There have been few movies in recent memory that I have been more excited for than the Watchmen. My good friend from college told me about the book my Freshman year and he raved about Alan Moore as a writer. I recently finished the book and it was one of the better books I have finished in a long time. However I was unsure how it would translate to film, because the book has so many layers of story, and the character development really takes a long time. The story is about a group of masked super heroes who have lived through the 60's and 70's. However a new law has been passed to outlaw any masked super heroes so they are basically retired. That is until one of them is murdered. That is where the movie starts off, and it follows Rosharch one of the Watchmen in his attempt to figure out who is killing his colleagues. The story is a wonderful look at the US during the late 70's and early 80s right in the midst of the cold war. Which is one of the major conflicts in the story.
The movie really does not stray that far from the book. I really loved this about the movie, however I can tell you that if you have not read the book, the movie may move slow. One of the best parts of the book the in depth character development really is hard to show on film. They did a pretty good job, but like I said this had to be difficult to do, and makes this for a very long film. I believe 2 hours and 50 minutes. The director chose to use relatively unknown actors for this film and I think that was a good idea. As the people themselves are not who the focus should be on more the masks that they represent. However because of this, you do not find any great performances. I enjoyed Jeffrey Morgan in his role as The Comedian, one of the most controversial Watchmen and the man slain to start the story. He really portrays the character in a dark way that is true to the book. Another reason I think it is important that they got relatively unknown actors is the villain is not revealed until nearly the end of the story so it impossible to cast a star in that role.
I thought this picture had an amazing look to it. A lot of the graphics from the novel seemed to be the exact same on film. I was impressed. I would compare it to 300 or Sin City in that aspect. There are too things I am not liking about this new genre of film. A lot of comic books or graphic novels are told through narratives, and sometimes listening to a long narrative gets confusing. When you read them, they tend to mean much more. Often that narrative can be telling us something about the character and not really moving the story forward, so at times I don't feel the scenes really mesh together. This is a minor problem. The other problem I am having is they used the same slow motion/speed up action sequences that were made so famous in 300. I think they were no and innovative then, but the more i see movies copy this style, the more I feel like every action sequence feels similar. I am a much bigger fan of Michael Mann type action sequences, where it feels much more real. Watchmen has some great action sequences and fight scenes but the ones towards the end feel exactly like the ones in the beginning. To go along with the incredible visuals was a great sound track. This obviously is one place where the movie can stand apart. The opening title and credit sequence plays to Bob Dylan's "The Times are A A-Changin" and it is a montage of the events in history that have passed under the Watchmens eye. It is one of the best opening sequences I have seen in a while and really sets the mood and time frame for the film. There are some wonderful other songs and scores throughout this film.
The ending to the film was different than the book and I actually enjoyed the movie ending more. I think people will still be a bit disappointed by the ending but I enjoyed it and people that have read the book will probably agree, that this is a much more believable ending. The book ending is quite over the top, and takes away a bit from the wonderful story up until that point.
If you are a fan of the Watchmen I think you will really like the movie. If you are not a fan of the book I still think you will enjoy the movie, but it may have some pacing issues. It is a long film and that can be hard for some. The story really isn't that deep or hard to follow, but the character development is crucial to maintain any resemblance of the novel. Check it out and let me know what you think.
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