I Watched The Watchmen

"...For the times, they are a-changing...(picture courtesy of Warner Bros.)"

“Superhero” is usually number one on any kid’s list of desired professions. Everyone had a vision of what powers and abilities they would have liked to have, and how they would save everyone. I bet if this movie was around back then, and our parents let us watch it, we would have probably had second thoughts.

Thanks to director Zack Snyder and screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse, I’m not so sure being a superhero is such an ideal dream anymore.

Based on the graphic novel written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, Watchmen is not only visually impressive, but its story and plot are profound in ways that most superhero movies are not.

The story starts in New York City in the 1980s, existing in an alternate timeline. Nixon is President for Life, and Vietnam was a complete success. Superheroes, specifically a group of crime fighters known as the Minutemen (and later, the Watchmen), exist in this universe, and they have helped along these outcomes through their actions.

It is not all sunshine and daisies, though, as the US is now on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, thanks to our interruption of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

This is Rorschach's signature calling card, as seen in the movie (skip to 1:40).

As a result of this situation, ex-superheroes Dan Drieberg (Patrick Wilson), Laurie Jupiter (Malin Akerman), Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), and businessman Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode) are hard at work helping the government come up with a solution.

What is intriguing about these characters is the way that their lives as superheroes spill over into their personal lives as well, amplifying quirks in their mental behavior. Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) is brutal in the way he pursues criminals, and even a bit fascist, and in a way it drives him insane.

Dan and Laurie feel somewhat impotent without their superhero personalities, Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre. Dr. Manhattan has lived outside our world for so long, that he has completely lost touch with his humanity. The way the actors work with these character motivations are a strong point.

I think the only weak performance was Akerman’s, and that could probably be attributed to her not being given as much plot to work with as the other characters. Haley’s performance as Rorschach was perfect, albeit corny at times, and Crudup played Manhattan with the required amount of stoicness for the role.

Here's a quote from Rorschach himself: "None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me."

Cinematography was another strong point for this movie. Some scenes were even taken out of the graphic novel directly, although the way it is done in this movie is not as ridiculous as the way it was done in films like 300. It helps that the novel was presented like a storyboard in the way the panels were arranged, so this must have made things easier for Snyder.

The violence and sexual content felt quite over the top at some scenes. While it is understood that Watchmen is considered to be more adult-oriented than most comic book stories, it can make some parts hard to take seriously. The sex scene between Dan and Laurie in the Owlship immediately comes to mind, as do many of the brutal fight scenes with Rorschach.

There were times when using such well-known selections worked, and times when it did not. The use of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changing” in the opening montage, which shows us the backstory of the superhero team, how it developed into the Watchmen, and what the heroes went through during the early-to-mid 20th century, was perfect. The use of “Hallelujah” during the Dan/Laurie sex scene, on the other hand, was really weird, and not as funny as it was trying to be. A lot of the music selections followed this pattern, and to be honest I would have liked it better if they had picked stuff that was not so obviously cliché nowadays.

One more quote, only this time from Dr. Manhattan: "A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles. Structurally, there's no discernible difference. Life and death are unquantifiable abstracts. Why should I be concerned?"

For fans of the graphic novel, Zach Snyder’s Watchmen will be distracting, as there are many sequences to point out where they got it right and where they didn’t. Those who are not immediately familiar with the graphic novel, though, will be able to jump right in to the experience of watching this movie with no trouble at all.

Finally, for your entertainment, here is an entry out of Rorschach's journal, courtesy of me, and Alan Moore's worst nightmare, courtesy of Newgrounds.

Picture captions for the mini photo essay within the review provided by the Watchmen Wikiquote.