. Although I think the director already assumes you know Veidt is bad, so that may color the way he is portrayed as well.
I kind-of want you to read the comic now, just so you can see what I'm talking about.
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