Watchmen

Disclaimers: This review is based on the "Director's Cut" and contains spoilers. 

WATCHMEN has proven tough for me to review. I am not very familiar with the beloved comic. I have no knowledge of the considerable backstory of this highly involved story. I'm not sure if director Zack Snyder's big screen version does the tale justice. Reports are that it is slavishly faithful in its adaptation (by David Hayter and Alex Tse). In and of itself, I count that as a good thing. We've all experienced the disappointment of a filmed novel. Usually diluted, sometimes almost changed beyond recognition (see: SIMON BIRCH). Once in a while, a director's vision will be an improvement (see: LOVE STORY), but most of the time the viewer is left wanting. We've covered this ground before, invisible audience: how can anything measure up to the grand images you've conjured in your head? It's a recipe for frustration. 

The fandom of the Watchmen graphic novel are a tough bunch, I'll bet. They're fiercely loyal, ready with their fine tooth combs and rifle scopes alike to approach this movie. I can only report on the movie itself. How it succeeds or fails may elude me in terms of the original ideas. After reading my review, I suspect some fans may level those scopes in my direction as well. Superheroes are continuing to be re-examined in contemporary cinema. You don't see innocent, clean-cut treatments of do-gooders like the 1960s Batman or the Christopher Reeve SUPERMANs lately. Today, we get tormented, conflicted sociopaths who may be compelled and/or driven to punish evil, but have a bitch of a time taming their own demons. Makes for some high drama. Last year's Batman sequel, THE DARK KNIGHT reached for very dark places, finding that very thin line between nemeses. Good vs evil? Is it that cut and dried? The line is not only blurred in WATCHMEN, but obliterated. With characters like Edward Blake, AKA The Comedian, effective at dispatching criminals but also an abusive lout who engages in attempted rape and murders anyone he fancies, we are in very different territory than before, especially for a DC comic. At least as far as the movies have shown us. 

 The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), whose death sets this story in motion, was a originally a member of a 1940s group of caped crusaders known as the Minutemen. None had the usual superpowers of X-ray vision and levity, but rather a serviceable amount of brain and/or brawn and no fear. They were respected by citizens and feared by lawbreakers. The Minutemen took out the trash that the police force could not. Time marched on, and age wore on the heroes, just like it would upon anyone. New blood came on the scene, assuming the roles of savior, defender. One such subject was a physicist named Jon Osterman.   He began as an innovative researcher, but one day found himself the victim of one of those lab accidents you often see in movies where he is trapped in some sort of particle chamber, his colleagues unable to unlock the door to rescue him. Osterman undergoes some serious metabolic (and metaphysical) changes. He emerges as a blue, unfortunately often buck naked, muscular titan dubbed "Dr. Manhattan" for reasons that are certainly relevent for the time period. Now, a bona-fide superhero with super powers was born. Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) is what you might call, yes, a deity. He is omnipresent, able to see backward and forward into time at any moment, able to teleport to the surface of Mars and not need breathing apparatus. In one sense, he's kinda like Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim from Slaughterhouse Five, unstuck in time. "Time" as we measure it does not apply to him. He occupies space, we can see and hear him, but he's in another dimension (actually so is the entire world of this story). He becomes a (perhaps the) key member of a new batch of heroes. The Watchmen. 

Times change. By the 70s, society has grown weary of these vigilantes, enough so to picket them when they show up to rescue someone! Ah, how we love to knock our gods off pedestals. In this alternate USA, President Richard Nixon (who would go on to serve 5 terms) has even banned the Watchmen from doing their work. "Badges not Masks" the protestors yell. The Watchmen begin to retire, to mainstream themselves. One, Ozymandias, "the world's smartest man", reveals his identity to the world and assumes a business mogul's mantle. He uses his real name, Adrian Veidt, one that becomes as symbolic as that of his costumed persona, what with that last name adorning fearsome buildings (and flying elephants advertising restaurants) all over the city. He has a bit of meglomania in his blood, explaining that "the only person with whom I felt any kinship with died three hundred years before the birth of Christ. Alexander of Macedonia, or Alexander the Great, as you know him." Dr. Manhattan has not retired, of course. He's too powerful. He ended the Vietnam War in a mere week when Nixon sent him to intervene, after all. Why hasn't he been likewise successful with the Cold War? WATCHMEN's action takes place in 1985, and in this alternate world, much like the real one we perhaps remember, relations are chilly between Eastern and Western comrades. So tense is the arms race that Nixon keeps updating the Doomsday clock and the Def-Con status. 

Perhaps Manhattan can't quickly fix things because neutralizing threats is more difficult. Even being all knowing may not provide the answers. It certainly doesn't preclude him from not intervening when the Comedian cold bloodedly shoots a Vietnamese woman who's carrying his baby. Manhattan seems maybe taken aback; the Comedian gives his verdict. "You could've turned the gun into steam, the bullets into mercury..... but you didn't, did you? You really don't give a damn about human beings. You're driftin' out of touch, Doc. God help us all." Sounds like the "god" many people curse? Another Watchman still at work is the tormented Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, in by far the best performance), a lanky man clad with an odd mask with constantly shifting ink patterns. He's a bitter soul, the victim of a tough upbringing (aren't they all) who lurks in grimy alleyways and does all the dirty work. As he narrates in his gravelly brogue, sounding like Clint Eastwood, he explains that he's thoroughly disgusted with the justice system and its rehabilitative bent. There's no rehab, just justice, in his world. Meteing out punishment to the wicked is his only reason for existence. He's not conflicted, just pissed, and he directs this energy toward ridding the society he hates of scum he hates even more. If he's also some sort of god, he's not very loving or forgiving. 

