(Original pic source: www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com)
Whilst i'm playing the updating game, it's time for my slightly late verdict on Watchmen, be warned for spoilers will follow. For those of you unfamilar with the original graphic novel written by Alan Moore (also credited for previous graphic-novel-turned film, V for Vendetta), trailer being here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4blSrZvPhU. Watchmen follows the tale of former masked vigilantes livng in an alternative version of the 1980's, where President Nixon is currently in his third term of office after being voted as President for life following the success of the Vietnam War, who find themselves involved in a conspiracy to kill them off, following the death of The Comedian (Jeffery Dean Morgan).
I myself am a fan of the original graphic novel, so it might come as a shock to a lot of fans when i say that the end of the result of the conversion is a highly entertaining film for what it's worth, a lot of the scenes are lifted directly from the novel, and all the actors seem to nail their roles, especially Jackie Earle Haley's portrayal of the moral absolute and ultimately vunerable Rorschach.
However, the problem with most comic book to film conversions, is that the content inevibility gets toned down. Watchmen earnt a reputation for being uncompromising and graphic, containing an attempted rape scene, a disturbing psyche evaluation with Rorschach, and the covering up of the genocide of millions to ensure world peace. What really annoyed me however, was all three of these things were included in the film, and not toned down, but instead unneccesarily modified - the attempted rape's setting is changed and the evaluation with Rorschach, which establishes the characters psychological background is considerably shortened.
More importantly, the key detail that brings about the prospect of world peace - the staged invasion of an alien squid and the countries around the globe uniting against a common foe - is replaced with framing Dr Manhattan attacking the world. While it can be argued that this might sound more plausable for a certain perspective, surely if you're doing a film that involves costumed superheroes and a blue demi-god who walks on Mars, you might as well stick with the original slightly more preposterous ending to satisfy the fans of the novel
Lots of other little features are missing too - the inane dialogue of the newsreader, the pirate comic-within-a comic... the end result of this shows why Alan Moore himself didn't originally make Watchmen as a film - there's just no way to fit that level of detail within the medium. That's not to say Director Zack Synder has done a bad job, in fact I'm willing to argue that no one could of handled it better, but the film itself is really just an homage to another piece of art, and some scenes, like the Silk Spectre/Night Owl sex scene on the Owlship, feel like the Directors over-indulging his own love of the novel instead of presenting it from a detached and professional viewpoint
Never-the-less, I still like Watchmen, and I do recommend you see it. It's not an eye opening thing of beauty like the novel was, but it's still an entertaining romp for 2 and a half hours, and miles better than other films out there. Final rating: 3.5 / 5 stars
-J
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