MikeBrum.com

I saw The Watchmen today.

I am a big fan of the comics and expected a lot. Naturally, my expectations weren’t 100% met – but when do these sorts of adaptions truly deliver 100%? Little things aside, I was thoroughly pleased.

First, the most unexpected aspect that I was happy with was the soundtrack. It seemed to me that extra special care was given to the music selection for particular scenes. The sorts of music played throughout most of the movie wouldn’t make it into my usual rotation, but they were contextually spot-on. For example, has anyone ever played 99 Luftballoons at a more appropriate time? I think not.

Now, it’s true that a lot was left out of the movie. I don’t think the majority of it is critical to the plot. The Black Freighter is being addressed in an “animated comic” DVD that’ll be released on March 24th. I really don’t think they could have properly interlaced it with the current movie in the genre in which it was shot without it feeling painfully disjointed. It’s a great sub-story that perfectly reflects the dialogue that it sits over, but it wouldn’t have easily worked within the structure of a motion picture in my opinion.

Similar to the reason to exclude the Black Freighter sub-plot, the “mars time scene” in which Jon revisits aspects of his past (where the readers are keyed into the nature of how he perceives and exists throughout time) didn’t really work for me in the theater. I think they salvaged a decent creation story for Dr. Manhattan, but the punch and impact of those panels in the comic are unfortunately lost. These pages are definitely my favorite in the series, so I was paying particularly close attention to these scenes.

At the heart of the story, the viewers are asked classic questions about the nature of Good and Evil -

• Is anyone wholly good or evil?
• Is there good and evil in all of us?
• Is it OK for a good person to do something evil if it begets a good outcome?
• Can someone neither good nor evil be capable of either?

The moral ambiguity and conflict are transmitted as clearly on the big screen as it is turning pages of the comic. I’m glad they didn’t sacrifice this for more action or crazy special effects. The movie is just as juicy if you’re receptive to it. It’s also very raw and graphic at times. While many movies use these cheap tricks as a vehicle to keep the viewer interested while there’s no other content to deliver, we see most of the gore and excess used to drive those moral questions and paint the world in the dark tones that are needed to fully explore the characters that we’re watching and properly understand their personal challenges and struggles.

As for the change in the ending, I think it was somewhat “necessary” in terms of selling it to the general public. We’ve seen it happen in many comic adaptations to film and that’s totally fine if it serves a purpose.

This is definitely a movie that I plan on getting on DVD and will likely watch it countless times – enjoying both the breathtaking visuals that modern cinema can produce and meaty content that was written up so expertly in the mid 80’s.