 The murder of the Comedian sparks concern among both the Watchmen and their forefathers, the long retired Minutemen. More are soon picked off, then even some of their evil arch-rivals of many years as well. Rorschach initiates an investigation. Nite Owl II, ne Dan Dreiberg, has been out of action but suits up again, joined by another second generation fighter (and girlfriend of Dr. Manhattan), Laurie Jupiter, or Silk Spectre II. This is a huge, ambitious film. Snyder is obviously in love with the source material, and his enthsiastic (if imperfect) direction manages to call attention to itself at almost every turn. It's a visual feast. Tis must have been spectacular in IMAX. I saw it under optimal conditions myself, on a 72 inch HD television with a Blu-Ray disc. There's no denying that the pallatte is full of color, especially during the impressive title credit sequence, which documents the Minutemen and Watchmen through history, their interactions with key figures like JFK and even Andy Warhol, all set to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A Changin'". WATCHMEN takes itself very seriously, as is the tendency of these sorts of epics. The older SUPERMAN films worked so well because they contained a generous dose of tongue-in-cheek humor; a lot of send-up in addition to some straight faced storytelling. Maybe it's just the age we're in. Why so serious, indeed? 

Now, I'm not opposed to a sober narrative free of cheeky gags, but even a hint of relief prevents something no artist wants to occur, the unintentional laugh. And there are lots of them in this movie. I laughed all the way through, in fact. Yep, I can hear the rifles cocking, the torches being lit. But guys, how could I not laugh during the following scenes? 1. While Dr. Manhattan is having relations with laurie, we see two sets of his hands carressing her. Turns out there are 3 Manhattans trying to pleasure her at once! She freaks out, gets dressed. She doesn't like that. It IS kinda weird. But the big laugh for me came a second later, when she discovers a fourth Dr. was still working in the next room all the while! Talk about multi-tasking! Laurie really doesn't like this. "All of my attention was on you," the Dr. insists. 2. Dr. Manhattan is usually naked. He's blue from head to toe. This is inherently ridiculous, good intentions for the integrity of his character or otherwise. Sorry, but male nudity is just silly. When he appears at public engagements,of course he does wear clothes. Other times, he sometimes wears a thong. Uh, how about keeping that on there, doc? You could spare a little more CGI, no?

 The only upside here is when he occasionally grows to giant size, towering over a building, we are spared a view of his mega sized blue junk. 3. Any scene during which we hear Dr. Manhattan's voice. At times, I thought I was listening to HAL from 2001. 4. Frustrated with Dr. Manhattan's inability to be human and caring, Laurie seeks the comfort of Dan, who at first suffers from some um, performance anxiety. Later, when Dan decides to be Nite Owl II again, clad in supersuit and all, we see in a rather explicit scene that his potency has returned with a vengeance! Hmm, I'll bet this will fuel a few role playing fanatsies for the audience. But even better, when Nite Owl and Silk finally get it on, we are treated to Leonard Cohen's cover of "Hallelujah"! C'mon, guys! Really? 5. During a prison sequence (Rorschach gets himself jailed), dwarf actor Danny Woodburn turns up as one of the many irate criminals who Rorschach was responsible for originally apprehending. He's apparently the ringleader of a gang of much larger, similiarly angry convicts. While I'm sure Woodburn wants to be taken seriously as an actor, it's just hard not to laugh when you see him, esecially after his work on Seinfeld. This is just one of my things-I couldn't stop laughing at the Russian accents in EASTERN PROMISES, either. 6. Self-consciously symbolic dialogue throughout. An example: Laurie puts on a pair of Nite Owl's night vision goggles. Nite Owl: "Even in the darkest places, that mask helps me see things clearly" (something like that). 7. Speaking of Laurie, yes, as played by Malin Akerman, she's very cute but the acting is quite awful. 8. Dan (Patrick Wilson) is also made to look like mid-80s Chevy Chase (think the VACATION movies or FLETCH) when he's not being Nite Owl II. Even the glasses!

 Snyder also supplies lots of homages in WATCHMEN. THe most obvious is his virtual restaging of the war room scenes from DR. STRANGELOVE. This time, we've got Nixon holding court, cussing profusely as he contemplates the Russians' next move. Kissinger is next to him, filled with pessimism. The angle of the shot is identical to Kubrick's: the shots are filled with the same overhead lights, the arc of the table, the line of faces at the tables. What's missing? Potent satire. If Snyder was going for that, he failed. Other films I thought of as I watched this movie: DARKMAN, UNFORGIVEN, and of course, THE DARK KNIGHT. Before that 2008 stunner, we were treated to a lengthy trailer for WATCHMEN, so the connections run deep. I couldn't help but be reminded of that earlier, much better film, at the conclusion of this one. Dr. Manhattan is banished from earth for allowing some really awful things to happen (see it and find out). He did not intervene, did not prevent certain destruction. Because of someone else's actions, he is deemed a pariah, even by the President. Similiar things happened to Batman, if on a much smaller scale. Interesting parallels. Very different results. Oh, one more movie I thought of. Remember that silly superhero spoof MYSTERY MEN, the Ben Stiller vehicle featuring a disparate group of misfit superheroes? I'm guessing the filmmakers weren't trying to evoke memories of that one, but they certainly did. Oops!