Watchmen Adaptation Works Despite Departures from Text

By: Nick Moorhead '10

Posted: 3/10/09

Calling Watchmen a movie about superheroes is like calling "Lost" a show about a desert island. Watchmen covers topics as diverse as nuclear war, psychological instability, and even erectile dysfunction, magnified by Orwellian overtones. The movie is based on a graphic novel (a clever marketing term for adults too insecure to admit they read comic books) that re-defined the medium when it was released in the late 1980s.

Watchmen is the Citizen Kane of comic books; people thought the story was unfilmable. It didn't help that Watchmen's author, Alan Moore, is almost as reclusive as J.D. Salinger and equally as wary of Hollywood. Moore rocks obscenely long, hobo-status facial hair, worships an ancient snake god, and "has likened the cinema-going public to freshly hatched birds with mouths open as Hollywood feeds them regurgitated worms."

Moore's reservations about the silver screen haven't stopped movie execs from adapting his work - he is responsible for V for Vendetta, From Hell, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Anyone who's had the misfortune of witnessing Extraordinary Gentlemen can probably understand his trepidation about Tinseltown.

Hollywood decided to move ahead without Moore's blessing, but they still couldn't find a way to make this movie. Directors as talented as Terry Gilliam (Monty Python, Brazil) tried, and failed. Then someone saw 300 and decided director Zack Snyder would be up to the task. I don't know why - 300 has some stunning action sequences and is visually impressive, but it is thematically shallow and somewhat of a Gladiator rip-off. These producers had faith, though, and they were actually right. It would be sweet and legitimate to sit around and complain about how Snyder ruined this timeless graphic novel (Snyder turns Ozymandias into a total weenie, for example), but I won't do that, because Snyder pretty much nails Watchmen.

The film opens with the death of the Comedian (Snyder's decision to show his death is the first of several departures from the original text) and a montage featuring most of his colleagues meeting their doom. We are in an alternate 1980s where Nixon is serving a fifth term, and it looks like someone is trying to exterminate all costumed heroes before staging a nuclear armageddon. The remaining superheroes resolve to find the killer and prevent a potential World War III.

The plot sounds pretty formulaic (some sub-plots are more interesting than the main story), but that's okay, because the story is all about character development. The enigmatic anti-hero, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), is the standout as a psychologically-complex character played with an unhinged intensity reminiscent of Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

This movie has style - the look is a sort of cross between Blade Runner and the TV show "Mad Men," while emerging with an original tone. The drenched, gleaming skyline of Manhattan is an imposing presence, providing a sobering reminder of the Twin Towers. New York isn't the only setting, though - without ruining anything, you'll see the largest, most spectacular sand-castle ever made, and not on Earth either.

The soundtrack mostly culls rock classics from the 60s and 70s - Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and Jimi Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" are definitely the highlights, but there are other contributions from groups like Simon & Garfunkel.

The biggest issue with this movie is that it was long. This problem is understandable because it is difficult to stuff a book spanning 400-plus pages into 90 minutes, even if there are a lot of pictures (and Snyder still cuts significant portions of the book). However, in an age of YouTube and Hulu, releasing a nearly three-hour epic is a dicey proposition. There isn't an identifiable point where the movie really drags, but you'll probably still start day-dreaming about the end credits somewhere around the two-hour mark.

If you can suspend your disbelief - and buy into, for example, a god-like 200-foot blue-skinned naked dude who can see into the future - you'll discover an engrossing, affecting drama disguised within a kinetic action flick. This movie has it all - unless you're in the mood for bouquets of flowers and bunny rabbits, which you won't find outside of Rorschach's Rorschach tests (trust me, it makes sense). This movie is gritty and more violent than any action movie I've seen since, well, probably 300. But if you can take all the blood and accept a 200-foot blue guy, you're in for the best film of the year so far (full disclosure: Watchmen is also the only film I've seen this year, outside of Taken, which is phenomenal, but not as smart). Sure, the movie is not quite as good as the book, but what film is? And let's be honest with ourselves, it's not like people read anymore, anyway. Might as well see the movie.