Flawless. But I Had Read The Book...

Rating: 10/10 (21 March 2009)

I should say that, when I like something, I tend to be completely uncritical. It happens rarely, though. The first time I saw CONTACT, the night I saw DOGVILLE, and AI, the night I was at the London celebrity premiere of THE ABYSS, and when we watched .REC one dark night. There's plenty more, but nowhere near enough. My perfect movie drug is a hard fix to find. When it happens, I'm happy for days afterwards.
Last night, I saw Zack Snyder's WATCHMEN, and it's going to be a happy weekend. Last weekend I finished the WATCHMEN graphic novel for the second time (1st was 10 years ago), and loved it again. NB: I am not generally a fan of comic books, or superhero movies. I thought BATMAN BEGINS was way, way, way better than the hugely over-rated DARK KNIGHT. The only other comic book series I have ever read was SPAWN, fifteen years ago, when I was in the toy business and we were working on the action figures... (still got some in mint cond, and a pair of SPAWN tracky bottoms which I've always been too embarrassed to wear...). But I had a feeling, going in to the movie, and having read plenty of reviews, that once again this was going to be one where I bucked the critical trend ... I approached it ready to experience an uncritical, complete pleasure.
WATCHMEN delivered it all. For me, Snyder is three-for-oh ... DAWN OF THE DEAD and 300 were superb, but WATCHMEN is a step up. I loved every second, but here's the catch: it's because I had just read the graphic novel. IMHO, watching WATCHMEN without reading the original first, you're more likely to hate it. The film is so full of flavour if you've read the book, in almost every scene a character mutters something, or there's a scenery detail, which gives a spark of pleasure to the book's fans...but which would be lost on the unprepared. Me, I was enthralled as, time after time, the movie brought so many key scenes - and tiny grace notes - to life from the graphic novel. Faithful to the source? Hell yes, and brilliantly too.
Let's list the key criticisms which others on IMDb have aimed at WATCHMEN:
Boring - I was wide awake and engaged throughout. Inappropriate music - the music rocks, the only bum note is Leonard Cohen (come on, he's rubbish). The sex scene - trashed as being cheesy and corny...I disagree, you need it, at that point in time, as much as they do...and it ends on a killer, laugh out loud flamethrower joke. Slow motion action - again, why people have trashed this is beyond me, it's part of the film's core visual style, you go with it, it's spectacular. Hard to follow - if you've read the book, it's a piece of cake. Different ending - Snyder's big ending is better than the book's, sorry Alan. Manhattan's willy - I mean really, it's there on screen, what, ten times? And not for long... A few sniggers in the cinema, but the good doctor's willy isn't THAT in your face. Dodgy CGI - Again, for me, part of the film's style, there's some photo-real stuff and some stylised CGI which is clearly part of the cartoon look.
And the actors. Look, I already told you, when I love something I love everything. Kudos to every single one - and special mention for Jackie Earl Haley and Patrick Wilson. And Malin Akerman, as they say in Barnsley, you'll do fo me lass.
I'll stop now, I loved it, WATCHMEN was staggeringly good, the special edition DVD just has to be a classic (come on guys, get it right). I wouldn't change a second of this film.