Watchmen

Getting back to Zack Snyder retrospective with an adaptation that some say is good while others say it’s not and this is a surprise kind of it since it has been in development hell for several years and the fact that it’s in a way unfilmable. And given that Zack has already giving his all with one work by Frank Miller, the next question is did he do the same for Alan Moore and that is the question that is going until this day what with what DC did recently to this work and the controversial sense on Alan’s other work so what there is to say about what many say that he’s one of the famous authors of this generation.

Well, I’m a huge Alan Moore fan but not for the fact that I liked Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke but his other works is (and call me blasphemous) way better than these two. I mean, look at 1963 or his work on America’s Best Comics imprint or A Small Killing which this is the first Alan Moore story I ever read. And anybody in Hollywood has the tendency to take his work and distort it for better or worse which is why League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie is a horrid disaster, why V For Vendetta have a different message and why DC and Brian Azzarello decide to go… um, I’ll talk about that movie next time. And this is going back to Watchmen so why did this movie adaptation divided its fans of the book that’s been in print since 1986?

The movie adaptation follows the story almost beat-by-beat by having it both take place in an alternate 1985 where Richard Nixon is still US President and superheroes used to exist but after the act, whoever wears a mask and costume are considered outlaws. After the murder of Edward Morgan Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who used to go by as The Comedian, lone vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) investigates his death which opens up a web of mystery that might lead to the destruction of the world itself so he aids the help of Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) and Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) with Dr Manhattan (Billy Crudup) and Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) involved. But with the answers unraveled, it led to a changing effect that heroes are not what they are used to in any comic book made before this tale was told.

Now the differences between the comic and the movie is noticeable. In the comic books, Ozymandias hatches a plan for stopping the forthcoming apocalypse by counterfeiting an alien invasion that killed millions which leads to United States, the Soviet Union and the whole world to unite and became a peaceful state based on the lie that has other heroes with the exception of Rorschach to accept. In the movie however, it turns out that Ozymandias has made Dr Manhattan the pinpoint to being responsible for the deaths that lead to the peace. How is it changed is beyond me but this being unfilmable? There’s a point that I might disagree on that.

But even with the change, I have to go to the point and say this, despite the polarizing effect that angered fans and so on, I actually like this movie and still do. As I like on how Zack did with his version of Dawn of the Dead, his take on Watchmen is actually well done and keep it with the mood with its nostalgic soundtrack and eye-catching parts that make you go “huh, he has read that part of the comic”. The acting is good even with few cheesy moments, the action sequences is well done (slow motion included) and the style is obviously stylistic. To keep this mind, I’m reviewing this from theatrical cut perspective since I have seen the longer cut once but don’t have a copy of it. And this cut is okay but has noticeable absence including The Black Freighter bit which I’ve also seen on its own… and didn’t like it but I’m reviewing the movie, not its tie-in that later appeared in a different version.

I think this is as straight-forward as I can get and don’t know if there’s any I could add, let’s just say that there’s no Before Watchmen adaptation coming in but then again, Zack has subtly throw a bit of Watchmen in his DC Extended Universe works (especially Suicide Squad which he’s involved and I’ll get to that one) so in other words, Dr Manhattan in this movie adaptation is responsible for inventing a universe where “Martha” is the go-to word for World’s Finest team-up? I just pulled a DC Rebirth joke and spoiled a movie I have yet to review, didn’t I? Well anyway, I have to seek his next movie out (which I surprisingly haven’t seen) before we get further down to the ones that are considered crap that he’s ever done so until then.