“Critics, look upon this mighty work of a film and despair,” Zack Snyder and company have pulled it off. 

Watchmen is a feast for the eyes, mind, consciousness, and the soul.  All of Alan Moore’s themes in his masterwork graphic novel are intact, albeit with a few minor changes necessary to bring a 12 issue mini-series to the screen.  As with 300, Snyder manages to translate beautifully drawn graphic novel panels to the big screen effortlessly.  Several of the scenes in Watchmen, the motion picture, mirror almost exactly Dave Gibbons' highly detailed translations of Moore’s scripts, right down to the smallest details.  The costumes are obviously slightly different, but their original designs are evident, from Nite Owl II’s snow owl costume, The Comedian’s pseudo-s&m costume variants, to Rorschach’s moving ink blot of a mask.  Particularly well rendered is Nite Owl’s ship “Archie.”  Background detail from Gunga Diner wrappers to the ever present air ships are visible, and Ozymandias’ Antarctic retreat is complete with a moving and realistic looking Bubastis.   One of the first scenes in the graphic novel, where the panels retreat from street level up to The Comedian’s penthouse, from which he was tossed, initiating the plot of the graphic novel and film is masterfully rendered, and is a near recreation on film of the panels in the book.  This sequence sets the stage for the entire film and Watchmen fans of the graphic novel and new fans, soon to be birthed after viewing the film, alike are shown they are in for a treat.

The film pulls no punches, as all of the graphic violence and nudity are included (think Dr. Manhattan in his au natural state), but the effect is one of artistic beauty, not titillation.  Speaking of Dr. Manhattan, he is rendered in full glory as a man who becomes a god, and the special effects surrounding him are also a feast for the eyes.  Billy Crudup’s understated voice performance is one of the film’s great achievements as he is constantly, except for the one scene during the television interview, even toned, almost childlike in tenor.  It creates a very subtle subtext that helps convey a man on the verge of godhood who still can discover the wonder and miracle that is life.  Jeffery Dean Morgan’s Comedian is at once horrific and tragic, and is a strong performance.  Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach performance captures perfectly the graphic novel’s resident psychopath in voice and facial expression (outside the mask, of course).  Patrick Wilson captures Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II’s complexity of character shifting from repressed middle aged man, who views himself as aged beyond his years, and rejuvenated hero, saving tenants of a burning building and trading blows with Ozymandias effortlessly.  Malin Akerman is all sex appeal as Silk Specter II, but also conveys the earnestness her character calls for as the one who reawakens the adventurer in Dreiberg, and pleads with Dr. Manhattan on Mars to save the world.

Our heroes and villians brought to life.

All of Moore’s complex commentaries on the human condition are present, as well as his political concerns, all of which made the graphic novel burst with the potential to tie up grad students in debate endlessly over the tough decisions made, and the moral and ethical questions raised.  One change of note is the focus on the dependence of the world on fossil fuels, and how wars and acts of terror revolve around such dependencies.  Ozymandias delivers a condemnation of American dependence on foreign oil in his New York office with the Twin Towers in the background (remember the graphic novel and film are set in 1985). The use of this image related to the context of Ozymandias lecture speaks volumes on its own, and needs no further explanation here.

Overall, this film is a triumph of a translation of a very complex and difficult, to get one’s mind around, masterful graphic novel and Snyder and company deserve all credit due for pulling off this great film.