Holtzman's Journal, March 15th 2009
Stray dogs mill around the city streets, in the distance an alarm goes off, the scum of the city... erm... do... fuck it...
Ok, I can't be arsed to keep that up, so back to regular Dom style.
In case the title and attempt at an odd intro hadn't given it away (and if not, you're not a big enough fan, hang your head in shame damnit), I'm gonna be talking about the phenomenal movie version of Watchmen, which I had the privilege of seeing the other day. Oh and if you haven't seen it and intend to, I'd recommend giving this a miss for the time being, spoilers may be abound.
Seriously, if you don't want to know, stop reading now... No, don't wait to see where I'm going with this, just bugger off!
Gone? Good. Right, the film jumps straight into the action with the murder of The Comedian, which is lifted verbatim from the comic book. The direction manages to successfully give the impression that this is no ordinary killing, and that the two combatants are not exactly ordinary men. The fight also takes place to a musical backdrop from a TV commercial that actually, on reflection, gives a huge hint to who the murderer is, as a kind of musical Chekov's gun.
Eventually the retired vigilante loses the fight and is thrown from a window to his death, fade to black. Then there's the opening sequence. Oh. Wow. This has been handled so well. In about three minutes it goes through visually all the back story you need to know from the comic (which amounts to about 40 years of fictional history!) all to Bob Dylan's The Times they are a changing. This scene is full of nods to history, the original source matter and there's even a sly reference to the last supper, just with not-quite-super-heroes. As openings go, it's pretty damn good.
Now, I'm not going to go too deeply into the plot, as it is pretty much faithful to the comic (thank ye fuckery!), but certain elements are worth addressing. A lot of the back story has, understandably, been stripped out to keep the film down to even the long length of three hours (exactly, too, which is admirable in a strange way), and some plot points have become slightly detached because of this. Prime example is Rorschach mailing his journal to the "New Frontiersman" newspaper. In the comic it goes to great lengths to explain why, however it's not evident in the slightest in the film, unless you've seen the clever viral advertising floating around youtube recently. There's also the matter of the newsvendor character and his various related scenes being missing beyond the one where New York gets destroyed (more on that later). Since this group of characters does not feature at all in the film, the brief glimpse before their death is vaguely emotional yet otherwise pointless, as there's no real reason for the audience to become attached to them.
Then there's the ending. Oh, the ending. If you really don't want spoilers, you should have turned back three paragraphs ago, so this is your final warning. Veidt's plot from the book has been totally reworked and changed, although the ultimate outcome is the same. Gone is the giant psychic squid and faked alien attack (yeah, seriously), replaced with a plot against Dr. Manhattan, resident naked blue superman. As a fan of the book, part of me wants to spit bile in their faces for this, but in reflection, the books ending didn't really make that much sense as is, so it's probably for the best. And they did appease the fans with a clever little nod in an earlier scene (keep your eyes wide for a S.Q.U.I.D reactor lurking in the back of a shot).
Visually the film is bloody amazing. Whilst it does occasionally fall into the trope of replicating frames from the book, in the manner of Sin City, it does add enough of it's own flair to stand out from it's parent. The world is well detailed, with clever references stuck in the back of frames, such as the omnipresence of Veidt's advertising, a mural welcoming Vietnam as the 51st state and graffiti aimed at our main characters. The costumes of the vigilantes themselves has been adapted from Dave Gibbon's art incredibly well. From Ozymandias' (Veidt) cape, to Nite Owl 2's Bat... I mean Owl suit, to the sheer blue nakedness of Dr. Manhattan, all the characters look the part. Special mention has to be given to Rorschach's mask, which is constantly moving, creating a very nerve wracking artificial face for the character. And bonus points to the fact it reacts to being pummeled, which is a nice touch.
The characterization of the film has been modified a bit, but not to the extreme that was V for Vendetta, another Moore book. Like the original comic, none of the characters are that sympathetic, as they all are sociopaths to a certain degree, which fits in with the worlds general feel. The most changed has to be Rorschach, who's been made slightly less psychopathic, presumably to let the audience relate more, however he is still enough of a magnificent bastard to please the fans.
I'd certainly recommend this film, however I'd also recommend you read the book first. Yes, it is a faithful recreation of the comic, but it does leave enough out to confuse some viewers, so the back story presented in the book is kinda essential to get the full experience. If honestly want a score, I give it 9 giant-naked-atomic-blue-dudes (GNAB'Ds) out of a possible 14.5, which is pretty damn impressive.
--Dom--
--Resting at 4 Minutes to Midnight
Oh, and if you really didn't get it, a Holtzman test is an inkblot test like the Rorschach test. See what I did there? No? Oh please yourself...
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