In my opinion, movie adaptations are a highly overrated phenomenon

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2009)

The beauty of the graphic novel, as Alan Moore and David Gibbons were clearly well aware when they crafted possibly the finest work of its medium in the original Watchmen, are its visuals. The best examples can layer countless clues, leitmotifs and intelligent details into their frames that would take pages to cover in a normal book.
So in that spirit, allow me to sum up this review with one distinct mental image - Watchmen the Graphic Novel is the sweet over-sized cake. The cinematic medium is the undersized box. It's a testament to Zack Snyder's ability as a blockbuster director that he just about manages to squeeze the cake in, for the most part, intact - the taste is there, there's enough to satisfy one's appetite, but don't expect the edges to be smooth or for it to look like it did in the catalogue.
Okay, a little vague perhaps - allow me to elaborate. Watchmen the Graphic Novel has long been considered unfilmable. Terry Gilliam turned it down. Alan Moore's opposition to an adaptation has been vehement and well-documented. On the evidence of the final product, they were right - what made it to the final cut is very much a mangled Watchmen.
Character backstory is cut right back, sometimes even rushed - Rorschach's past, given a whole chapter to breathe in the GN, is cut down to one brief flashback. Veidt's, the poor bastard, is reduced to a PR speech. Only Dr Manhattan and The Comedian's curriculum vitaes make the transition with great aplomb - the former's four-dimensional flashback is brilliant, bordering on art cinema with its impeccably edited glimpses into Jon Osterman's past.
The cast of nobodies and vaguely-recognisable-faces helps to keep the 'comic-on-film' feel of the whole thing - there's no denying that would be lost if we had Sigourney Weaver in a yellow jumpsuit, as opposed to The Girl Who Played Some Boobs in Harold and Kumar Get The Munchies. But equally few of the performances stick out - imagine how the comic sounded in your head, and that's a bit like how this feels. The exceptions are Jackie Earl Halley's monotonous Rorschach (who's badly-in-need-of-a-Locket throat-growling just about stays the right side of Christian Bale's Batman) and a surprisingly brilliant performance from Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian, who's as brilliant at being the refreshingly charming macho man's-man as he is on the brink of tears (in a moment of rare genuine emotion).
Key scenes in the GN are almost glossed over completely, which in a work that pays such relentless lip service to its source material leaves the whole thing feeling a little disjointed - the climax, after so much build, seems almost like an afterthought, and the fates of two key characters in the graphic novel get nothing but a passing cameo, making the whole thing feel a bit pointless. Oh, and whilst we're discussing the ending, that big point of contention with the fans - Snyder's new take works. Just.
Perhaps most bizarrely of all is the contribution of the soundtrack guy - it's a testament to the top-notch work a good soundtrack man can do that few reviews will ever need to point out when it works. In Watchmen it doesn't, and some of his picks veer from the flaming obvious to the downright bizarre. Case in point: the overlong sex scene to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Evidence B: Laurie's moving reunion with old friend Dan Dreiberg to Nena's 99 Red Balloons. Sometimes it feels a bit like someone on the production team spent a boozy weekend with a couple of compilation CDs - in all fairness, when it hits it hits well, as seen in the stunning opening montage set to Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changing' (in a sly wink to the fans that would take far too much time to explain).
On the bright side, and continuing with this somewhat strained analogy, there are moments when our cake is positvively enlivened by its box. The visuals are spot-on, the colour palette is bold and pleasingly walks the line between cartoony and gritty realism. The action sequences, if laden with a little too much unnecessary slow-mo and at times bizarrely inappropriate, are well executed, clear, and entertaining. The editing is superb (a staple of Snyder's films thus far).
Most importantly of all, it's a truly original work - there has never been a film quite like Watchmen before, and whilst it isn't entirely successful, it packs a stiff kidney punch to a genre still reeling from the blow Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight dealt it. It's a long way from perfect, but it is important - it's the mark of a genre maturing, zits and all.
So, got the idea now? If nothing else in this tenuous cake analogy we've learned that sometimes it's better to keep certain things in their own boxes. Be they comic frames or otherwise.