Watchmen Movie Review
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Watchmen completely succeeds as a loving adaptation of a classic comic, but it comes up short as a movie.
Up until the current mini-renaissance in comic book films, the result of a comic adaptation was hit or miss. For every Superman or Superman 2, there were quite a few films like Supergirl, Ghost Rider, etc. Often the problem with these movies was that it was as clear as day that a film executive had optioned a brand name character and built a crappy movie around that hoping to make a buck on action figures, video games and other tie-ins. Probably since the X-Men movies and culminating in The Dark Knight, Hollywood got that you could make a movie true to the comic book without watering it down in dreck.
The fundamental mistake at the heart of Watchmen is that it is too faithful to the comic. Director Zack Snyder tried to replicate what he did with 300 and what Robert Rodriguez did with Sin City. The problem, I think, is that the source material for those previous works by Frank Miller were cinematic in nature. By comparison, I think Alan Moore’s Watchmen is a creature of the comic book world. It is a masterful thing, but essentially of comics.
As a result, the movie is a chore for those who aren’t diehard Watchmen fans (As I am, even though I didn’t read it until a few years ago). Which is a shame, because the movie is pretty darn cool. I’m amazed at how much like the comic the movie is, especially the costumes and the vibe of an almost-dystopian 1980s New York. The only technical distractions were that the age makeup on Nixon and the original Silk Spectre were a little to noticeable.
Other than a little too much male frontal nudity (Seriously Dr. Manhattan, put on some pants! Even some underoos!), I liked Watchmen. I just felt that it too often felt like a fan film with a giant budget – essentially impenetrable to an audience of non-fanboys. And that does not make for a great movie.
Rating: 3 out of 5
23 Responses to “Watchmen Movie Review”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
My brief take here.
I dunno, my girlfriend REALLY liked it – and she doesn’t like gratuitous violence AT ALL (usually turns her off from a relatively good movie), has only ever read Sandman and a few indie comics. She seemed to get almost everything that made the comic great, and came away from it extremely excited to read it. I think that’s a win.
I was pretty satisfied too, I haven’t read it recently, even though I own it, and from the feeling I got while watching I wanted to say it had the same feeling at least, even if some details were lost or changed.
I haven’t (yet) read the comic, and I enjoyed the film.
Same here, Matt–only read a little of the comix, when they first came out (before the GN was compiled)…
for me, one mark of a successful long movie is when it draws me into the story enough that I lose track of the passing time. Watchmen did that. Granted, there were moments that didn’t draw me in as much, and characters with whom I didn’t sympathise as much, in in toto I would rate the movie as well done as ’300′ in it ability to convey the story to the sudience–even those who hadn’t read the book.
One thing that might help, Oliver–I saw it in IMAX….maybe seeing it in larger-than-life format helped draw me in more than for you. I plan on seeing it again, too, because there was just too much to that world to take in, in just one sitting.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars: It’s not great, but it’s not a waste of funds or time….a ‘should see’ movie as compared to ‘must see’….
I felt like someone was pissing on my grandmother’s grave for 3 hours. The violence was way too much and I think we could have done without a five minute hard core sex scene. Changing the way Rorsach dealt with the child killer was also totally gratuitous. This was a lousy adaptation of Watchmen. 1 out of 5 stars.
one mark of a successful long movie is when it draws me into the story enough that I lose track of the passing time.
Kind of interesting statement given the number of references to time throughout.
I bought the GN yesterday, eating it up now.
I liked it. I’d read the GN a few months prior and thought Snyder did an exceptional job of adapting it to film. I even dare say that I find many elements of the movie as memorable as the GN. I really want to see it again.
My best friend, having never read the GN (or heard of it for that matter), thoroughly enjoyed it as well. We both appreciated the concept of the storyline: superheroes had their glory days but soon became banned. Here’s a look into their lives and how they handle the conspiracy. The movie effectively, in my opinion, took care of bringing the audience up to speed in the exposition and afterwards saying in so many words, “Here’s where we pick up.” Keeping all of this in mind, I personally can’t see why it’s not getting better reviews. Maybe because people are going in expecting it to be a straightforward superheroes-who-kick-butt-all-day movie like most others, which in all fairness is understandable, since that’s what most boil down to.
I give it 4.5 stars. The only thing I think was kind of lame was the sex scene. Kind of like watching porno for five minutes. Other than that, I thought it was great.
Too bad this “classic” comic hasn’t really been the Batman level seller DC and Warners put so much money into it becoming, obviously. The comic generally was and still is ignored and panned as being the low level crud that it is. Not sure if the movie improves upon this, as I haven’t seen it. I hope Time-Warners gets some of its money back, given how much they’ve sunk into this meaningless stinker. With all the amazing comic titles DC has, they could at least try adapting their good ones. From Wonder Woman to Hourman, and Black Canary to Hawkman. They’ve got a real comic library worth exploring.
PS: I appreciate why Snyder opted to make the movie an R-rating. In being true to the GN and making things as realistic as possible, there are certain things that you just can’t water down. Case in point: the scene with Rorschach walking down the streets of New York at night and whores soliciting themselves. You think they’re going to be classy women who dress up in gowns and cover themselves up? Nope. And when he doesn’t receive their advances, they curse him out…that’s what would actually happen.
I also don’t think that the gore was over-the-top. I went in expecting every other scene to unreasonably gruesome but, again, I feel like it captured the concept of what the story was all about: superheroes who would be that strong and driven by that sort of hatred against injustice would inflict that kind of damage in fights…even after retirement.
*smh* I dunno…I was just really impressed by it.
