Mar 7, 2009 11:55 pm US/Mountain
Critic At Large Greg Moody Reviews 'Watchmen'
Written by Greg Moody
DENVER (CBS4) ―
I've been a fan of "Watchmen," the limited-run comic series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, since it first came out in the 1980s. I was excited to see that it was being made into a movie, even though I often wondered how it could possibly be filmed, worried when Fox threatened to stop the release over a rights question, and finally, content to sit in a theater with 400 of my closest fellow geeks and enjoy the screening.
Oh, if only the feeling had lasted.
What we've got here is a literal translation of the comic to the screen. That would be good, for some. For me, however, there is a disconnect. Movies and comic books, movies and any other medium, including television, tell their stories in different ways. For me, this needed to be a version in which they captured the spirit of the graphic novel, rather than every broken bone, bloody arm or mushroom cloud.
The Watchmen are a group of costumed heroes in an alternate America, circa 1985. Nixon is still president. The Soviet Union and the U.S. are staring each other down with atomic war as the last resort. And someone is bumping off "The Masks" one at a time. There is some grand master plan at work, and only the anti-social Rorshach seems to be driven enough to find out what's behind it all.
Director Zack Snyder ("300") captures the look and general feel of the comic, and, as I said, is almost slavish to the plotline. That hurts the movie. It is SO literal, that much of the dynamic energy of the comic is lost, despite gallons of spilled blood, compound fractures and some tremendously staged action scenes.
There is a lot to like here. The human back-stories of each character, from The Comedian to Dr. Manhattan, Rorschach to the Silk Spectre II, are fascinating and handled very well. And the performances are generally excellent. I loved Carla Gugino as the original Silk Spectre, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian and Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan (though I did wonder a few times -- why don't they put a Speedo on that guy?) The only weak link in the cast was Malin Ackerman as Silk Spectre II. While others brought life and excitement to what they were doing, she seemed to be there merely for window dressing, will little life behind the eyes.
Still, in the end, I could not seem to connect to the movie. There was a temporal shift between the movie and me. I knew, especially given my love of the original material, that I should be one of the first in line to love this picture. And yet, it just never happened for me. It was all technique and no heart.
Fans may be happy, but general movie goers will likely be bored. I was a little of both.
Rated R, "Watchmen" gets a yellow light.
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments