Watchmen

Alan Moore comics are great. Alan Moore films are not.

Think of the offensively bad League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or the insultingly sparse Johnny Depp vehicle, From Hell, and you’ll understand why Alan Moore has decided to remove his name from any effort made in the latter medium.

So, when his greatest work, Watchmen, is translated from comic to film, what are we to expect? An insulting skin and bones translation which loses the point and the brilliance of the original in the process? Or a film that bucks the trend, already slightly bettered by the not so bad V for Vendetta, and brings Moore’s artistic scope and vision from page to screen accurately and intelligently?

Originally, I expected a damp squib of an adaptation, an insult to the rightly revered graphic novel. The depth of the comic, aided by the advantages of the graphic novel medium, is immersive and rewarding; getting this wealth of narrative genius into one film seemed impossible to me. The man who took on the daunting task was Dawn of the Dead and 300 director, Zack Snyder, who asked cinema goers, who wants to watch the Watchmen? The answer, should be, you.

Watchmen is, as an adaptation, flawless. Even the most devout comic geek couldn’t knock Snyder’s attention to detail, with every scene more or less lifted straight from the page; though the ending is altered slightly, the alteration is coherent and understandable; seemingly insignificant details are transported from page to screen, sure to make the fan-boys point and go ‘Oooo…’

This is, like 300 and Sin City before it, a comprehensive interpretation which is faithful to the original and successful for it. Any movie goer who hasn’t read the comic will be treated to an intricate plot, whose character’s complex psychological profiles match anything seen within fiction to date.

This is a mature story for a mature audience. If you have no idea what Watchmen is about, expect super-heroes with no super powers, who break bones and have personality disorders. Think America winning Vietnam thanks to the result of a horrific laboratory accident. Think JFK getting his head blown off by a smoking, smiling ‘hero’. Think rape and severed arms in a gritty, alternate 80’s.

This film isn’t without its action, but unlike others before it, it isn’t about it; Watchmen questions and probes, asking us, who would want to be a costumed hero and why? What would the World be like with a super being living among us?

This film will not disappoint, and fans of the original and newcomers alike will be satisfied, though no one will be blown away. The graphic novel is groundbreaking, a tribute to its medium, exploiting its every advantage and utilising them to capture the reader; because the film is so faithful, nothing is lost, but nothing, by transporting to this wildly different new medium, is gained. Unlike Sin City, which had visual style and was unlike anything seen before it, Watchmen just replicates the story with an eye for detail which is admirable yet uninspiring. This should be enough, and for most movie goers, it will be, but I couldn’t help but want more from it.

So, watch the Watchmen, but first, read it, and appreciate the genius as it was originally intended. Do it for Alan Moore.

Last edited: 27th July 2009

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