42nd Street Records

Film Review: Watchmen

I am in awe.

These were the words that distinctly stood out in my mind about thirty minutes into my first viewing of Watchmen. Not simply because of the master-craft that I was witnessing on the screen, but because what I was witnessing was a miracle. I was seeing a large budgeted Watchmen film unspool before my very eyes and, not only was it not a travesty, it was a little less than a masterpiece. A visual explosion of the kind that I had not witnessed in years; one that not only captured the audacity of the graphic novel, but also its soul. 

Zack Snyder has done what many have considered to be virtually impossible. He took Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s legendary comic book, Watchmen, and channeled it through Thomas Edison’s moving picture machine. And he has created not just a a moving version of the novel — some processional of images or a living audio book. He’s made a film that feels like a living, breathing entity all its own while also being a near pitch perfect (and almost frame-for-frame recreation in parts) distillation of the book. Zack Snyder has not just shown reverence to the source material, but also created an extension to the printed page — one that will transport a new generation of viewers into the world of the Minutemen and Crimebusters without requiring them to turn a single page (not that they shouldn’t get off their lazy asses and grab a copy of the book ASAP).

Had Snyder only succeeded in doing this, he would have undoubtedly earned a gushing  review from me. But he, against all odds, does so much more; creating a movie that flirts with being amongst the best I have ever witnessed; one  that doesn’t just retell a tale that has stuck with me ever since the first time I read it, but manages to capture the soul and beauty of each and every one of its charcters. And even if this emotion doesn’t quite hit you, the sheer ambition of what is being presented onscreen should be enough to keep you plastered to your chair, eyes about ready to pop out of your skull as its visual mastery blows your hair back. This is the type of film that is not made anymore. A big budget blockbuster that has more on its mind than explosions and sexiness (though there’s plenty of both present). No, this is a film about big ideas, wrapped in the pretty christmas paper of a Super-hero film.

The first thirty-five minutes of Watchmen may be among the most dizzying and dazzling in film history. The  movie opens with a breakneck paced piece of violence, as the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is assaulted and then thrown out of his several story high apartment window. It is a vicious battle; one where every blow is felt by the audience (and amplified by the undeniably exquisite sound design). But, even before the unspeakable act, Zack Snyder is throwing an almost unfathomable amount of period and world-building detail at the audience. The Comedian is watching a McGloghlin Group interview with Pat Buchanan about the impending ivansion of Afghanistan by the Russians while a poster of the original Silk Spectre (in an almost Bettie Page like pose) hangs on the wall. All immersive additions that Snyder uses to introduce you to the alternate 1985 that these disgraced and (mostly) retired superheros inhabit.

The film that Watchmen is most comparable to is Blade Runner. As thoroughly detail oriented Ridley Scott was in creating his bleak, rain-slicked vision of the future, Zack Snyder is just as devoted to recreating the past. But beyond having an almost obsessive eye for detail, Snyder has somehow convinced a studio to let him create a grandiose, non-commercial $100 million plus art film; a strange kind of neo-noir that exists in its own bizarre world and whose sole purpose, it seems, is to question the very nature of humanity itself (again, much like Blade Runner). Now — I’m not entirely sure that Watchmen is comparable in quality to Ridley Scott’s masterpiece (I don’t want to make hyperbole-laden claims about the quality of Watchmen at this point. I want to see it again. And probably again. But it’s one helluva good movie, and I suspect a much, much better one in the 3 hour and 15 minute Director’s Cut form), but I know for a fact its a film that is going to grow on me with time, much like how Deckard and the Replicants he chased did.

One of the wonders of the film is how easily it handles its multiple  narratives and keeps the momentum moving at a very fast clip. Again, I am stunned that  a major studio looked at this script and gave not only a OK, but the amount of money that Warners did. Most execs would take one glance at the sprawling, multi-character developing plots and say, “cut this or its getting sent back to development Hell.” There is flashback upon flashback (much like the novel), showing how all of these characters came to be, and how their interactions with each other (and especially the Comedian) that would normally slow a film to a grinding halt. But Snyder’s skills as a filmmaker have grown so tremendously (a side note: I HATED 300) that he is able to juggle all of them with a skill and grace of a much more mature auteur.

