Watching the Watchmen
The film version of looks spectacular; it's full of images from the original book, realised at great expense and with great attention to detail. But - and this may well be the first time that I've criticised a film for sticking too closely to the book - the respect for the original work has a deadening effect on the story. I watched it as a curiosity and a spectacle, but I wasn't in the least wrapped up in the film, while I've read and re-read the comic avidly.
I interviewed last night, the original artist who worked on the book with Alan Moore, and he was full of praise for the film and Zack Snyder. Much as I respect Dave, as an artist and thoroughly nice man, I don't share his opinion of Snyder's work. I thought was ridiculous, and Watchmen suffered from the same taint of slo-mo pomposity overlaid with an insufferably obvious soundtrack. It was clear that Snyder had taken a lot of trouble with the film and this will please fans who feared that Hollywood would make a 12A version of a story that is the ultimate graphic novel for adults. What has happened is that instead of dwelling on moral quandary and how violence (even for noble aims) can corrupt, this film revels in injury as spectacle. As moral compromise and brutalisation are issues dead at the centre of the Watchmen story it seems odd to choose a director who apparently doesn't care.
Some of the characters have translated quite well, the actors playing Rorschach, The Comedian and Dr Manhattan turn in good performances but it's not enough to make the film exciting or poignant. I won't talk about the ending, but to me it reinforced the impression I had, of a basic misunderstanding of what Watchmen is about. This ends up a cautionary tale of how faithfulness to the form of a work can betray its spirit. Read the novel instead.
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