In September 1986 the first issue of a series of twelve comics first hit the market and allowed anyone to swathe themselves in a different superhero story. In October 1987 the series ends, capturing the North American market by storm. Ar thar time, talks of a movie adaptation began to float around. With multiple companies trying to take the raines it looked like one of the greatest stories ever written by Alan Moore would never get made.
Fast forward to the date March 6th 2009. An end to a curse and the beginning of one of the closest adaptations from comic to screen.
If you haven’t read or seen the movie the story goes like this: the story takes place during the mid 80’s, while the world feared that the tension between the U.S. and Russia were going to escalate into a World War; one of nuclear proportions. Super Heroes were outlawed in 1977, and soon start to become a dying breed. One night a man known as “The Comedian” is found to have taken a swan dive out of his apartment window. The last remaining active member of the group “The Crime Busters”, Rorschach, investigates and finds out that someone seems to be knocking off old heroes.
This isn’t Jack Snyder’s first kick at the cat. You may remember him from his work on the comic to film adaptation 300. Unlike 300, Zack Snyder decided to stay as close as he could to the story and characters of the graphic novel, The Watchmen. He has shown the world that sticking to the source material can result in some phenomenal results.
I would like to say that I was blown away by how much detail they paid attention to to get the right feeling of the world which these people inhabit. Even the colors used in the film were the same colors used throughout the comic. They even had the detail of the newsstand owner and the comic-reading kid spot on.
The characters… I don’t think there could have been anyone else would could play them as well as they did. Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre II) and Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl II) have got to be the best choice for their roles; there’s not much that I could say except WOW. Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach) played him to a T. His movements, his voice , his ‘kick-ass, trust-no-one’ additude was exactly as I would imagine Rorschach in real life. Matthew Goode (Ozymandias) was not my first choice when I saw the promotional pictures of the cast. In the promos, he seemed to young. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Matthew Goode played a perfect Ozymandias. I don’t think there’s anyone out there that could pull off the “I’m better then anyone” line and actually make you believe his claim. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian), is so much more then a bad-ass; he’ll shoot you just because he doesn’t like you. Sadly, he could have sounded a bit more detached, like his counterpart from the comic. Still, he looked the part and sometimes that’s better then getting the sound of the character dead on. On that note, I will go over the next actor Billy Crudup, who played our beloved big blue “Superman”, Dr. Manhattan. Out of all the characters, he went through the least change. There was one thing… Unlike the comic, they really decided to increase the size of his “wang”. But again, like The Comedian, this character needed a different voice, something deeper, something a bit more monotone. He has to be an entity that no longer has any care for the rest of the human race, and it really didn’t seem that way.
At this point in time, I would like to draw atention to the people who haven’t read OR seen the movie to be cautious. This part will contain spoilers.
The story will make or break the movie. No matter how much CG you have, or how the heroes or villains act, it’s all about the story. Heck, if this movie was filmed with a bunch of monkeys as the cast I would still watch it, if the story was good enough. This is what gave me the most issue while watching the film. It does not EXACTLY follow the graphic novel. There are some things that are touched on much later on in the issues, but it doesn’t degrade the story at all. Other side stories with some of the characters are completely left out. I can understand why this was done; and yes, it’s due to running time. I actually wasn’t that disappointed with the theatrical version because this film will include scenes edited for time when they release the director’s cut in June. The real change from the original story was the absence of the island full of artists, doctors, scientists, chemists, writers, etc. And because of this, the next thing gets affected. which is the all important ending. The theatrical version makes more sense, but I still would have preferred the original.
All things considered I rate this version