The best sequence of the film is certainly the extended ten-minute Dr. Manhattan origin scene; the only legitimately super-powered character in the story, the near-omnipotent Dr. Manhattan abandons Earth halfway through the film, retreating to Mars to contemplate where exactly he fits amongst a world of mere mortals he no longer has any sort of feelings for. Dr. Manhattan was once a man, but a very comic book-y atomic accident turned him into something approaching God (resulting in one of the best lines in both the book and film: “God is real and He is American”); he experiences the world and reality in ways that human cannot even begin to fathom, and over the decades of watching everyone he has known and loved grow old and die while he is stuck in a perpetual state of perfect youth, he has slowly lost his ability to comprehend us as a species. On Mars, Manhattan remembers his life, and it’s here that the film truly showcases all of the elements that make it a stunner. Scored to Philip Glass music (from the experimental film Koyantiquassi), the series of scenes use bold, beautiful visuals to tell the story and weave the strands of Manhattan’s origin and the history of the Watchmen world’s superheroes together while also creating an eye-popping piece of visual art for the viewer. Snyder’s every frame is filled to the edges with information, ranging from the tiniest details that only obsessives will note to bigger things that supplement the story in a glance. And tying the scene together completely is the narration by Billy Crudup, bringing a sense of disconnection as Dr. Manhattan, but not coldness. There is a sadness in Manhattan’s inhuman voice that Crudrup brings to even the smallest scene and it is heart breaking. His performance is arresting filled with such subtlety that I can’t wait to revisit it on a second viewing for I know there were little ticks and details that I missed as they shined through the dense motion capture. On the surface — Manhattan believes that he has left behind his human emotions but we can see that it’s still there, hidden just beneath the icy blue exterior of the being who has transcended and thus forgotten to be a man. And, to add to that effect, Snyder’s impeccible SFX teams has created not just a big blue, naked man on the screen; but there are things happening underneath the surface of his skin — tiny particles moving and charging themselves.

Billy Crudup isn’t the only actor to give an off the charts performance. Jackie Earle Haley seems to have been born to play the role of Rorschach (much like Mickey Rourke was born to play Randy “The Ram” in The Wrestler). Most impressive is the way that he understands the two sides of the character, and how he plays the psychotic, masked detective in and out of costume. In costume there’s an ease and grace to his motions and physique, and Haley captures the way that Rorschach is both at home in and sickened by his city’s maggot infested underbelly. He loathes and wishes death upon the pimps and whores and thieves, but he walks among them like he belongs, and it’s because without them Rorschach with be without purpose in the world. And when his internalized monologues become externalized into violence, it comes not with an explosion, but a seeming sigh. When the mask (“his face” as he calls it) is removed Haley becomes a coiled weapon, a rattlesnake ready to strike even the gentlest of hands. But behind the seething rage that Haley’s eyes exhibit, there is a child-like innocence and hurt. He’s naked without that mask, exposed. And Haley finds levels beyond that, especially in Rorschach’s ‘origin’ flashback, when he stops being just a costumed crimefighter and turns into something much more ugly and, dare I say it, sort of evil. And when his final moments come in the film it is some of Haley’s most powerful work; a haunting, tear-inducing split-second when little boy and psychopath collide, knowing that they are both sides helpless in a world far more powerful than either of them.

And while Rorschach is the dark, cold heart at the center of the film, he is surrounded by colorful and sometimes warm characters. Jeffrey Dean Morgan exudes a sleazy charm as The Comedian (though the fact that his larger than life presence is removed so early in the film is felt for the rest of its running time). Patrick Wilson is the schlubby every-man of the group as Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II); the Watchmen equivalent of Batman who, without his suit, can’t seem to, um…perform. While Dan’s personality is much more subdued than his cohorts doesn’t mean that his arc is any less important to the film. And the fact that Zack Snyder devotes so much running time to Wilson’s interpretation of the character shows that the director gets his symbolic purpose: he is what happens when an average joe suits up to get his jollies; a fact that would again have the Hollywood suits running in fear and disgust. But it is again an understanding of the existential qualities and messages contained in the book.

There is one huge hole at the center of all this heaping of praise. Though Snyder gets all of these things so, so right the film still feels feels truncated. There’s no doubt that releasing a two hour, forty minute brazenly non-mainstream, resolutely non-commercially minded film like this is a display of giant balls on the part of Warner Bros. But to fans of the graphic novel its readily apparent where the cuts came in to  play, both large and small (I’m looking at you, “Excised fate of Hollis Mason”). This is where the reported forty minutes that are going to be put back into the Director’s Cut are going to be crucial for a “full” experience. As incredible as the world Snyder created is, it’s still missing the small nuances like the two Bernies at the newsstand. They’re there — but the removal of their witty banter and sometimes touching relationship weakens the full emotional impact of the films finale. Also, the inclusion of Bubastis with the new, Squid-free ending seems to be oddly out of place. It feels like a shout-out to fans simply for the sake of it and, though its cool to see the big cat on screen, I could have easily done without it.

Since we’re on the subject, I’m only going to say this about the altered ending: it works. Fanboys (such as the monumental douchebags that make up the AICN message boards) need to shut it about the squid. The new ending ties the film together up near-perfectly and, dare I say it, packs a much more emotional wallop than the alien massacre at the end of the novel.

The fact is — those whining about cuts or strange, nitpicky details are missing the much bigger picture. Zack Snyder has crafted a masterful super-hero film that delivers both on an entertainment and intellectual level. How fucking rare and awesome is that? Though it’s an abridged version, it’s still an amazing one and we’re going to get most of those little details reinserted with the Director’s Cut. Fans should be rejoicing the fact that a major studio has not just catered to their needs, but delivered a product that us going to be reward on repeat viewings and be discussed for years to come.