The Watchmen falls just short of great

Rating: 7/10 (7 March 2009)

Lots of spoilers for the film and comic book.
This movie works like a thank you gift from Hollywood to comic book geeks, and it is much appreciated. Director Zack Synder almost makes a true adaptation of the famed comic book series, The "Watchmen" (1986-87) created by Alan Moore, writer, and Dave Gibbons, visual artist. The biggest change is that Snyder drops the giant "alien" squid. Taking its place are a number of powerful bombs that Adrian Veidt develops by stealing the scientific secrets of Dr. Manhattan. The giant squid is the great surprise of Moore and Gibbons's "Watchmen." It shocks the reader both in its bizarre nature and in its consequences. The "Manhattan bombs," if you will, are mainly depressing, not shocking. The film closes on the depressing note of millions of people dying in a mostly conventional manner. The lighthearted happiness at the end of the graphical book series--juxtaposing pleasantly to the shocking climax--is retained in the movie, but the happy closing scenes now stand out jarringly following the movie's depressing climax.
Moore and Gibbons force their readers to question not only utilitarianism (as in "Do the ends justify the means?"), they also bathe their readers in a deep sense of wonder. Many strange things happen in their world, horrible, incredible, beautiful, and shocking. The shock of their "Watchmen" provokes thought. Moore and Gibbons commented intelligently on the comic book genre and society. What Synder had to do, inescapably, was adapt the words and pictures to the screen. Yet, it was simply impossible for Synder to do that in 2009 and simultaneously bring the feeling of the "Watchmen" to the screen.
There is an old Roman saying, to the effect that one cannot step into the same river twice. Moore and Gibbons confronted a different world with their comic book series in 1987 than Synder does with his movie in 2009. Synder's smart decision to keep the film set in 1985, like in the comic book series, made unavoidable the sense of anachronism.
Since DC Comics asked "Who watches the Watchmen?" in 1987, the Berlin Wall fell, the USSR imploded, communist China converted to capitalism, Al Qaida terrorists murdered 2,974 people on 9/11/2001, the Internet has connected billions around the world, left-wing criticisms of society have become a daily staple on television and in the newspapers, and the comic book industry transformed itself from a punchline to a trial laboratory for multimillion dollar movies that will seriously contend at the Academy Awards. The near-underground nature of Moore and Gibbons' 1987 "Watchmen" became a subcultural icon with countless devotees and fanatics. Synder cannot step into the same river that Moore and Gibbons did. Today's river barely resembles the old.
Zack Synder has carried the "Watchmen" flag up a hill in the face of the debilitating machine gun fire of film executives, conventional film adaptation traditions, profiteers, and the jaded Hollywood kitsch factories. Synder went to battle and he came up 99% successful. He deserves credit and gratitude for the beautiful, brilliant odyssey that is this terrific film.
Synder could have done only slightly better. The giant squid scene should have been kept. Its key function is to shock the audience. Simply killing millions of fictional people with bombs is not shocking, it's just kind of sad. The presence of the giant squid would not have made a significantly better film, though. The film's other problems could not have been fixed at all. The film runs 2:45, a little too long for contemporary action/adventure audiences. Cutting scenes to make the film shorter would have cut the heart out of the story, however. Moving the setting forward to 2009 to a "post-Nixonian American dictatorship" would also have destroyed the film, even though it would have allowed the social commentary to not seem stale. Synder played a nearly perfect hand out of the one he was dealt. Nobody can go back in time with today's special effects, and film "Watchmen" in 1988. Yet only that impossibility would have made this movie perfect.
The music challenged the viewers' sense of schlock. The classic rock choices fit, maybe too well. "All Along the Watchtower" by Hendrix was the popular choice as opposed to the Dylan version. "The Sounds of Silence" during a funeral and "Hallelujah" during a sex scene were perhaps too obvious. Snyder didn't get Elvis Costello's original music into the film. The music chose classic rock instead of the indie rock of the comic book series. With the broadest possible musical brush, Snyder completes his portrait of late 20th Century American life, by simultaneously memorializing its most loved music, and opening the door to semi-sacrilegious questions about the value of our modern music.
I love Synder's film. In many ways it is an improvement on the book. The characters come alive and almost become real. I like how Synder kept nearly all the elements of the book that he could. Silk Spectre putting away the disposable coffee cups was 2 seconds of film that put a big smile on my face. I don't know why Moore thought that people would want to drink coffee after escaping a fire, but then, that's the "Watchmen." A number of the film's touches made me smile, and even laugh. People who are not already fans of the "Watchmen" will probably leave the theater unimpressed. As for commercial success, this film might not sell out in theaters, but it will sell a large number of DVDs. A few tasteful action figure toys would probably also sell well. I can see a lot of geeks keeping a replica model of "Archimedes" on a bookshelf. Even as a fan of the movie, and of the original graphical book series by Moore and Gibbons, I have to say the movie is not perfect, but it's enjoyable and unforgettable.
Let's give Zack Synder a round of applause for delivering on a steep challenge, and doing a real service.