>Spoiler Alert:

Before it was even in production, Zack Synders’ Watchmen was going to be a hard film to make. Writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbon’s post-nuclear graphic novel was almost single handily responsible for changing the comic book industry as we know it. It helped open a flood gate of mature content and deconstructed heroes to your average funny book, which is not a small task to achieve. Now, over 20 years after its original release, the classic has finally been translated to the silver screen. Initially, Watchmen is a visually stunning adaptation, with spot-on characterizations of Alan Moore’s cast of misfit heroes and blockbuster action that demands widescreen viewing. However, despite its visual prowess, Watchmen was long ago coined the un-filmable graphic novel for a number of reasons. Thus, regardless of Synders’ excellent attempt, the original Watchmen remains un-filmable, crushed under the weight of its own story.

Watchmen was ultimately meant for the comic medium alone. The subtle nuances of Alan Moore’s craft and Dave Gibbon’s rendering are allowed the freedom to gradually expanded over twelve issues of brilliant comics. Yet, in the film, director Synder is force to compress every second of Moore’s complex nonlinear storytelling, and struggles to fit the main plot into the film. To Synder’s credit, he does an absolutely amazing job at what is the seemingly impossible task of telling Watchmen in 162 minutes. Still, the fact remains that Moore’s story is simply to vast, especially its exploration into quantum-physics, to fully explain its depth anywhere under four hours. Without expanded plot development or having previously read the graphic novel, broad audiences are going to ask what all the Watchmen hype is about.

This is not to say that filmgoers are not going to respond positively to Synder’s strengths as a filmmaker. Synder captures the essence of Moore’s vigilante team with his strong ensemble cast, and there are stand out performances from Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson and hands down to Jackie Early Hallie. Crudup plays the omnipotent demi-god Dr. Manhattan, and his soothing lonely voice embodies the characters disconnect from the common man. Crudup perhaps had the hardest shoes to fill in that Dr. Manhattan is nearly an impossible character to relate to even in the comic. His performance is stellar even if it is bogged down with physics and an isolating trip to Mars that causal viewers are bond to find somewhat confusing. Wilson plays Night Owl II, a Batman-esque hero who can only fully function in day to day life, and especially in bed with sexy co-star Malin Ackerman, if he is in his costumed persona. Just like in the comic, it is Hallie’s portrayal of sociopath Rorschach that steals the show. Closer to an anti-hero than superhero, Rorschach’s brand of black and white justice makes for the films most engaging character, and Hallie’s performance is frighteningly similar to Moore’s characterization.

Synder’s use of pop music throughout the film is sometimes genius, but at other times, comes off as absurd and unnecessary. First, his choice to use certain rock tracks, in particular Jimi Hendrix’s version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower,” is a direct homage to the fans who know that chapter 10 ends with quoted lyrics from the song. This use of music actually helps illustrate how the film’s fictional world relates to our real world, and parallels the action in the scene as Moore intended. Also, Synder finds songs outside of Moore’s encyclopedic cannon that are perfectly fitting to his work. For example, his use of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “I’m Your Boogie Man” during a riot scene, is the perfect juxtaposition of funky period establishment and eerie foreshadowing of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s masterful take on the despicable Comedian. Yet, Synder also has some major missteps with song selection. The use of composer Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” during a scene in the Vietnam war, where a giant Dr. Manhattan is disintegrating Viet-Kong, comes across cliche. What more, because of the music audiences begin to lose their suspension of disbelief during a scene that is crucial to believe in the film’s one super-powered man. However, it is Synder’s trademark over-the-top sex scene and use of Leonard Cohen’s classic “Hallelujah,” that comes off the most absurd and comical. Still, Synder’s choice of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They’re a’ Changing” during the opening montage, which is also the films best scene, is thoughtful and infinitely reflective of all the information the viewer is learning about the “Watchmen world”. Though Synder strays the furthest away from the book with this montage, it shows his mastery of the craft and is one of the main reason why his adaptation is a worthy effort.

However, it is Synder’s distinctive action sequence that will attract the most attention. Though exaggerated from Gibbon’s drawings, Synder’s action is another major reason to enjoy this adaptation. It is impossible to ignore that this is a story about costumed crime-fighters. Though Moore’s story deconstructs the superhero, it would simply being a boring movie with out some stylized ass-kicking. Therefore, your most entertaining elements are Synder’s well choreographed fights and slow-to fast editing.

The film adaptation of Watchmen is entertaining still, it’s somehow not fully whole. That is becuase, even with all of Zack Synder’s strengths, the film misses the overall ideological point Alan Moore was trying to communicate. The ending of Watchmen is crucial, and the film loses the comic’s point here. Updating, the squid disaster to Dr. Manhattan’s nuclear holocaust is necessary, and very arguably a better plot twist, but its overall outcome is changed in the film. Ultimately, Watchmen, the comic, is a look at heroism in a post nuclear world. Moore used the device of the “Super-Hero,” the most heroic figure in contemporary storytelling, to analyze the world during the cold war. What comes across is that even super-heroes are fragile and essentially humanly flawed when threaten by a world with an unstoppable weapon. Consequently, no one can be a absolute hero and escape basic humanity with the treat of this chaos, and you leave the book unsettled, questioning a cold war era America that is perhaps its own worst enemy.

Where the film fails is that it tells a story with a distinct hero and distinct villain. No one in the book is completely innocent, heroic or right, but the film would have you believe otherwise. To go back to the original point, the comic Watchmen is un-filmable because no hollywood producer would ever allow Moore’s open-ended ending to be the finale of the film. The one true watchmen is the graphic novel, and reading the book will do the story justice.

So, is Watchmen worth seeing? Absolutely! Its engrossing and entertaining, and because of Zack Synder’s efforts likely the closest adaptation of Watchmen the world will ever get on film. Will it change the film industry like the graphic novel changed the comic industry? Probably not, but no one really thought it would in the first place.

-Jon

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