Watchmen (DVD)

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"Who watches the watchmen?"
--Juvenal, "Satires," VI, 347

Note: In the following joint DVD review, both John and Will comment on the film, with John also writing up the Video, Audio, Extras, and Parting Thoughts.

The Film According to John:
They said it couldn't be done.
No one could film "Watchmen."
Maybe they were right.

OK, I confess to knowing next to nothing about comic books, comic-book heroes, or graphic novels, yet even I had heard of "Watchmen." British writer Alan Moore ("From Hell," "V for Vendetta"), British cartoonist Dave Gibbons, and British writer and artist John Higgins combined talents in the mid 1980s to create a series of twelve DC Comics depicting the adventures of a group of irreverent superheroes known collectively as the "Watchmen." Shortly thereafter, the creative team incorporated the stories into a twelve-chapter graphic novel, which subsequently became even more celebrated than the individual, limited-run comic books had been. Then in 2008 Warner Bros. aired a twelve-part animated television series based on the tales, duplicating the comic books almost frame for frame. Now, we get the live-action motion-picture version of the famed comics. The result is different, to say the least; but there is no denying the movie is endlessly fascinating despite the filmmakers having to condense the sprawling, episodic, multicharacter book to a little over two-and-a-half hours in the theatrical version and to just over three hours in the Director's Cut reviewed here.

Fans and critics alike called "Watchmen" groundbreaking when it first appeared, and it certainly seems that the writers and artists intended the series as a retort to the multitude of superhero books and films that abounded in the 1980s and beyond, poking fun at them, while exposing their sometimes perplexing, labyrinthine, and unsavory underbellies. Because not all of the "Watchmen" superheroes survive the ordeals the authors put them through and because most of the superheroes are cynically twisted, the authors invented brand-new characters for the adventures, ones who just happen to resemble real comic-book heroes, at least superficially.

The best parts of the motion picture are the opening fight sequence, juxtaposed with Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable," and an opening-credits montage done to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" that explains the development and evolution of the Watchmen superheroes from the group's beginnings as an earlier team of crime busters in the Forties and Fifties to the film's present, when the government outlawed their vigilante ways as a menace to society. Government officials used as an excuse for prohibiting masked avengers the notion that superheroes were doing more harm than good, but in truth the government wanted some of them for their own nefarious purposes. If the rest of the movie had been as creative and robust as the introductory elements, it might have benefitted greatly.

The setting for the main plot is around the time of the story's creation, 1985, and the place is a sordid, fearful, crime-filled New York City, infused with ironic, ubiquitous Smiley Faces. Yet it's an alternate 1985, where a paranoid Richard Nixon is still President, his finger poised on the button of nuclear annihilation; detente, perestroika, and glasnost are meaningless words; the War Room from "Dr. Strangelove" is a reality; the Doomsday Clock continues to tick down to the final hour; anger and frustration strangle the populace; and things seldom unfold as they did in our own universe. The world faces moral decay from within, while facing the imminent threat of war from without. This is a grim, decadent, corrupt landscape, where superheroes used to do their best to keep order and provide justice by exploiting some of the same dubious practices they so decried.

At the center of the action is Walter Kovacs, "Rorschach" (Jackie Earle Haley), a sardonic, compulsive masked avenger whom some people admire and others think is nuts. He's a hardened, world-weary, ultraconservative crime fighter who believes in never compromising. Among his friends are Daniel Dreiberg, "Nite Owl" (Patrick Wilson), a nerdy fellow and an empty shell of his former self; Laurie Juspeczyk, "Silk Spectre" (Malin Ackerman), a disillusioned woman who never wanted to be a superhero in the first place; and Adrian Veidt, "Ozymandias" (Matthew Goode), the smartest man in the world, a guy so smart he figured it was better business selling action figures of himself than continuing to put himself in danger. By now the government has outlawed most vigilante superheroes for causing more trouble than they've prevented, except for a very few like Jonathan Osterman, "Dr. Manhattan" (Billy Crudup), whose superhuman powers of teleportation and precognition have made him a handy weapon against the Evil Soviet Empire. His powers have also removed him from normal society and from his own once-human soul.

While Rorschach's fellow superheroes voluntarily "retired" after the government banned them in the late Seventies, Rorschach refused and secretly continued his crusade against crime. When the stories concentrate on Rorschach's life and fortunes (which the Director's Cut does more so than the theatrical version), the movie maintains a strong interest level. When it veers off into its many tangents, it starts to bog down and fall flat, and there are too many such tangents. OK, to be fair, they aren't really tangents; they're analogies and subplots important to the story line and characters. But just as in the comics, they go on too long in the movie and feel like padding.

The primary conflict develops early on. The police find a man named Edward Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) dead of a fall from his high-rise apartment, either a suicide or a murder. Rorschach recognizes Blake as "The Comedian," one of his old superhero teammates before the government broke them up. Rorschach sees Blake's death as murder, and he wonders if somebody isn't trying to kill off all the old masked avengers one by one. The movie chronicles Rorschach's investigation into the matter.

Rorschach's pessimism permeates his personality and the rest of the characters, the list of miserable fates for past masked avengers clearly indicating the story's intention of showing a side to superheroes hitherto unrevealed to the public. Unfortunately for Rorschach, nobody takes him seriously when he warns them of what's happening. Even his old friends think he's sick. What's more, everyone appears to have had a reason for wanting Edward Blake dead, he was such a complete jerk, so everyone is a suspect.

