| Overall Grade: |
B |
|
| Story: |
A- |
|
|
| Acting: |
B+ |
|
|
| Direction: |
A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A+ |
|
|
Amazing yet unfulfilling watch...
by bck (movies profile)
Mar 5, 2009
50
of
74 people found this review helpful
Director Zack Snyder pulled off quite a trick when he adapted the acclaimed graphic novel, 300. The movie was a resounding success in terms of taking a comic book and turning it into a movie that is almost slavishly faithful to its source material. Sure there were some changes to the original source, but it worked where the movie was concerned. If there was anyone who could possibly tackle the mammoth treasure of the comic world that is Watchmen, it seemed like he was up to the challenge.
Unlike the simplicity of 300, Watchmen is a massive tome that has characters that have layers, multi narrative threads and plots, and subplots, and side plots. Over the many years since its publication, it has been regarded as the unfilmable graphic novel, not for the lack of trying by several renowned and respected film makers such as Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys) to Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93). Taking Watchmen to the big screen was going to mean some condensation of the story as well as inevitably making changes. Early teasers and trailers for the movie under Snyder's direction showed that he was being faithful to the graphic novel. But could he truly wrangle the Watchmen?
Taking the movie as a whole, avoiding any comparisons to the graphic novel itself but acknowledging it, Snyder succeeds in presenting an epic tale on screen. There are layers to the characters and to the plot itself. It does come across as slavishly faithful again, particularly from a visual standpoint, and a majority of the dialogue is lifted from the graphic novel itself. What we have is the cast of two-dimensional characters given full life on the big screen. With maybe the exception of Matthew Goode as Adrian Viedt, the rest of the main stars inhabiting their characters look as if they leapt forth from the very pages of the graphic novel.
The six main stars do justice to their characters, imbuing them with a life that does reflect their print counterparts, and yet making them living breathing on screen characters. There is an emotional resonance in the portrayals, and it does reach beyond the six leads, none of them truly outshining the other, but fully sharing and supporting an overall performance. That said, Jackie Earle Haley's portrayal of Rorschach is quite chilling, both as a disembodied voiceover as well as the character in and out of the constantly pattern-changing mask.
While the movie does kick off with a murder, there some devices employed to fill in the world of Watchmen, particularly this alternate 1985 in which the story is set. The opening credits itself traces approximately thirty years of its history. It's a bravura piece of work and editing that we do get to revisit in pieces throughout the film in the form of flashbacks and back-story. The inclusion of real-life celebrity figures also add to the sense of reality, albeit a vaguely familiar one not too far detached from our own. The use of music as well is sometimes appropriate (Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changing for the opening credits) to jarring at times (Nena's 99 Red Balloons and Tears for Fears' Everybody Wants To Rule The World in the most unusual places) while some song suggestions are right out of the book itself.
Despite a ton of good points and a satisfactory adaptation, I found myself oddly unexcited but the whole endeavour. I use "satisfactory adaptation" because there were obvious changes made and I suppose it is understandable why some of these changes were made. They don't entirely diminish the story, but it does give the feeling that something is missing, even without running back to the graphic novel. You can't help but feel that there is a longer version out there.
Still, as a movie, it is quite an achievement. The lengthy movie (15 minutes shy of three hours) manages to give time to each of the characters and allows the main plot to simmer and grow, keeping you guessing (if you've never read the graphic novel) to the end. The use of iconography though... in two particular scenes, is a bit of a distraction. Cute, but distracting.
If I could just shake the feeling of being oddly unexcited, or is it a touch of disappointment. |
My Public Profile 
