Watchmen

Yesterday, I finally got the chance to see Zack Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's classic graphic novel, Watchmen. I can't say I'm overly impressed, but I will say I'm reasonably impressed. The movie centers on five aging "super"-heroes that are long past their prime. Set in an alternate 1985, where Richard Nixon is in his third term of office and our heroes have helped to win the Vietnam War. An excellent opening credits montage shows the heroes in their prime as they fight crime, winning the adoration of the public, and it shows them as they begin to age and some die and slowly lose the nation's praise. Heroes are outlawed, the only one left still working is a mysterious masked man calling himself Rorschach. The visuals of the movie are beautiful, I wish I could have seen it while it was still in the theater. Zack Snyder captured the look and fell of the source material almost perfectly. It's been some years since I've read the book, but certain images still stood out in my mind and I was instantly reminded of them when I saw them in the film. The plotting was the movie's weak point. It remained mostly very true the the original, but it didn't work nearly as well in visual form as literary. Watching the movie, I was several times confused as to who certain characters were, especially in the beginning. That worked in the novel, but in a movie, it worked less well. I was able to follow the plot almost completely, but I think that anyone who has never read, or even heard of it, as is normally the case, will have great difficulty following along. The dialogue was excellent, especially what was taken from the book. Alan Moore is an excellent writer and watching this movie I was reminded often of his other work, V for Vendetta, on of my favorite movies. Like V for Vendetta, Watchmen is mostly dialogue and a little action, but for this movie, it works. V for Vendetta however, is only a bit over two hours long, while Watchmen is quite a bit longer. I watched the director's cut, which was over three hours long. That's Watchmen's other major shortcoming, it just feels too long. Toward the end I just wanted it to get on with things and get to the climax, which was slightly anti-climactic, but makes sense, given the rest of the movie. Overall, I would recommend this movie for fans of the graphic novel, or of comics in general. It looks great and sounds great, but is not for the casual viewer. This is a movie for serious viewers.
-J