The Watchmen
Directed by Zach Snyder
Reviewed by Rob Fatal
Zach Snyder’s interpretation of The Watchmen is powerful and relevant, yet at times falls short of the greatness its graphic novel counterpart amassed in the 1980s. Furthermore, while Snyder’s superhero film is far from a reinvention of the genre (Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight and Batman Begins can stake that claim), this is a solid work that has some truly unforgettable moments – it’s leaps and bounds past its Spiderman, Electra, Hulk, Daredevil counterparts. The Watchmen has the looks of a brain candy superhero flick, but underneath carries the horror, grit and confrontation of films like Seven and Platoon: this film still haunts you days after you watch it. It is epic and personal in the same breath; a rare accomplishment. In the Watchmen we see a truly great film that must struggle to please a mass audience; in doing so it limits its own greatness. Many scenes involving sex and violence seem overdone to the point that any audience member can realize they are watching the decision of a studio exec. It is frustrating to watch a film flirt with greatness and then fall short in the end. The film’s opening and epilogue promise a level of greatness that is onyl occasionally achieved during the film’s 3-hour run.
The film opens with one of the greatest montages in film history; a rousing tribute to the turbulent times which bred and tempered the Watchmen from their early predecessors, the Minutemen. Halfway through the montage you realize you are going to be placed in a bizarro mid-1980s where Nixon is still in office and the world is on the verge of nuclear destruction. The Watchmen are all but retired and forgotten when one of the eldest member is murdered prompting one secretly active member to seek out the murderer and his or her motives. Snyder chooses to go the film noir route in look and structure as the film follows one of its deepest and most interesting characters, the protagonist Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). This is by far the most interesting character in the film: Rorschach’s history and subsequent response to life is brutal, true and diverse; his demeanor is serious and yet he can play comical, mildly human and even sentimental. Haley continues to show as he did in Little Children that he is a diverse and true actor.
Specific downfalls come from the numerous amounts of storyline coupled with the little amount of time The Watchmen has to unfold. Other characters with development potential remain static as the film crams their bios, emotions and motive into their small amounts of screen time. For a good hour we may be following Rorschach’s hunt for a superhero killer, and then for the next hour the out-of-place and underdeveloped love triangle between Dr. Manhatten (Billy Crudup), Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) and the Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson). Snyder seems to have trouble fitting all the information from the graphic novel into this short 3-hour film and rightly so: even Terry Gilliam, one time slated director of The Watchmen, confessed this graphic novel could only be done right as a 10- hour miniseries. Snyder works with what he can and for the most part gets the job done.
The film generates genuine interest in its story and characters by tying them in with our actually societal history. Seeing superheroes fight in Vietnam, alongside the Kennedy Assassination, celebrating the Allied World War II victory just works. At the film’s end, The Watchmen presents to viewers an unabashed reality check about the causes and justification of war: There is no right and wrong, just logical and illogical. Director Snyder and his actors do their damndest to communicate to viewers the power and complexity of The Watchmen: one of the greatest pieces of American literature that has ever produced. Mission almost accomplished.
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