Saw the 8:30 show of this movie last night, and I must say that I was thoroughly disappointed. I’d been told that the plot was largely unchanged, except for the superfluous stuff about the Black Freighter and the side stories involving the newspaper vendor, the New Frontiersman, etc, etc, etc. I figured that - in order to be condensed into a 2.5 - 3 hour movie, these were necessary casualties.
However, I found the movie to be a disappointing adaptation and an incredibly poor film on its own. It did have its high points: most of the scenes with Rorschach in them were picture perfect, and - to echo many other reviews out there - Jackie Earle Haley steals the show in every scene, and he is the factor that made the film tolerable for me. Watching him portraying Rorschach was a pleasure. I’ve also got to give credit where credit is due for the portrayals Jeffrey Dean Morgan in his role as the Comedian, and Patrick Wilson, for his portrayal as Nite Owl. Although Wilson wasn’t perfect, I feel that there is something to be said about the social awkwardness and impotence that he brought to the character. And Morgan as the Comedian was spot on: he was brutal, cynical, vindictive, and nihilistic. It was perfect. The scene where he kills the Vietnamese girl, the scene where he and Nite Owl are attempting to stop a riot, and the attempted rape of Silk Spectre were all handled really well.
That being said, the movie just didn’t flow very well. The mystery - once trimmed of all the fat - was hardly a mystery at all. The only reason they were unable to solve it for the majority of the movie is because they literally weren’t trying to solve it for the majority of the movie. Comedian gets killed. Thousands of tangents in which no one does anything to solve the mystery. Pyramid Industries? Veidt. Wow. We wrapped that mystery up in a few seconds. Probably should have had at it earlier.
The plot didn’t seem paced very well, and the dialogue all seemed to be an extremely awkward blend of text taken line for line, character for character from the original book, and new text that was awkwardly injected into the mix after being pulled from fan fiction. Characters didn’t really stay true to their roots, and the movie struggled along with a brutalized narrative before collapsing at the end in an extremely disappointing ending.
Everyone said that the movie was not a superhero movie, yet I don’t think that Hayter and Snyder received their own memo. As writer and director, you think they would have taken the effort to tone down all of the absurd fight scenes, especially the one that broke Ozymandias’ explanation at the end into pieces. I mean…I understand who your main demographic is: the same group of US citizens whose game of choice is football because their attention span is limited to periods of only a few minutes before you must take a break and refocus them. It was really annoying to have them keep attacking Veidt, and it didn’t make sense. You think you’ve got this guy talking like a regular super villain, and you keep interrupting him. Tackling him will not stop him, and punching him in the face is not justice. If they were to employ their regular strategy, they’d let him talk, asking very directing questions about his plot, and THEN stop him. The fight scene injected into his explanation was merely to keep people entertained during all the talking.
Don’t get me wrong. Some fight scenes were necessary, such as all the heroic acts that enabled an otherwise impotent Dan Dreiberg to get it on with the Silk Spectre, and the ones in the prison with Rorschach were necessary to show how much of a threat he was. And, as a random side note, his delivery of the line “I’m not locked in here with you, you’re locked in here with me” was perfect.
Also, holy shit, is Zack Snyder ever a pretentious douche who likes to ride his one success like crazy. Did anyone else see all the 300s that kept showing up? Anytime there was a number, it seems 300 rolled into play. The Comedian’s room number, the psychiatrists briefcase combination, etc, etc. Yes, we get it. You directed 300. Shut the fuck up man. When other director/writers reference their own material in future movies, it is interesting, because people who follow that director/writer are able to catch on to these little things. You didn’t write 300. And it is an action movie. Anyone can make a good action movie. Throw Binks, Danger, and myself the budget you had on 300, and we’ll make an action movie that fucks your mind into goo. Zack Snyder has had limited directorial success and really shouldn’t be flaunting it considering how widely disliked Watchmen was. Even some of the fresh ratings on Rotten Tomatoes have a majority of negative quotes.
And - as someone pointed out on another RCG blog - the music was terrible. Sound of Silence, All Along the Watchtower, etc, etc, etc. Every single scene for the first half (or more) of the movie seems to be paired with a song from the late 70s or the 80s. Including fight scenes and sentimental scenes where such songs just did not fit. I mean, I get the reason for the first one. It sets the time frame without having to put “This is 1985” on the screen. However, such repeated use of songs from that area really overdoes it, and its inclusion in some scenes (especially the sex scene between Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II) had more people laughing in the theatre than anything else. The movie is not a comedy. It needs to reset its focus. And to those who might respond by saying that the music isn’t that important, music can make or break a scene. They give an Oscar out for it for a reason. Imagine if you had the Hamsterdance playing during the first scene of Pulp Fiction, or if the Star Wars theme never existed. Or if when Marty McFly was driving toward the clock tower to catch the lightning bolt, it was playing Blinded by the Light. Music can make or break a scene, and Watchmen was mostly broken.
EDIT: Interestingly enough, all musical types who worked on this movie fell into one of the following three categories:
a) Worked music before - but only on comedies
b) Had only one job before Watchmen
c) Worked music before - but only in B-movies or - sometimes - the dreaded C-movie. Oh, and some porn.
Bottom line: We get it. The movie takes place in the 1980s. Let it go.
Ugh. There were just a whole bunch of other things that I didn’t like about the movie. Katie wasn’t too fond of it either, and I’ve told her to read the graphic novel because it is much better.
In the end, this isn’t a movie I would ever watch again. Ever. Who is watching the Watchmen? Not me.