Watchmen is Watchable
Posted on | March 23, 2009 | No Comments
Who watches the Watchmen? Well, I for one.
The world’s most unfilmable comic has finally been filmed after being in development for almost two decades. It is based on a comic book miniseries so epic, so sophisticated, so multilayered, that it’s considered by many critics to be one of the most brilliantly written piece of literature — let alone comic. So, what did I think of director Zack Snyder’s (300) adaptation, based on a screenplay by David Hayter (X-Men) and Alex Tse (Sucker Free City)?
It was good, to be sure. But how good? I’m not sure.
Comic book adaptations are a funny thing for me. I love movies. And I love comics. Sometimes the results are awesome (re: The Dark Knight and The Crow). And sometimes a hack filmmaker effs up a franchise so royally at the outset that there can be no film franchise (re: director Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil). The film by Snyder is surprisingly faithful for a $150-million Hollywood blockbuster. It has most of Rorschach’s pithy lines, all of Dr. Manhattan’s nudity, and a vat full of gory violence.
As a comic maxi-series, every issue of Watchmen is a mini movie, a tour de force in political “satirization” and comic book commentary. An extraordinary achievement. But in movie form, it has lost something in translation. A part of me wonders if it was even possible (or smart) to condense the epic 12 issues into a 2 hour and 45 minute film.
I have yet to fully formulate my opinion on this film, other than to say that I thought it was good … but not great.
By the way … I hate it when the movie PR machine calls comic books “graphic novels.” Sorry, folks, you can call it an illustrated textbook and it’ll still just be a comic book.