David R Storms.com

Note: “Watchmen” is a graphic novel that appeared in the mid 1980’s from Alan Moore and David Gibbons. This post is my review of the film adaptation. If you have not read the book be aware spoilers abound!

A friend of mine had told me of the book at tone point and I tucked it away as something I think I would want to read some day. Well, with all the buzz of the movie serveral starting 5 or 6 months ago, I knew that I would want to see it right away, and as a general rule I try to read the source material first. So at Christmas time I received a copy as a gift and quickly sunk into it. I had it completed very quickly, finding it hard to put down.

Opening night (March 6th) I went with that same friend to watch the Watchmen, here is what I found.

Story

The book. The story is the book. Zak Snyder (the director) kept very true to the book. And for me that is what I like about adaptations. He did leave some small bits out, and tweaked here and there but I would say over 90% is right from the pages of the graphic novel.

I loved the opening. It was a montage of photographs being taken of the various Minutemen of the 1940’s, such as the famours group shot, and others of them aprehending criminals. All to the music of Bob Dylan’s “The Times Are A Changing”. The entire opening credits were this way and almost gave the back story that was otherwise sprinkled throughout the book. It even introduced a bit of the back stories of the modern Watchmen. Very well done.

Probably two of the biggest changes with the missing parts of the story that was removed, and the changed ending. The missing parts of the story really could be there, but were simply edited out for time. I suspect that we will see an extended cut on DVD with these added in, much the same way “Lord of the Rings” did.

The change of the ending made sense, Veidt causing a Dr. Manhattan like bomb to go off in several cities thus uniting the world against Manhattan. In the movie and book Manhattan leaves Earth to go to distant worlds so it tied in nicely. It seemed more plausible then the squid alien creature that united the world under threat of invasion. Other than that I think the movie did the book justice.

There was some more graphic content than I expected. Fight scenes were gory in parts which I can only suspect is the directors touch. They were shocking but also flowed a bit with the film, however at the same time some of the right scenes where arms were broken in front of the camera or chopped off with a saw may seem a bit much.

There was nudity in this movie too, probably more than needed to be. I understand Dr. Manhattan didn’t really were clothes, but they didn’t have to “wave” it in our face all the time.

Characters

We start with Rorschach. I think Jackie Earle Haley did a very convincing and impressive job as the demented detective. I really enjoyed this character and when I heard his voice, it sounded like what I heard in my own head reading the book. The effects of his mask were well done and not over used, it just seemed to be there and part of the character. They show case it once when he first appears and then just let it be for the rest.

The Comedian was well played too. In the beginning was an expanded fight sequence in which he gets severely beaten (and rather harshly) by Veidt before being thrown out the window. The rest of the film you only see him in the other characters flash backs and each time you see him he seems to steal the screen time as the focal point of the scene.

I thought Nite Owl was well done too. The more modern costume definitely fit him in league with the more modern Batman look on which he was based. I thought the character being very meek when not in costume came over quite well and you could see the transformation when Nite Owl went to work. I enjoyed all of the scenes with Nite Owl, especially when he teamed up with Rorschach.

Silk Spectre was OK. This character had an important role in the book, but found her somewhat secondary to the film. The performance didn’t really blow me away and the costume, which appealing, seemed to be trying to grab speciific attention from a specific demographic.

Ozymandias was only OK too. I think I had a different picture in my head of the actor. It could be that I had the wrong thing in my head but Adrian Veidt just didn’t seem so “blah” in the book. He was supposed to come across as the major villian but he just seemed to emotionless for me. Now his fight sequences at the end with Nite Owl and Rorschach were impressive and very enjoyable.

Dr. Manhattan came across exactly as I thought he would. A very powerful and detached entity. I think the back story on him while he was lamenting on Mars was great. I loved how he looked when he was basically broken apart molecule by molecule. Him appearing as a floating set or nerves and then later as a skeleton brought me back to the scenes in the book and looked very cool. The CG they did for this character was very impressive. It was of course based on a solid performance, but I am very interested in the DVD extra features to learn more about how they did this.

Look and Feel

The movie was dark, as one would expect.  Everything made sense, most importantly for me, the music was excellent. It was both out of place and very fitting at the same time.

