Uneven

Rating: 5/10 (12 March 2009)

I will mainly review Watchmen as an adaptation, and while supporters of the film can make the valid argument that it should not be judged this way, Zach Snyder has taken great pride in its supposed loyalty to the graphic novel, therefore I believe this method is also valid. Watchmen brilliantly recreates scenes from the graphic novel, but these moments are greater than the sum of its parts. Snyder muddled some of the key themes in order to appeal to a wider audience.
Superheroes have been outlawed since the mid 1970's. The first real superheroes appeared in the 1940's and declined during the 1950's, along with the supervillains. Then came Dr. Manhattan, the first (and only) superhero with powers. Dr. Manhattan is a living God, with the power to do almost anything. He leads the United States to victory in the Vietnam War and gives them the edge in the Cold War. Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl II and Laurie Jupiter, aka Silk Specter II (named after her mother) retire after the Keene Act is passed. Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, the smartest man in the world, reveals his identity and becomes a successful corporate businessman.
Watchmen begins like the comic, with the murder of Edward Blake, aka the Comedian, one of the last two superheroes working for the government. The vigilante detective Rorschach investigates the murder, and suspects someone is picking off costumed heroes. A Bay of Pigs situation develops in the Middle East when the USSR invades Afghanistan, and everybody panics about a Nuclear War breaking out. Rorschach suspects someone wants the old superheroes out of the way so they can't stop it. What proceeds is essentially a character study of all the superheroes I have mentioned thus far. What would these superheroes be like in the real world?
The Comedian is portrayed brilliantly. He is essentially the antithesis of Captain America. He sees the human race as savage and selfish, and sees the world as a joke. Rorschach is the most memorable character in the movie. Jackie Earl Haley delivers the best performance, even though his face is covered for most of the film. He is what Batman would be like in the real world. Patrick Wilson gives an admirable performance as Nite Owl, the most normal and relatable of all the superheroes. Malin Akerman is a bore as Silk Specter. Billy Crudup is good as Dr. Manhattan but his performance is overshadowed by the special effects. Manhattan sees the world on a Quantum level, and sees time as simultaneous. He is so existential he loses touch with the way humans see the world. Matthew Goode does not resemble Ozymandias at all and doesn't leave a strong impression.
I must commend Snyder for meticulously recreating the look of the comic book. Everything looks just like the comic. The opening credits outline the history of the first superheroes very well in a short period of time. The choice of Bob Dylan's "The Times they are a changin" is very appropriate. I particularly liked the recreation of the JFK assassination.
I think Watchmen's loyalty to the source material is part of its downfall, unfortunately. It follows the structure of the comic almost to a tee, but I don't think it works in movie form. The plot develops very slowly because it keeps stopping to give us more background story for the characters. This in part creates a conundrum for any filmmaker: the background is essential for the story, yet it slows down the pace considerably. I feel like a mini-series or a two part movie would have been more appropriate for Watchmen than a single film.
The novel was brilliant for its execution of the story, and if one element is removed it has a big impact on the rest of the story. For example, I think the film lost the atmosphere of panic and impending doom by omitting scenes with New York's citizens that were so great in the novel. To create this atmosphere Snyder relied on ineffective scenes with a Richard Nixon actor in laughable makeup.
Watchmen still has many problems that do not stem from the complexity or enormity of the source material, however. Some of Snyder's choices of music are embarrassing or simply distracting. The film is gratuitously violent for no good reason. Snyder sticks in Matrix style action scenes with annoying slow motion that certainly make the film longer than necessary. This style contradicts the very premise of the source material, the deconstruction of the superhero genre.
I had some major problems with the ending. Considering how slow they built up to it, the ending was very rushed. It comes across as an Independence Day action scene rather than a tragedy. Even worse, the changes to the ending exhibited a misunderstanding of the characters, which is strange considering how accurate the movie was up until this point. *Major Spoilers* Dan tries to protect Rorschach from Dr. Manhattan, delivers a clichéd "NOOOO!" and proceeds to beat up Ozymandias, thereby reinforcing the notion that these are typical superheroes, a total deviation from the source material. Rorschach dying alone symbolized his estrangement from reality and reminds us that while he may have had the moral high ground in this instance, he was still not an admirable person. Dan and Laurie comforting each other after the tragedy made them more vulnerable, realistic people who need to put aside their vigilante duties once in a while. But no, Snyder made them angry because that is how the audience would feel. Ozymandias does not express any shred of doubt like he does in the comic, which would have helped his character. Snyder did not have the guts to portray the characters this way because it was unconventional.
In conclusion, Watchmen is loyal to the comic in many respects, but it suffers from bad pacing and conventional direction.