Film review: Watchmen

Watchmen @ IMDB

This has been a really difficult review for me to approach simply because how close I am to the source material. What source material, I hear some of you cry.

To which I say go away and learn some comic history then we'll talk.

Watchmen the comic is important because it is one of those pieces of work that changes whatever medium it's based in. It's impact on comics is akin to the impact of Jaws on film: when Jaws released it ushered in the summer blockbuster era of cinema, similarly when Watchmen came out it redefined the tone of superhero comics and the themes you could express.

It many ways it was consider unfilmmable despite the attempts that have been made over the years. Now it has been filmed but can it come close to the depths of the comic?

The overall plot of Watchmen is fairly simple: a group of costumed heroes are brought out retirement in the mid eighties following the murder of one of their number. This is set against the backdrop of an escalating cold war where Nixon is still President.

Fairly straightforward, however this allowed the comic lots of space to explore the characters and the alternate world they inhabit. The comic also had 12 issues whilst the movie has two and a bit hours. Hmm.

There are two extremes of adapting comics to films. There is the school that wants to take the comic and put it up on screen word for word, panel for panel (see things like Superman). Then there is the school of take the names and throw the rest away (see Wanted)*.

Watchmen falls firmly in that first camp. It is actually astounding how close it comes to the comic. Panels are put up on the screen that are just like the comic. The overall art direction is amazing, special mention going to Dr. Manhattan who should become on of those iconic screen images.

The performances are great, the standouts being The Comedian and Rorschach.

There are, however, issues.

Whilst seeing the comic replicated so well may tickle my fanboy bones, what works on the page doesn't always work on screen. Some scenes drag and makes it feel every bit of it's long running time.

But that's the tricky thing: as a comic fan I could probably nit pick this all day but is that really helpful for someone who hasn't read the comic? Probably not.

I get the feeling that this will be one of those divisive films that will always be a conversation starter. And as such you should watch it. You may be a fan of the comic and hate it bit you should at least watch it.

It is a very brave film that doesn't quite match it's inspiration but it tries it's hardest. And that's as much as you can ask.

In a word? Almost


* Marvel seems to be plowing a third path with it's recent films like Iron Man and Hulk. They are distilling the characters down to their essence which keeps the fans happy but also changing them enough to bring in the wider audience.