Watchmen (2009)
I just came back from seeing Watchmen at IMAX, and it was really good. I would say this is a must see for anyone who likes comic book adaptations, and I think it's definitely worth the extra money to see it at an IMAX. One downside of IMAX is that the aspect ratio of the image is 1.78:1 rather than the 2.35:1 which you would see in a regular theater.
The acting was fine, and is not the terrible acting that some people are claiming. What's in the movie sticks very close to the graphic novel as far as I've read into the novel in both story content and visuals to an amazing degree. There is some stuff in the novel that's left out of the movie, and supposedly the movie ending is different than the novel. I don't know how much this impacts the story because I've only read the first 25% of the novel. Certainly, the movie, up to the point I had gotten in the novel, is excellent. After that, I couldn't tell if the dialog was still as sharp as in the novel. I did get a bit confused at a couple of places in the movie after that, and I wasn't sure I understood the character's motivations at all times. However, this is part of the point of the story because human motivations are not always on the surface and easy to determine.
The Watchmen as a movie leaves a much bigger impact than a graphic novel could ever hope to leave. It took me hours to get back to my normal state of mind after seeing the movie which is something the graphic novel doesn't do to me. I got caught up in this universe of comic book heroes turned real. These are not the same comic book heroes in the comic books, but are people inspired by the 1930's comic book heroes to wear costumes and fight crime. Each of these super hero characters represent a type of person, and they are flawed just as most people are flawed. The movie seems to favor a particular 'type' of person which is a very common thing done in movies, but I don't know if the novel does that.
The story works on two levels. Firstly, are the stories of each individual Watchman which was a second generation of crime fighters formed around 1960, and there is also a small amount of story about the original group called the Minutemen which was formed in 1945. Secondly, there is the larger story of the ills afflicting society on an individual, national and international level as a result of the interactions of billions of flawed humans. The constant spectre of a possible WWIII between the USA and the Soviet Union casts it's shadow over everyday life. The story is set in 1985 New York, and there are flashbacks to the 1970's, 1960's, 1950's and 1940's. The graphic novel has many visual references to the seediness of life in the city. It seemed to me that here is less of this in the movie, but I think the point is made well enough. The movie is 2 hours and 43 minutes long. Nobody in front of me got up to go to the bathroom while the movie was playing, and many of these people had bought big sodas at the start of the movie.
The story has actual historical events over this period of time very well integrated into it. The science is loosely based on Einstein's Theory of Relativity which is ok. His view of how the universe works is challenged by Quantum Mechanic theory which Einstein didn't accept. However, this distinction is not made in the story. Einstein believed the universe was completely deterministic, but Quantum Mechanics allows for the universe to possibly be non-deterministic. Einstein made his famous statement that "God doesn't play dice with the universe." with reference to Quantum Mechanic Theory. Alan Moore does postulate the existence of a force beyond gravity which holds everything together. Einstein also thought he had missed a force and put a cosmological constant in his equations to account for it, but he later removed the cosmological constant. Of interesting note is a quote at the end of chapter IV:
"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking... The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker" - Albert Einstein
As a teenager in high school, Dr Manhatten wanted to be a watchmaker like his father. This isn't really brought out very well in the movie. I think somewhat better character development could have been done on Dr. Manhatten in the movie.
You could interpret the term "Watchmen" not only as someone who watches for social wrongdoing, but also someone who tries to put society back together in such a way that it functions smoothly the way a watchmaker reassembles a watch after fixing it. One of the Watchmen is actually focused on that goal as opposed to directly fighting crime. You could also see the term as an indication of the 'passing of time' linking with the previous generation "Minutemen" in a 'cause and effect' relationship. Responsibility for actions in a deterministic universe is discussed in the novel, but not in the movie.
The story might seem dated because it was written around 1985 when the Soviet Union still existed and the cold war was still going on. However, human nature and the social problems it causes in the story are still with us today, and the philosophy and science haven't advanced that much, so on those levels it hasn't really dated. Even today despite the technological advancements of the last 25 years, the neglect of economic stability has made everyday life less safe due to rising crime rates in bad economic times. The international situation also isn't really any better either. The idea behind the final catharsis of the story goes back to an idea in a Robert Heinlen novel written in the 1950's, exists in a classic sci-fi movie from the 1950's and may have roots in classic literature.
The soundtrack is old songs, some from the 1960's, and works very well. The opening is particularly effective with Bob Dylan's "The Times They are a Changing" over a montage of scenes outlining the history of the original Minutemen. I'm not sure but I don't think the ending is a Hollywood cop-out, as was the movie ending of 'V for Vendetta'. However, I found the ending to be the weakest part of the movie except that I liked the epilogue. I expect that Alan Moore's ending of the graphic novel is probably darker and possibly better, but I don't know. Once again, he removed his name from this movie adaptation of his novel as he did with 'V for Vendetta'.
