When Watchmen was released in book form in the 80s, it was considered the antidote to what had become a tired and predictable medium. It addressed a number of cliches and problems that persisted through superhero comics, and it took the genre into a new and surprising direction. Now we have the film version. Had this come out a year earlier, pre-Dark Knight, it might have been heralded in a similar way. It takes conventions we are used to and tosses them on their head. Unfortunately for the film, it will probably remain in the shadow of that other game changing comic book movie, but it still a refreshing wake up call to the industry and a reminder that not all superhero movies have to be copies of one another.I think what I like so much about this film is how polarizing it is. It isn't an easy film to like, creating a grim world filled with unlikable characters. A character we assume is supposed to be a hero shoots and kills a pregnant woman, while another one stands by and does nothing about it. Another character decides that it may be worth killing millions of people if that would save the rest of the world. This is a film that pokes and prods you, asking that you question what being a super hero entails, what they should be allowed to get away with. People who want to see some cheap thrills and likable characters will be in shock.
Director Zach Snyder is not the guy I would have thought of when I heard this was going to be made into a movie. His 300 was the exact opposite of everything Watchmen is about. That was a film that you weren't supposed to think about, just pay your money and watch the pretty visuals and the visceral gore. He is a filmmaker more interested in making something look cool than in coaxing out great performances. So I was certainly dreading his take on what was essentially an actionless superhero story filled with deeper than normal characters and numerous entertwining themes. Having seen and enjoyed the movie, I'm still not sure he was the right guy for this, but he certainly didn't ruin it. It's clear he didn't totally understand and appreciate every nuance of the novel, but he got the broad strokes. This is a film that could easily have gone horribly wrong if it had been in the hands of someone who didn't care, so I am thankful that Snyder demanded that his movie not compromise. I can handle his overuse of slow motion and ramped up violence if it means the rest of the story stays largely in tact.
I do think that Snyder failed his actors. To allow Malin Akerman to give a performance that wooden is inexcusable. She seems lost, unsure of what is going on. To be fair, she probably had to act against more visual effects than anyone else. Also, Matthew Goode was largely miscast as Ozymandias, the smartest man on Earth. He seems a bit too arch and youthful to pull off the character. The rest of the main cast do well, however. Jackie Earle Haley is every bit as good as I thought he would be. Patrick Wilson really transformed himself, selling his character as a likable schlub who misses the good old days. And even though he was largely a voice actor, Billy Crudup really shone as Dr. Manhattan. He was able to make the character both detached and sorrowful at the same time, a task I doubt many actors could pull off gracefully. Being a film with multiple main characters, I found myself enjoying his scenes the most.
The mere fact that a movie like this exists delights and tickles me. To unleash such an unrepentantly dark, unforgiving, unlikable movie onto the masses under the guise of a superhero blockbuster is a bit of a shock. I hope people don't just dismiss it simply because they can't cope with it on its own terms. I fully appreciate that this is a flawed film in many ways. The visual style is goofy. The length is unwieldy. The music is so on the nose. Flashbacks come from out of nowhere and go on for ten minutes at a time. It's almost slavish in the way it adheres to the structure of the book at the cost of flowing as a movie. I embrace the film in spite of (and maybe even slightly because of) these flaws, and all are great reasons to not like Watchmen. But to not like it because it challenges you to question what you think about this kind of film, to come up with your own opinions instead of being force fed them says more about the watcher than the film itself. Watchmen is a film that is supposed to be discussed, and whether you love it or hate it, you will want to discuss it.
