Watching The Watchmen

Last night a friend and me attended the N.E. Hollywood premiere of Watchman. The film is based on a praised (by fan boys & media) graphic novel released in 1986, published by DC Comics.

The graphic novel was produced by the team of Alan Moore (writer) & Dave Gibbons (art). While Gibbons is a fan of the film & was involved in the creative process, Mr. Moore was not. He requested (read:demanded) that his name be removed from the film as well as his past & future work that was/will be adapted into film. Apparently Mr. Moore was so displeased with the film adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (great comic-lousy film) starring Sean Connery, that he felt " The Hollywood Machine" was incapable of properly adapting his work to his satisfaction.



Many years ago I had attempted to enjoy (I use this word 'cause not only do you read it, but there's pretty pictures too!) the graphic novel, however I never finished it. Watchmen was touted as unfilmable & had been in & out of development at numerous studios throughout the years. Most recently Terry Gilliam & Paul Greengrass were in various stages of pre-production with their attempts eventually ending up dead or in turnaround. A Hollywood term for basically going nowhere fast.

Enter director Zac Snyder (300) & David Hayter (writer) who set about to finally bring the movie to celluloid. I'm not going to get into the story as it's somewhat complicated & I'm sure you may have read the book, seen the reviews, read about it somewhere, or just don't care. Snyder was adamant about using lessor known actors as to not take away or overshadow the characters.

The film stars Jackie Earl Haley (Little Children) as the most compelling character in the film, Rorschach. Who would of thought that the kid who got his start in The Bad News Bears, would become such an accomplished character actor. The other noteworthy stars are; Billy Crudup (Big Fish) as Dr. Manhattan, Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy-Little Children) as Owlman, and Jeffery Dean Morgan (Grey's Anatomy) as The Comedian. I feel Haley & Morgan were the strongest actors in the film. The only weak-link actor in the film was Malin Akerman as The Silk Spectre II. Although not terrible, compared to the others, she somewhat paled. On the other hand she was VERY easy on the eyes. Yowsa!

I felt much like The Dark Knight, the film was a bit too long, but understand there were many back stories & flashbacks, as well as character development needed to cram in there. The film is rated "R", & not surprisingly there were many viewers who were technically under the age limit. A couple even brought a baby which is a VERY sore subject for me & it's discussion would cause this post to be much longer than it already is! Despite the rating I was surprised at the amount of graphic violence & a few not so subtle sex scenes, although I'm far from a prude.

I have to admit during those graphic scenes it disturbed me that so many in the audience were laughing. I'm not sure if it's due to our desensitised society or just a nervous uncomfortable reaction to what they were seeing up on the screen. I tend to be sensitive, so when engrossed in scenes like that I think I react (at least internally) with the emotions that the producers were trying to convey, but hey that's just me.

Overall I enjoyed it, the first half more than the second, but it's one of those films that I think require multiple viewings to understand & fully appreciate as there's lots to see.