"Watchmen" in its Director's Cut provides a further twenty-four minutes or so of new material, most of it centering on Rorschach, which is good, plus an added death scene. The extra minutes do help to make more sense of the story, but they also make a film already too long an even longer stretch.

Zack Snyder, who is no stranger to comic-book adaptations after doing "300," works as well as one could expect adapting the movie from the comic-book adventures. He provides his audience with plenty of engaging characters, both good and evil; intrigue galore; a nicely dark, atmospheric tone; a ton of social, philosophical, scientific, and theological discussion; a wonderfully perverse, upside-down look at superheroes; a tangled romance; and a pretty good live-action replication of the original graphic novel. In style and substance the movie should be unique enough, inventive enough, and creative enough to keep most viewers at least mildly interested, which is more than I can say about many other live-action superhero movies.

One thing you won't find in this particular Director's Cut, however, is the "Tales of the Black Freighter," the comic-book episodes found in the graphic adventure. This was a story-within-a-story that helped reinforce the ironic nature of life and the meaning of what we see versus what might really be happening. However, Warner Bros. will be releasing an even longer Director's Cut of the movie later in the year that incorporates these segments in it. I'm not sure it will improve the movie or the ease of sitting through and watching it, but we'll see. I found the film's theatrical version and the present Director's Cut just fine without the further digressions.

The plot of "Watchmen" gets more complicated, more elaborate, and at times more incoherent as it goes along, with multiple flashbacks to fill in the details and a conclusion that doesn't quite satisfy the lengthy buildup nor stick entirely to the source material. After the first couple of episodes, things begin to slow down and lose some of their inspiration, yet whenever Rorschach takes center stage, things liven up considerably, so, as I say, it's good that the Director's Cut adds more about him. Indeed, it is Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Edward Blake who are the real stars, their vigorous interpretations helping the picture come to life. The other actors are competent but not memorable, the actual plot getting lost in their sometimes mundane characterizations.

Partly satire, partly political declamation, partly metaphysical rambling, partly conspiracy-theory rant, partly nihilistic existentialism, partly New Age hokum, partly film noir, partly sci-fi/fantasy soap opera, and partly old-time matinee serial, "Watchmen" is surprisingly entertaining for all its fragmented diversity. Frankly, I never thought I'd like the movie, nor did I think I'd like the extra-long Director's Cut of it. But even if it's overlong, I'm glad I watched it, the extended version coming closer to the graphic novel on which it's based. Although I would have given the theatrical version, which Will reviewed below, the same rating he gave it, a 6/10, I'd give the Director's Cut an extra point.

Be aware that even though the "Watchmen" movie originated as a comic book, the MPAA gave it an R rating for its bloody violence, gore, sexuality, profanity, and nudity. Some of the violence does seem more than a tad gratuitous, Snyder exaggerating a few instances not in the comics; and the nudity includes not only the younger Silk Spectre but full-frontal shots of Dr. Manhattan, something to which a few critics objected but which Snyder took directly from the comics. In any case, the movie is not meant for kids.

John's film rating: 7/10

The Film According to Will:
I never thought I'd see the day when the feature film version of "Watchmen" would finally hit the screen, let alone see anything "Watchmen" related outside the comic book shop. Now, you can walk into Target and buy the trade paperback. There are huge displays of "Watchmen" books, CDs, and posters at Borders. There are "Watchmen" action figures, "Watchmen" on the cover of mainstream magazines, and segments about "Watchmen" on "Entertainment Tonight." It's been a strange, strange journey to get to this point. It's been in development hell for nearly twenty years, had several big-name directors come and go, seen lawsuits and its co-creator wash his hands of the entire thing. Fans thought it would never happen, but "Watchmen" has arrived.

Originally published by DC Comics as a twelve-issue miniseries in 1986, "Watchmen" has gone on to become one of the most revered comic books ever published. "Time" magazine listed it as one of the 100 greatest novels published since 1923. Written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons, "Watchmen" was originally intended to star a stable of lesser-known characters DC purchased from the defunct-Charlton Comics line. When DC realized Moore's story would render these characters unusable, they directed him to create a cast of original costumed heroes. Moore had already begun challenging the accepted notions of what superhero comic book should be with his work on "Miracleman" and "Swamp Thing" by dealing with adult themes of authority, theology, and existentialism. Moore looked to further shatter those preconceptions with "Watchmen" which acted as both a psychological deconstruction of the superhero mythology as well as a comment on the Cold War politics of the time. He hoped to point out the dangers of entrusting one's life and safety in the hands of other individuals simply because they had the power. As the old saying goes, who watches the watchmen?

With "Watchmen," Moore imagined what the world would be like if costumed adventurers really existed. What would the heroes be like if they had all the same hang-ups as real human beings? It was practically revolutionary when Stan Lee created Spider-Man as an awkward teen who couldn't get girls or pay the bills. Here, the superheroes are sadists, masochists or psychopaths. How would the superheroes affect the sociopolitical structure of the world? And how exactly do you solve society's problems by dressing up in a costume and punching people in the face? Moore played up and tore down various superhero tropes that had been in place for decades when creating the inhabitants of the "Watchmen" world.