Movie review: Watchmen
Set in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war, “Watchmen” is a mature and complex adaptation that could be considered too close to its source material.
The film is based on possibly the most acclaimed graphic novel of all time, “Watchmen,” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The series was first released in 12 issues in 1986-1987. You won’t see Moore’s name anywhere in the credits, though, as he’s forsworn all film adaptations of his work.
At its simplest, “Watchmen” is a superhero murder mystery. When superhero-turned-government agent The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is murdered, his former colleague Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) goes into action. Rorschach suspects someone is targeting the now-outlawed masked vigilantes for extinction.
Rorschach warns former colleague Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), the only superhero who has superpowers. Caught in a scientific accident, Jon Osterman transformed into the bright blue Dr. Manhattan, a superbeing who can manipulate material and see into his own future.
His connection to humanity is Laurie Juspeczyk (Malin Akerman), the second Silk Spectre. Her mother, Sally Jupiter (Carla Gugino), had been at the heart of the first group of costumed crimefighters in the 1940s.
Both Rorschach and Laurie have a connection to Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson), the second hero to call himself Nite Owl. After meeting with Rorschach, Dreiberg warns Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), the world’s smartest man, of the assumed conspiracy to kill the former “Watchmen.”
Ozymandias, aka Adrian Veidt, had retired prior to the passage of the Keene Act, which outlawed masked superheroes. Veidt parlayed his fame and intelligence into a multibillion-dollar enterprise with a focus on alternate forms of energy.
As more heroes are targeted, Rorschach continues his investigation. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Soviet Union draw even closer to nuclear war.
“Watchmen” investigates the motives behind those who would put on a mask to fight the world’s evils, and asks “Who Watches the Watchmen?” in its examination of who controls those who claim to protect the innocent.
While director Zack Snyder amps up the blood, sex and violence beyond what was present in the graphic novel, and while there is no way to capture all the layers of same, he has managed to create an intriguing adaptation of a work long considered unfilmable. The costume design, sets and visuals are rich and dense; the performances of Haley and Wilson stand out.
There are flaws, and the movie will be a lot to take in for those unfamiliar with the source material. But Snyder deserves credit for taking on a massive, complex project and trying to capture its essence.
- Matthew Price
MOVIE REVIEW
“Watchmen”
R -2:41 – 3 stars
Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson.
(Strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language)
No more “Watchmen” comics, says co-creator Dave Gibbons
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Dave Gibbons illustrated “Watchmen,” the comic-book series that is the basis of the film opening today. He said he and collaborator Alan Moore – who isn’t involved and doesn’t want his name on the movie – never anticipated the series would become a film.
“It was never the pinnacle of my ambition or Alan’s ambition that there be a movie,” Gibbons said at a recent press junket for the film. “They’re two completely different beasts. There was very early on interest in it, I think to make it into some type of action movie, which would have been horrible.”
In fact, Gibbons said, the creators never anticipated “Watchmen” would be in print as a graphic novel for now 24 years. Gibbons said he anticipated it would be 12 issues and then consigned to the back-issue bins of comic-book shops. In 1986 and 1987, when “Watchmen” was being made, there was little in the way of always-in-print graphic novels.
Gibbons said “Watchmen” the comic book is a complete series, and, like the makers of the film, he has no intention of returning for a sequel.
“We’ve got no plans at all to add anything to ‘Watchmen’ the comic book,” he said. “We did at one point toy with the idea of maybe revisiting those early characters and doing it in a really innocent kind of way. The dramatic twist being we all know the terrible things that are going to happen down the line. But we decided not to do that. I think anything that you added to ‘Watchmen’ would probably dilute it rather than enrich it.”
While “Watchmen” led to a host of “grim and gritty” comic books through the late 1980s, Gibbons said that was never his or Moore’s intent.
“We were really sorry about (it),” Gibbons said. “We love superheroes … and what we were trying to do was get to know them better, as it were. And we went down some dark pathways with it.”
Had he and Moore teamed again, they likely would have taken a crack at a lighter character. “In fact, if Alan and I talked about doing anything after ‘Watchmen,’ apart from going back, it would be to do a character like Captain Marvel, who’s light and fantastic, something for the kids almost.”
Gibbons says his favorite character from the series is Nite Owl.
“Nite Owl was a character that I came up with the name, and the costume of the earlier version of him, when I was a kid, when I used to make up my own comics,” Gibbons said. “When Alan and I were creating ‘Watchmen,’ we knew we had to have kind of a Batman equivalent, and I suggested that. … And probably if I was a superhero, I’m probably Nite Owl; I’d be the guy set in the basement with all the gadgets rather than the psychopath out stalking the alleyways.”
Comics Q&A: Alan Moore
Learn about other graphic novels written by Alan Moore besides “Watchmen” in today’s Comics Q&A with Kyle Roberts and Matt Price.
More Moore: From Hell
This Oct. 19, 2001 will serve as this week’s “Retro Thursday” piece. This article was published tying in with the release of the “From Hell” movie.
Also, with “Watchmen” nearing, I wanted to do a series pointing out additional works by Alan Moore that those who liked the “Watchmen” graphic novel can seek out. Thus, “More Moore.” My first suggestion is the unsettling classic, “From Hell.”
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“It is beginning, Netley. Only just beginning. For better or worse, the twentieth century. I have delivered it.”
That quote, from the character revealed as Jack the Ripper, drives the central premise of “From Hell,” the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Moore postulates through his fictionalized narrative that the Ripper killings of 1888 launched the world forward, and not necessarily for the better. Jack the Ripper, the world’s most famous serial killer, is revealed as a man seeking mystical power, while at the same time trying to silence a secret that could shake England.
“From Hell,” which takes its title from a letter received claiming credit for the Ripper murders, is the basis of the film starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham.
The 500-plus page graphic novel, containing more than 60 pages of notes by Moore and Campbell, is published by Eddie Campbell Comics and represented in the United States by Top Shelf.
Moore’s Jack the Ripper tale is less a whodunit than a whydunit – the Ripper in the “From Hell” graphic novel is revealed fairly early on. By so doing, “From Hell” is able to move beyond a simple examination of the facts and go further, into an exploration of conspiracy, blackmail, murder and magic.
Inspector Frederick Abberline is the hero of the graphic novel, the police inspector charged with finding Bloody Jack. Also appearing are Robert Lees, the queen’s psychic; Sir William Gull, the Queen’s physician; and the victims of the Ripper, most prominently Mary Kelly.
Moore, the author of the acclaimed comic-book works “Watchmen,” and “V for Vendetta,” among others, is at his peak as a mature storyteller with “From Hell,” which is among the most ambitious, cogent and impressive works ever attempted in the graphic novel format.
Campbell’s art is different from the norm in graphic novels. His scratchy impressionism is perhaps more difficult to take to on first blush, but as the book continues, and the reader grows acclimated to the style, Campbell’s art pulls the reader further and deeper into the Victorian nightmare.
Campbell, the creator of “Alec” and “Bacchus,” is also an acclaimed writer, and the perfect choice to meticulously translate Moore’s opus into graphic form.
Moore and Campbell began work on “From Hell” in the late 1980s. A decade and multiple publishers later, “From Hell” was collected into an impressive $35 package.
Digesting the whole of “From Hell” leaves a sense of unease; it is horror in the truest sense. That unease was not lost on the author, whose close analysis of the killings left him feeling an uncomfortable tie to his subject.
“For my part I am concerned with cutting into and examining the still-warm corpse of history itself,” Moore said in his notes. “In some of my chilliest moments, I suspect that this was his foremost pre-occupation also, albeit in pursuit of different ends.”
