Good Adaption...Brilliant Film

Rating: 9/10 (29 July 2009)

An adaptation of a highly influential graphic novel, touted as the best of all time, certainly has a lofty set of expectations to meet when being adapted into a film. Whether it is an inferior product to the novel is debatable, in any case, Zack Snyder mostly succeeds in adapting Watchmen into an incredibly daring, thought-provoking, entertaining film. Turning the traditional superhero story on its head, it's one of those rare comic-book translations that diverts from merely an entertaining action movie into a real piece of cinema. The acting, dialogue, and cinematography are outstanding. The dialogue, especially, hits all the right notes. While the best are certainly reserved for Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan, the rest of the cast get their bits with some hard-hitting dialogue of their own. The exceptional acting, especially by Walter Kovacs (Rorschach), Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan), and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian) create the believability the exceptional dialogue needs to make an impact on the audience. When the backstories of the main characters were developed, and the main plot of the film finally began to take it's course, Watchmen had already succeeded in having the depth and resonance of a dozen other films. While it's not an all-time masterpiece, not a moment of its nearly 3-hour runtime is wasted. Every scene serves a purpose to advance the plot, and nearly every dialogue has substantial meaning. The flashbacks with the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach's backstories, the Mars scenes, and Rorschach's monologues are the most resonating. Even the opening credits are exceptionally crafted, summarizing 50 years of an 'altered' American history. In the end, it's hard to describe how well-made this film is, you can tell that every frame was a labor of love. At some points, however, you could also tell where studio execs tampered with the film to make it more appealing to the masses. Nevertheless, that risky, meaningful big-budget films such as The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Watchmen exist at all show that mainstream cinema has the ability to be the best of both worlds, pieces of entertainment that also stimulate us to think and question. Those are the real blockbusters.