What? Watchmen is probably the bestselling graphic novel of all time. Nobody ignores it. It’s considered one of the greatest books ever. Please, don’t open your mouth when just garbage comes out.
In response to Laker12, this GN is actually the highest selling comic in history for both Marvel and DC. It was also listed in Time magazines 100 best novels of the 20th century. Knowing this and reading what you wrote it is obvious that you have no idea of what you’re talking about.
That said, I would give this movie a 3/5. I would have liked to have seen more of the interaction between Rorshach and the pyschologist, as that was one of the best parts in the GN. Cutting it down to under a minute left me wanting more.
I think that the sex scene in Archie was a bit too much, but I like the fact that Zach used it to ensure an R rating. As far as the violence is concerned, it is a violent comic. The book was not written for children and the movie was not made for children.
All in all, the movie is worth seeing, but I would urge people to read the GN.
Amazing GN. One of the best of all times, for sure.
Amazing movie. Can´t wait to see it againg…
Too inteligent for everyone to apreciate…
If you dont like it, it´s because you don´t get it!
Besides, this is not, under any circumstance, a Super-Hero movie.
Go back to see Spiderman.. easy-to-see-while-eating-popcorn movie. Even I like it… It´s just a nice movie compared to WATCHMEN.
It´s good to see a movie that makes you think from time to time.
Cant wait for the three hour DVD release.
I was in a group of three who went to see it–me, representing the novel’s constant re-reader and literary analyst, my wife representing a casual reader (she’s read it once), and her cousin representing somebody who had no idea what they were getting into.
Her cousin liked the film the most. I don’t think it’s impenetrable to non-fanboys at all.
I give the film a solid B, based on a mixed bag of personal grades. B+ on the adaptation, A+ for all things Jackie Earle Haley, D+ for Malin Akerman’s line readings, C+ on Matthew Goode’s accent, A on the special effects, etcetera etcetera.
James, why would the director want to ‘ensure’ an R rating? Cuts into the box office, does it not? Even artistically, why wouldn’t he just make the movie he wanted to make and let the MPAA deal with that?
laker12 is either a sockpuppet for or a minion of Debbie Scheißel
Where the violence lost it for me was the resolution of the child killer scene. The GN was fantastic and I can see Rorsach wanting the killer to suffer the way that girl suffered. The way Snyder handled this was pure crap.
Also, for me, one of the hearts of the whole GN was Dr. Manhatthan’s speech to Laurie about thermodynamic miracles. I LOVE this moment of the book. And Hayter’s script totally blew it. It was meant to be this touchstone of the story, where Alan Moore gets across his view of humanity and it fell flat in the film.
Scott – Yeah, there were a handful of moments where I saw the screenwriters say “I can make this scene better,” but then fail utterly. What they tried to do with Rorschach in the film was give him a psychotic break based on rage…but the book’s version…the cold, dead creature that opened its eyes after killing the German shepherds…was so much more terrifying.
Not to bash anyone’s opinion, because we’re all entitled to our own. And I realize that I’m more of a newby fanboy than all of the many-year vets who are fans of the GN…but I liked the meat cleaver scene. Although I was waiting for Rorschach to start dousing the place with gasoline and suspected for a minute that maybe he might have given the molester a meat cleaver to try to free himself instead of a saw, I still don’t think that the liberty Snyder took was unjust. Plus, I think that the strengths entire child molester scene more than made up for any shortcomings. The musical score, the environment, and the narration had everyone on the edge of their seat wanting to see what happened next when we saw it.
I also think I’m rather lenient with most of the cuts in the movie because I remember watching an interview with Snyder and he explained that it was impossible to include every possible part of the storyline in a movie with the time restraints that hollywood puts on films. Which explains why the DVD will be longer and the pirate comic will be released as a seperate DVD. All in all, I feel like he hit and developed on all of the critical points with the time restraints that he had to work with.
I’ve never read the comic and after watching the movie I still won’t read the comic. It was an ok movie but I felt like I sat there for an hour before I found anything entertaining. They spent so much time trying to build characters or storyline that it was frankly kind of boring. I didn’t feel like I was watching a movie, I felt like I was being read a tech manual. To be fair I would like to see the movie again because I know there was so much that I missed a few things the first time. Overall I would only give it 2.5 maybe 3 out of 5. Although I would assume this follows the comic I did not like the ending at all. In fact I felt kind of sad about Rorsach. It felt like his friends turning on him even if they weren’t exactly friends. I think I connected with his character more than any other. My favorite scene of the movie is when he is in prison and says “I am not in here with you!! YOUR IN HERE WITH ME!!!” It just really brought the character to life I thought and for it to end the way it did just kinda ruined it for me.
i just got back from watching Watchmen; in retrospect, the movie leaves me feeling a bit haunted by it’s style and storyline, though in a good way
I LOVED the movie, although I did not read the book. I will read it now though. The 3 hour running time was not too long, b/c the whole movie was interesting. My fave part of the movie was when Dr. Manhattan told Adrian something like “the world’s smartest human is no more of a threat to me than the world’s smartest termite.” Swagger, GOLD!!!
I have to admit that your review of the film was pretty much spot on. Watchmen just wasnt really meant to be a movie
I went to see this movie last night and i was awfully dissapointed, although it was true to the GN it didn’t need to be. The whole thing just did not work as a movie at all, unlike 300 and sin city etc which were fantastic adaptations.
However the film was beautiful, i don’t think anyone can deny that visually it was a work of art but a movie isn’t good just because it is aesthetically pleasing. Also whoever decided on the music should be put down, Halelouyah… honestly… not a good choice.
Overall 1 out of 5 stars, and the only reason it gets one is because of the cg.