Adapted from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's ground-breaking comic book series, ""Watchmen"" is set in an alternate 1985 in which Nixon is serving his fifth term as President, nuclear holocaust with the Russians seems imminent and superheroes helped America win the Vietnam War before being outlawed. After the murder of an ex-superhero called the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a vigilante named Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) begins investigating, which leads to an explosive discovery.
Although much of the film visually stays true to the comics, the movie simply lacks the soul of the graphic novel. In the books, there is no real villain, much like in real life. This is what made the comic so significant—it mirrored the real world in such a way that, after over 20 years, its main themes can still relate to current events. The film, however, is much more black and white. Not only is there a villain, but it's evident almost immediately who is on what side of the conflict.
Zack Snyder deserves kudos for having the balls to film a movie based off a work so lauded and treasured that it has been almost universally declared ""unfilmable,"" as well as being the only comic book to appear on TIME's list of the 100 All-Time Best Novels. Snyder's love for ""Watchmen"" is evident in the painstaking effort he goes to in capturing even the smallest details, but perhaps he should have spent more time capturing the essence of the novel rather than designing cool-looking sets.
Snyder also relies too much on over-the-top violence. He seems almost overeager to prove that he can be as edgy as Alan Moore, but all he does is bastardize the original work and turn it into something much more similar to ""300,"" and not in a good way. The epitome of the amping-up of the violence is characterized by a scene in which Rorschach confronts a kidnapper, and rather than dealing with him the way he did in the graphic novel, the scene takes a much more violent, horrifying turn. There was absolutely no reason to change the scene, other than Snyder's belief that the quality of movies is based on the volume of fake blood used during production.
Even worse than the exaggerated violence is the soundtrack. One would be hard-pressed to find more distracting music choices in cinematic history. With the exceptions of the spectacular opening sequence set to Bob Dylan's ""The Times They Are A-Changin,'"" and the choice of Philip Glass's music from ""Koyaanisqatsi,"" the music completely takes the viewer out of the movie. The most offensive choice is Leonard Cohen's ""Hallelujah,"" awkwardly placed in the middle of what would have been a very romantic sex scene.
The ensemble cast is a balance between the spectacular (Haley is great as Rorschach, and Patrick Wilson was born to play the role of Nite Owl II) and the ridiculously terrible (Malin Akerman, who plays Silk Spectre II, should be banned from Hollywood). Billy Crudup does an admirable job as Dr. Manhattan, a man accidentally infused with God-like powers who as a result becomes detached from humanity, but he doesn't quite capture the essence of the character. And the casting of Matthew Goode couldn't have been more wrong. His Ozymandias (""the world's smartest man"") was almost as unrecognizable as his constantly changing accent.
Moviegoers unfamiliar with the novel will probably like the movie much more than ""Watchmen"" superfans, who have much to complain about even before the film arrives at its ending, which is completely different from the finale of the comics. Snyder failed to portray the humanity and realism of the source material, instead creating another failed Alan Moore adaption, alongside ""From Hell"" and ""The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."" It's not a big surprise that Moore refused to have his name attached to the film.
Grade: C
