Watchmen

I was actually very pleased with the Watchmen adaptation.

It’s been a few years now since I read the graphic novel, and since then we’ve had a fair few adaptations of the less sophisticated end of the grown-up segment of the comics spectrum: Sin City, V for Vendetta, 300 et al.

But when I heard that the Watchmen adaptation was going ahead, I was sceptical. Terry Gilliam and Alan Moore agreed that it was ‘Unfilmable’ and all the subtleties of the comic’s mixed media and intensive levels of detail seemed impossible to cram into a couple of hours, especially when it was such a fun graphic novel to pore over.

And let’s face it, Alan Moore adaptations have never quite worked. From Hell was sloppy and little to do with its source. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a fun romp but again very different from what Moore wrote. V for Vendetta was the best of the three, but forced the grey areas Moore so deftly defined into brutish black and white, and the political edge ground down just a little too much. No wonder Moore has chosen to distance himself from films.

Besides, Watchmen always stood alone. It was that much more clever, complex and complete. Zack Snyder may have made 300 magnificent, but it was very silly, and proud of its dumbness. I must say, I did not expect much.

Which is why the faithful, lengthy and admirably serious adaptation was a real pleasure. The film has suffered criticism for being too reverent, for keeping its camera overly still (nonsense; there are some beautiful shots here: just look at that pull back from the angel over the cemetery gates), for not fully developing its characters (I defy you to find so many well-developed characters in a comparable action film). But personally, reverence was exactly what I wanted, and I’m pleased to hear the mixed-media elements that couldn’t be crammed in will appear on the DVD.

And other than Ozymandias perhaps not quite going to seed enough, the cast was so perfect. Rorschach couldn’t have looked or sounded better, with or without mask. Even if the irony of his slightly rubbish costume couldn’t have translated to the screen without it just looking like the costumers had failed, Nite Owl was just right in terms of being a likeable, timid oaf of a man. Silk Spectre was the right mixture of girlish and irritating, while Dr. Manhattan…well, wow, Dr. Manhattan looked incredible and I’ve loved Billy Crudup’s voice since the Mononoke-Hime dub.

From that amazing opening montage with all the old guard (ahaha Hooded Justice is so awesome), to the trip to Antarctica, I loved it. Even the changes to the ending…well, I’m a bit divided on those. Honestly speaking, I was glad what was in the comic was changed, because it was always a bit rubbish. But…I’d’ve preferred the writers to have come up with something slightly more elegant to pin.

In the end, I think I loved it as a companion piece, rather than a replacement for, the graphic novel, but as adaptations of comics go, well, it really did make everything else pale somewhat.