Ah Watchmen, it’s been a long few months since that first trailer. I had read the graphic novel last fall when the hype for the movie started and though I'm not a big comic reader it was enthralling and a great read. I didn’t have years of reading it over and over and building up expectations, I just knew I was excited to see this story playing out on the big screen.
it had without a doubt one of the best opening credit sequences I have ever seen, it actually stirred in me the biggest emotional response of any scene in the movie. This was both a pro and a con because outside of the Comedian’s encounter with Silk Specter, I found myself reacting on an emotional level to very little else. In the original comic, Laurie’s revelation towards the end of the story had me in tears but here it fell flat, it felt under-developed and there was just very little impact to it. This was a criticism I was aware of going in that this film lacked heart and unfortunately I too found this to be the case as while I liked Nite Owl and the like I wasn’t feeling anything for them. This lack of an emotional core definitely hurts the film somewhat and probably led to many feeling the film was overly long because they were not emotionally attached to the story and its characters.
Where I disagree with the criticism is that I didn’t see any weak performances amongst the cast. Malin Ackerman has been picked on considerably but I thought she was fine, as was Matthew Goode. I’m more inclined to blame the director for weak performances however as what often happens is you see the director focusing a little more on the visuals and the style of the film and as a result the performance and emotional aspects of the film suffer, see the Matrix sequels or Star Wars Episodes 1-3 as examples.
Ultimately however, the style and story carry the picture ably and the length was just fine for me as I was interested enough to see where they were taking things to see it through to completion. Not to mention that from the costumes through to the set design and the casting, it was astonishing how excellent a job they did of recreating what I had seen in those original comic panels. Jeffrey Dean Morgan IS The Comedian in all his twisted glory and Patrick Wilson was eminently likable as Dreiberg/Nite Owl. Jackie Earle Haley excelled as Rorschach, totally becoming the character and while some complained about his voice, it was less silly-sounding than Christian Bale’s when he’s under the cowl. Also, the change in the ending worked a lot better than the original would have in movie form I think just because for the original to make sense would have taken far more explanation because let’s face it, the original ending was pretty wacky.
Despite the length, I was left wanting more! I wanted to see more of the cops investigating the murders, I want to see the Black Freighter segments in there, I want to see more of the staff of the right wing newspaper. Hopefully when this film gets a home release there will be a ridiculously long director’s cut that gives me what I crave. Watchmen isn’t for everybody and has divided people almost down the middle, I found the pros vastly outweigh the cons and I would urge everybody with any interest at all in seeing it to check it out and form their own opinion. It isn’t quite The Dark Knight but, you know, what is?
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