Spring Break
The unfilmable has been filmed; 'Watchmen' lives
Evan Connet
Issue date: 3/13/09 Section: Diversions
Watchmen
Warner Bros. Pictures
Four stars
Runtime: 162 minutes
Starring: Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Malin Åkerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode.
Plot: A group of crime-fighters search for answers concerning the death of one of their comrades.
Let me to say this before I begin the task of explaining and reviewing the first mega-movie of 2009: I loved the graphic novel on which this movie is based. I first learned about "Watchmen" when the movie was in production under director Zach Snyder, one of my favorite directors of our time for his work on the 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake and 2007's "300". After some research, I finally bought the graphic novel, which in this case is fancy-speak for several comic books bound together, but I was not disappointed.
While it was my first experience with comics in general, I was nonetheless blown away. The comics tell the story of an alternate-history 1985, one in which real-life masked vigilantes had roamed the cities and fought crime throughout the twentieth century. Only one of them, Dr. Manhattan, has any real powers, but with his help the United States was able to end the Vietnam War in weeks, something the Communist nations of the world took very bitterly, and tensions remain high between the United States and the Soviet Union. Richard Nixon is still President, marking his fourth term in office, and the costumed adventurers have been outlawed since the Keene Act of 1977 made it illegal for all but a few of them to continue.
So the graphic novel spins a tale of how superheroes would be accepted in a realistic setting, and I loved it. The mystery, the characters, the twists, everything came together to form a novel that deserves its place on Time magazine's top 100 novels list.
But of course this review is of the movie, the adaptation, something that was facing an uphill battle from the start, at least in my mind. If it stuck too close to the source material, fans would call out the film as an unnecessary retread. If it deterred from the novel, it would be hated for defacing the classic material. So where then does the "Watchmen" movie fall?
Warner Bros. Pictures
Four stars
Runtime: 162 minutes
Starring: Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Malin Åkerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode.
Plot: A group of crime-fighters search for answers concerning the death of one of their comrades.
Let me to say this before I begin the task of explaining and reviewing the first mega-movie of 2009: I loved the graphic novel on which this movie is based. I first learned about "Watchmen" when the movie was in production under director Zach Snyder, one of my favorite directors of our time for his work on the 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake and 2007's "300". After some research, I finally bought the graphic novel, which in this case is fancy-speak for several comic books bound together, but I was not disappointed.
While it was my first experience with comics in general, I was nonetheless blown away. The comics tell the story of an alternate-history 1985, one in which real-life masked vigilantes had roamed the cities and fought crime throughout the twentieth century. Only one of them, Dr. Manhattan, has any real powers, but with his help the United States was able to end the Vietnam War in weeks, something the Communist nations of the world took very bitterly, and tensions remain high between the United States and the Soviet Union. Richard Nixon is still President, marking his fourth term in office, and the costumed adventurers have been outlawed since the Keene Act of 1977 made it illegal for all but a few of them to continue.
So the graphic novel spins a tale of how superheroes would be accepted in a realistic setting, and I loved it. The mystery, the characters, the twists, everything came together to form a novel that deserves its place on Time magazine's top 100 novels list.
But of course this review is of the movie, the adaptation, something that was facing an uphill battle from the start, at least in my mind. If it stuck too close to the source material, fans would call out the film as an unnecessary retread. If it deterred from the novel, it would be hated for defacing the classic material. So where then does the "Watchmen" movie fall?
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rural teruel
posted 3/13/09 @ 5:26 AM PST
Having read the graphic novel and having a film degree, I understood why many people thought that Watchmen could not be filmed. After seeing a sneak preview this weekend, I now believe anything is filmable in the right hands. (Continued…)
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