Watchmen

I saw the trailer for WATCHMEN last summer and initially thought two things: 1) Oh, great. Someone taking another (likely unsuccessful) stab at a comic book movie.; 2) WATCHMEN? Who are the Watchmen? I've never heard of them before.

My curiosity was piqued.

I could have waited for the movie to hit theaters. But when the source material is at your fingertips courtesy of a local library, why wait?

Because the movie is hardly ever better than, or even equal to, its source (THE GODFATHER possibly being the one exception). That's why.

There's a reason Alan Moore's WATCHMEN was named one of TIME magazine's top 100 novels of all time. There's a reason WATCHMEN has developed a legendary cult following. There's a reason so many Hollywood-types have wisely stepped away from this project.

I'm not the comic book - excuse me, graphic novel - type. At least I wasn't before I read WATCHMEN. It's the anti-superhero story. It's like a great detective novel with the protagonists running around in costumes. It's also dark and uber-cynical. But it's engaging in its vivid illustrations and narrative structure.

WATCHMEN's narrative structure was my main concern in regards to the movie. The action - both past and present - would not be difficult. It's the other narrative devices - such as chapters from an ex-superhero's tell-all autobiography or the comic-book-within-a-comic-book, Tales of the Black Freighter, that adds rich, layered dimensions to an already fantastic story - that are virtually unfilmable.


So here we are. Zac Snyder, director of 300 among other visual orgy-fests, has taken on the daunting task that no one else dared to.

And you know what?

It wasn't that bad. Snyder was extremely faithful to the graphic novel (minus a slight altering of the climax), using the source material itself as the film's storyboard. I watched the theatrical version on DVD and I would assume the Director's Cut, with 24 minutes of extra footage, would add even more detail to the story. There's also news of an ultimate edition (due out this Christmas) that will include Tales of the Black Freighter within the movie. That's the version I want to see!

My complaints are few, but important to a great movie. The movie was loooooooong-long, mainly due to Snyder's faithfulness to his source. Using flashbacks throughout, the movie had a hard time gaining narrative momentum (which can unfold much more slowly within the pages of a novel). And maybe it was because of Alan Moore's brilliant - and unfilmable - narrative devices, but some of the characters (NOT Rorsharch; he was awesome!) were entirely too one-dimensional. Or maybe it's because Zac Snyder is a visual director, not an actor's director.

I'll definitely watch the ultimate edition of WATCHMEN when it's available. Who knows if it will change the movie from good to great? For now, WATCHMEN (the movie) can serve as a launching point for those uninitiated readers into Alan Moore's world of the Watchmen.

Go find it and read it!