I've watched Watchmen.
Zack Snyder did a good job, but the movie breaks under the crushing weight of the book. This is probably as good a Watchmen movie we're ever going to get.
The sheer depth and detail of the world the graphic novel has built up proves too much for the movie to handle. Even a 2.5 hour long one.
Even though many plot-lines are cut and scenes butchered, the film stays true to the book in that the crux of the movie, the moral question at the end, remains intact. It'd no secret where Alan Moore's sympathies lie when he wrote this book 20 odd years ago.
There are moments of greatness flashes of genius in this film, among the rushed conclusions, the fanboy-rage inducing ending and the missed opportunities. Jackie Earle Haley's performance as Rorschach will slowly but surely etch itself squarely into the mind. By the time of his pivotal arctic scene the Rorschach character will have left an impression not easily shaken by even the most ardent of fanboys. For other signs of brilliance we look at the origin story of Doctor Manhattan. Even though rushed, it makes the blue god such a relatable character, despite his supposed distance with humanity. His change of heart on Mars however is another story entirely.
Most of what bothers this viewer about the movie is situated in the latter half of the movie. It felt like the editors really tried to compress this behemoth of a story down to it's current theatrical running time. It shows. It really does.
A lot of the scenes felt rushed, Ozymandias in particular gets the brunt of the shafting. He's more distant, more arrogant and more of a prick this time around. His moral ambiguity still present but lacks impact, mostly due to the cutting down of his backstory. Manhattan's going away also suffers, for some reason. His lines and sudden change of heart can be sometimes hard to swallow, his decision to maybe create life in another simpler, less complicated galaxy loses it's emotional punch due to Billy Crudup's rather toneless delivery, which worked well for the first part of the film, but seems empty when Manhattan finds value in life.
In the end what we lose are nuances, little details, that make the book come to life. Ozymandias' doubt for his actions and his revelation on how the comedian brought him enlightenment, Rorschach's sugar cubes, Laurie's ciggerettes, Dan's belly Hollis' death scene, Russian fast food chains in America, almost all of the minutemen's minute details revealed to us only in prose, and so on.
Nitpicks in the grand scheme of things.
Going in one cannot expect the same emotional impact that the book delivers, that much is certain, but the film succeeds on it's own merits by delivering a compelling mystery, and an equally compelling conclusion. This may not be the film everyone wanted, squidless or not, but at least it's closure. Closure for those who thought the movie will never see the light of day.
So here's to Zack Snyder, who did the once thought impossible, unfilmable; look on his works, Ye Mighty, and despair.
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