Yes, you should watch the Watchmen

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2013)

Watchmen is certainly not your typical comic book movie. The first hint of this is that nobody calls the original source material a comic book. It's a graphic novel thank you very much. This implies a certain weight, gravity and seriousness. And it also indicates the reverence fans had for the material. Long deemed unfilmable Watchmen would require not just a very talented director but a brave one. Zack Snyder was up to the task. The film he produced was not perfect. But with all the inherent challenges it was probably as close to perfect as one could reasonably hope. Snyder made a very entertaining, compelling and ultimately quite satisfying film.
Watchmen is not an adaptation of the original printed story. It is that story brought to life lock, stock and barrel. To get the project off the ground it was deemed that adherence to the original story was paramount. And with amazing attention to detail Snyder fills the screen with every bit of that story. This makes for a very dense film. To say there is a lot going on is an understatement. It also of course makes for a very long film, clocking in either side of three hours depending on which version you're watching. But the story holds your interest throughout, with the smart cultural references sprinkled in adding more layers. There is enough big action to carry things through some of the inevitable lulls that come in a film of this length. The film looks spectacular, terrific sets and costumes make the film really pop off the screen. The myriad visual effects are very well done. The music fits in perfectly. And Snyder coaxed winning performances from his cast.
There are a couple of standouts in the ensemble cast. Jackie Earle Haley does a fabulous job as Rorschach. No easy task bringing personality to a character completely hidden away behind a mask, Haley does so superbly. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is excellent as well portraying the Comedian, showing a somewhat less heroic side to the hero. All the other performers fill their roles capably if not spectacularly. The women, Malin Akerman and Carla Gugino, aren't given much to work with and it's hard to get a handle on Billy Crudup's performance at all what with our seeing a CG representation of him rather than the actor himself. But while some may be less memorable than others all the characters work, all the actors did enough to do the story justice. And what a story it is. It's a long journey in this most sprawling of comic book movies. The long trip is well worth it as the film shows why legions of fans consider Watchmen to be no mere comic book.