The Bomb Has Been Dropped!

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2009)

Yes! It has finally happened! The proverbial bomb has been dropped!
It has been dropped right into theaters on the bright yellow screen. In many respects I agree that such a misunderstood power should have never been utilized. However when something of this magnitude, the most celebrated piece of literature with pictures is stored in the arsenal. It isn't a matter of, if it will be used, but rather when and by who?
It should come as no surprise then that it was America doing the proverbial bomb dropping. Many thought it was a decision better suited for the Brits, such the over imaginative Terry Gilliam (Brazil) or the grit "shaky" realism of Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum) or maybe even Batman re-inventor Christopher Nolan. But in the end it fell into the hands of an American. And who better to release this monstrous adaptation than a director who is well known for his dedication as a fan to the very genre.
I am speaking of Zack Snyder (300) who, along with Cinematographer Larry Fong has created a visual masterpiece. From the fluid camera movement to the set design, the characters, colors, and overall atmospheres, of which seem to be lifted right from the pages of the graphic novel. Watchmen is a film that immerses audiences so deep they either drown or become acclimated to the strange and dark world presented. This movie, visually, is with out doubt diamond cutting direction and is near flawless. It is an achievement only realized now as Watchmen is a production almost two decades in the making.
The movie presents its audience with an alternate illusory 1985 New York in which masked vigilantes are no longer seen in comic books but instead are on the streets fighting crime. The graphic novel much like the movie portrays a kind of wit parody to its own breed on the surface. However underneath this alluring parody is a multifaceted story heavy with material, flashbacks, character development, plot twists, psychology, physiology, theology, and any other kind of "logy" you can think of. Both the graphic novel and the movie are unlike and unwilling to be like the average superhero crime fighter. Instead the material explores the concepts of right and wrong, what the limits are and at what cost.
Some of the character threads are spread a little thin in Snyder's Watchmen. The script by David Hayter and Alex Tse clearly tried to hit all main background points for the plot and characters. However it just wasn't enough and came down to the actor and actress's performance. The strongest performances coming from Billy Crudup (Big Fish, Almost Famous) playing the clockwork God figure, Dr. Manhattan. As well as Jackie Earl Haley (Little Children) growling his way through the film as the psychotic crime fighter Rorschach. A man who sees the world both literally and metaphorically in black and white through a makeshift mask made to look like an inkblot test. "So tell me doctor*puts on mask*what do you see?" While most of the performances were on point there where a few that felt overacted as if they had been acting in a soap. Many times I felt this inconsistency of performance distracting which removed me from this marvelous world that had been constructed.
The music like some of the acting had me raising my eyebrow and smirking more than once throughout. With such a bizarre selection of tracks including 99 Luftballons and such obvious tracks such as The Sound of Silence for the funeral scene and Ride of the Valkyries for the Vietnam scene, this comes off as almost an insult to the intelligence of it's audience. First, to the music that I think did work. Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' was a perfect selection and placement to an introduction montage that is worth the ticket price alone. I know that some may disagree but I also thought Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, was also a great selection and placement for Nite Owl II's "coming out of retirement" scene. In addition Philip Glass's Pruit Igoe & Prophecies was magnificent as the backing for Dr. Manhattan's exile to mars. As for the other music that didn't work as well, I understand that the director had to fit in tracks like Unforgettable and All Along the Watchtower because of its reference within the graphic novel. However this is exactly how it feels at the end of the day, forced and misplaced. It was as if in the editing room they were struggling to think of how and where to put specific tracks. (SPOILERS)
Now on to the ending, as most people who have read the graphic novel know, It was not Dr. Manhattan, or his power, or in anyway his involvement with Veit that caused the cataclysmic explosion. They will all tell you it was a giant alien that looks like a squid that did it. No matter how much I would liked to have seen that, I must admit Snyder's version of the ending works better. When I read this in the graphic novel I felt that it was an unnecessary and bizarre, although very cool, additional element. It however isn't even the giant squid that I had problems with at the end of the graphic novel. It was the fact that Dan and Laurie leave to get intimate while there buddy Rorschach they just sprang from jail is about to become a bloody inkblot in the snow (Nice extra touch by the way). This was completely in opposition to the character development that had been drawn between Dan and Rorschach and I believe the film has in a way fixed an otherwise careless ending.
Bottom of the Line:
+ Remarkable Visuals, Very Close to the Source Material, Some Great Acting Performances, Fixed Ending.

Some Not So Good Acting Performances, Music Selection and Placement off Putting, A Few Unnecessary Changes.

Grade: B-
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