The CG was very well done. Dr. Manhattan for sure. His cog like castle on Mars was very impressive, but for me it didn’t look real, maybe it was the lighting.

The sets were very well done and again very faithful to the book. There was little pieces everywhere that appeared as cameos, such as the newstand that is a constant throughout the book, and walls of peoples apartments adorned with newspaper clippings and photographs that complimented the story line of the book rather than explaining in the movie.

Before I leave this, I have to warn you: Ozymandias’ suit has man nipples, yes just like in the Batman films we dare not mention. No explanation was given for this. Don’t let it sour the movie for you though!

Conclusion

Overall this was an excellent film. Very long but that doesn’t bother me too much. I imagine the directors or extended cut will be coming later this year that will add a whole hour or more to the film. That is the very to get people, wait for it on Blu-ray if you can.

Also later this month is the “Tales From the Black Freighter” animated DVD that also has excerpts from “Under the Hood”, which is a book written by one of the characters.

See this movie. Keep in mind it may not be exactly what you expect. It isn’t “Batman” or “Superman” or even “Spider-Man”. This may put some people off but I can’t really explain what it is and due it justice. Spend the 10 bucks and find out for yourself. I’ve heard that people said it was boring, but I suspect they went into the movie with the wrong idea about it.

I’m positive people that liked the book will also love this movie.

Disagree? Agree? Post a comment.

Also note, this link was discovered and is posted on this forum, funny if you are a Watchmen fan:

http://forum.uselessbabble.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=55&sid=1f1d7ec4ebdfcc7f4ce5e1294a561863

This was the 81 Academy Awards with a new host, Hugh Jackman. I think the format of this years show was excellent. I like the idea of handing out the awards (of which there seemed to be less wasn’t there?) based on the stages a film is made.

They would start with writing, then art direction, wardrobe, technical stuff like special effects, editing, music, etc. It seemed like such a natural progression. Then it went into the actors, directors and finally the best picture. I like this way of doing it over previous years not because it taught you the steps of making a film, but it was very natural and flowed.

Having previous winners present to the nominees was a brilliant and well done idea and worked very well. It didn’t seem like any of them were reading what to say at all. And the fact that the stage was so close to the audience (since the musicians were off away from the stage) it seemed much more personal and intimate.

Jackman made use of the cozy set often getting very close up with some of the actors. Standalone I enjoyed his performance, it was a great host and a pretty good song and dance man. He also had a funny charm about him. However, I was waiting the whole night for him to run out with claws and stab someone, I just can’t help but think Wolverine went sissy! All jokes aside I see him returning soon to host the night.

Other than that it was like any other award show, the rest of the presenters (except maybe Will Smith and Ben Stiller) seemed to just woodenly read their lines of what to say and I have never liked the writing for these. It seems so robotic and planned. I think the presenters really need to come up with something on their own and not have a telepromter at all.

Just like any other award show I haven’t seen the movie that won best picture. I’m a fan of action films and big budget movies. I was hoping The Dark Knight (which has made over a billion dollars) would have been nominated for best picture. I also noted Heath Ledger one (and not by any surprise) the best supporting actor award (very deservingly). I did find it odd in the montage of actors that have passed on he wasn’t in it, did they honor him last year?

Good award show, stage was excellent, there wasn’t a lot of music (except that hard to listen to theme from the Slumbog movie).

This just in (well not if you are paying attention to the movie circles!), the latest in the “good” line of Batman films is coming back to a movie screen near you. Have not found out yet if it is releasing again in Canada but I’m sure it would. This movie absolutely blew me away and the only way to see it is on the big screen.

Having an awesome home theatre system and buying the Blu-ray would be the second best. I only saw it once and that was on opening knight ( oops I mean night ) and I would love to see it again. Chances are this is in anticipation for the Academy Awards. Which of course you know who is going to win best supporting actor!

What do you think? Going to see it again one more time? Or just going to pick it up on Blu-ray? The film is coming out again in IMAX too so if you didn’t get a chance to see it that (like me) maybe now is the time…well January 23rd is the time!

Source: http://www.superherohype.com/news/batmannews.php?id=7874