Watching the Watchmen

Alicia and I saw the much hyped and much maligned 3 hour Watchmen movie yesterday, based, of course, on the genius work of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I am not a lifelong fanboy, having only read the graphic novel this past summer. Although late to the party, I loved the graphic novel for all the reasons everyone told me I would... a fantastically complex and morally ambiguous set of characters, worderfully fun ways to develop the story besides just cartoon panels... Intellegent winks to the format itself with a concurrent Pirate story running throughout... preposterous ending, etc etc etc. I was really interested to see the film even TRY to tell this story, which everyone claimed was "unfilmable" for the past 20 years. And perhaps it still is.

And let's be clear: every critical review you read about it is very very true. It is loooong. It is painfully faithful to the source material, at the expense of creating any new feelings of wonder that a movie might have the power to do. It is icy cold and completely unfeeling, unflinching, and does not engage the audience in any way emotionally. Anyone not extremely familiar with the book will just not follow it, and will most likely leave thinking what's all the fuss?

But if you DO savour the book, and it's characters and art style, and chaotic, dark, antisocial, nihilistic, anarchistic and critical themes, then there is absolutely, positively no excuse you could give me that you should not see it. It is NOT perfect. It is NOT for everyone. BUt is IS still very very good. And very interesting. And hard as hell to have come so far. It really brings the comic world to life in a fantastic way, that taken with the right grain of salt, can be a true joy from start to finish. Alicia and I saw it at the Imax, and I highly reccomend this. Performances have been criticized as being cold, distant, amatuerish... I disagree. I thought it was finely and interestingly cast, and some nice surprises (Carla Gugino Jeffrey Dean Morgan, etc) came through in that respect. (although Ozymandias/Veit was possibly the weakest link in the chain...)

The opening title sequence alone (a 6 minute sequence set to Bob Dylan's "The Times, They Are A-Changin") was unbelievably creative and effective, and for the right audience member, probably worth the entire price of admission right there. Speaking of Dylan, the rest of the unbelievably good soundtrack was used in extremely prominent (arguably overblown) manner, and I loved it. Most of the times, I hate songs coming so far to the front that it's just a musical interlude sequence... but this film was so big, and colorful, and cold as ice that it really seemed appropriate not only content-wise, but stylistically as well.

Zach Snyder is certainly not a "visionary" (A remake of Dawn of the Dead and another comic adaptation does NOT a visionary make) but he is to be commended for making a 3 hour superhero movie that held true to the source material, and created such a stylistic and clinical mood and feel that I was hypnotized.

The cold, calculating clinical view of Dr. Manhattan dominates the feeling of this movie in every frame. I think that's what the critics thought was wrong with it. I think that's what I thought was RIGHT with it. Eh, to each his own. But I strongly suggest YOU not believe everything that you read, and see it, and judge for yourself.

Who Watches the Watchmen? I sure did. You might want to as well.

P.S... the new ending? WAAAAAAAY better that the comic. No Joke. Seriously. If anyone wants to argue this point, I am open to hearing why you disagree... But I cannot imagine a reason why. A giant Squid? Really? The movie's tweak makes a MUCH smarter connection to the characters and their behaviours. It left me about a million times more content than the end of the comic did. So there. That's another good reason to give the movie a shot, and judge it solely on it's OWN merits, not the hype machine NOR the critical backlash.