An Amazing Experience

Rating: 10/10 (17 March 2009)

Normally I go to a film expecting to find good things in it- The last film I went to the Theatre to see, last year's remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" - was a disappointment: But my disappointment in that film was mired in my love for Robert Wise' original film from the 50s.
This film had no such barriers for me, it was a fresh story, a new look, and quite a different experience than what I was expecting, compared to the last 9 years of Superhero moovies: X-Men, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Punisher, Spawn, Daredevil, now I love these stories, but you can take all of those I mentioned (And more) and put them to one side, and WATCHMEN stands alone in stark reality, on the other side far removed from those basic superhero stories.
I have copies of Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead and 300 and as I enjoyed those films, these are not great films: but WATCHMEN is great like Lord of The Rings is great: Great in Scope, Great in Effort of film-making and storytelling, and Great in Cinematography.
And Great in Story: We are told this story through the eyes of Rorschact: We are given a romp through alternate history and we get to see The Kennedy Assassination footage revisualised, the Kent State Massacre atrocity, and the history of the "Minutemen" super hero group and the murders of former members- And how fits with what we remember of our own sad history of the last 100 years: WWII, The Cold War, The Vietnam War: The 40's - The 50's - The 60's 70's and this story is told up to 1985 and as a historical representation, this story is accurately told in Music and Images.
And so this is the result of The WATCHMEN Graphic Novel as told by Alan Moore, creator of Marvel's "Xcalibur" and "Captain Britain" and the author of the "Inferno" crossover storyline from Marvel Comics back in the late 80's - Early 90s. Moore despises film versions of his work and his aversion to this almost caused this film to not be made. I've seen other films based on his work: Constantine, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This was the best use of his work but of course he sued to try to stop it being made: This makes my respect level of him go to zero. But that does not stop a well told story from being well told, even if told by a guy acting like a jackass instead of working with the creative teams of these films: League could have been Extraordinarily better if he had been involved, V for Vendetta was fantastic, but he sued to have his name taken off the credits.
This is not a story for comic books to be sold to kids at the newsstand, this is an adult story like Marvels "Marvels" and DC's "Kingdom Come" both painted by Alex Ross - As a matter of fact, and at this time I do not know who painted the WATCHMEN Graphic Novel, but this film looks like an Alex Ross painted graphic novel so I would not be surprised to find if Ross did the art.
The choice of actors to play Watchmen and also represent figures from our history was well done, Frank Novak makes us believe he is Henry Kissinger and Robert Wisden makes a Nixon rivaling Frost/Nixon's Frank Lanegella.
But the centerpiece is Jack Earle Haley (Sugarboy from "All the Kings Men") - As he narrates this story and compared to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine - I hate to admit that Haley's Rorschact is a better Wolverine than Jackman! (He is even short, compared to Jackman's immense height).
There are a few that stand out, a breakaway performance by Malin Ackerman as Silk Spectre II - And I was in the theatre for the few scenes with Appollonia Vanova as Silhouette: And her appearance caused quite a few wolf-whistles and guffaws, even as a lesbian super heroine.
The use of Non-Familiars as the principles... The murky graphic-novel colouring of the film using dark pastels... Made this film visually the best film I have absolutely ever seen.
This film is a Film Noire Mystery at it's heart... A Whodunit, with the most complex and convoluted plot I have ever had the pleasure of trying to figure out - There is a lot of misdirection here, and I was surprised to be surprised.
I have not enjoyed a film as much since I saw The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy- This story if complete, I hope they do no sequels, I just do not know what direction they could take, Alan Moore outdid himself with this, and I hope he appreciates his own work.
San Diego 3/17/2009
Addendum 4/3/2009
After reading the Watchmen graphic novel and the warner brothers "motion comic" - I can say that Zak Snyder paid meticulous attention to detail and every panel from the comic is represented.
I now see what was changed, and in the long run, the story survives, and is basically the same story. The part that is missing is the part related to the mini-comic "Tales of the Black Frieghter" which ties in to the part that was changed.
I stand by my review... And after reading the comic, it was like revisiting the film, every shot is from the book, every look, every costume, every vomit-strewn alley is perfected in this Vision.
Much Kudos to Zak Snyder for this immense effort.