It is finally time for us to watch the Watchmen. Since 1986 the legendary graphic novel Watchmen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbson, has been watching us, but “Who watches the Watchmen?” Zack Snyder, director of 300 and Sin City, finally brought this epic comic to the silver screen for all fans to enjoy and finally watch.

The premise of the story is set in an alternate dark and gritty 1985 in New York City. The Watchmen are masked vigilantes the government originally used during World War II and other crimes back in the homeland; however, after the war was over, the public and police found no use for “extra help” and only found them troublesome. Forcing the original 1940’s Watchmen to retire, they return now with a new group of Watchmen to help ease with tension during the Vietnam War. Once again the public is not thrilled with masked “super heroes,” yet only one of the new age Watchmen contains any such powers (Dr. Manhattan); therefore, resulting in a law in 1977 outlawing the Watchmen. Only two of the Watchmen are allowed to continue with their heroic performances, The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), under protection of the government. These two are the ones that help the United States overcome the Vietnam War.

Subsequently, one of the “government’s secret weapons”, Dr Manhattan, a scientist, Jonathan Osterman, whose powers developed after being caught in a freak accident in one of his own experiments, becomes a supernatural being. Essentially, he can view past, present, and future events simultaneously, and has complete power of matter, changing anything into any material he chooses. He also obtains other abilities: teleporting from place to place, even planet to planet, as well teleporting other beings, changing his own physical size, and attaining enough energy to blow up anything at will. He is indestructible and America’s most powerful weapon: “Yes, there is a God, and he’s American,” said reporters in the graphic novel and movie. Of course any statement like this would make any country fear of the capabilities of the United States, causing one major conflict: the Soviet Union. In fear of America, the Soviet threatens the U.S. with nuclear attack, setting the symbolic doomsday clock to 5 minutes before midnight. The clock’s dwindling of minutes represents the stage of terror America is at, highly similar to the color code terrorist warnings. 

            No need to fear though, we have “God” on our side, right? Both graphic novel and film begin with Edward Blake’s (the Comedian) death. Yet police find no suspects and assume Blake’s death is the result of a burglary, unaware of his true identity. Nevertheless, masked vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), the only masked hero still takes part punishing the “filth” of NYC’s streets after the 1977 law that banned all superheroes, decides to proceed with his own surreptitious investigation of the Comedian’s death, which in turn unravels many twists and shocking turns. Due to Rorschach’s explorations and discoveries he eventually gets the whole crew of The Watchmen: Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), and Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson).

            As the search for the Comedians killer begins, reporters begin to attack Dr. Manhattan on a live television interview. A reporters start to randomly attack Dr. Manhattan frivolous accusations of Dr. Manhattan being the cause of cancer. Conversely, there have been plenty of people who have come into contact with Dr. Manhattan and not been struck with the illness of cancer. Yet reporters everywhere are taking this bait, forcing Manhattan into exiling himself, leaving America defenseless. So what happens when God is no longer present?

            Someone is definitely watching The Watchmen, and they are all determined to find out whom. Rorschach feels someone is out there getting rid of masked heroes one by one, and not for America’s best interests.

            After being glued to the graphic novel (in a one night reading) and seeing the film, Snyder has truly mastered the art of making comics move: “People came to me after 300, they knew I just loved making comics movies,” Snyder said in a conference call. There were moments of the film where I could recall the exact page and frame the film was mirroring. Unfortunately, I feel the whole film was one mirror Image. Besides some costume changes and addition of background scenery, the film was the exact comic with real people. The film is a complete tribute to the masterful works of Moore and Gibbson. Without their amazing talents of great writing and graphic detail, Snyder would not even know where to start filming. I could not help but think: Snyder only added slow motion effects and where to place the camera.

            Gibbson came to the set a few times to help with the production of the film, being the visual creator to the dark comic artwork, “He did do about thousand of drawings, in a lot of ways he was the visual author of the movie…it’s an amazing gift he gives the movie, what Gibson made.” Snyder said. A movie of a comic or novel I feel should be the director’s adaptation of his opinion of the work, yet within this film I feel Snyder used Gibbson’s exact work as his storyboard.

            In addition, I have noticed Snyder is notorious for his slow motion effects. Though beautifully crafted in some scenes like the fight in the opening scene between The Comedian and the masked killer really brought you into the film, like you were almost in the living room watching every detail. This effect was a great introduction, catching the viewer from the start. “I think for me I flip a page from the graphic novel, you kind of freeze on the last image and that’s kind of the philosophical aspect of it. Not a big fan of the hand held-shaky-not sure what’s happening-action sequence. I guess what comes off with my aesthetic is the comic book feel seeing every action,” Snyder comments on his use of slow motion. However, the redundancy of this effect ruined later ones. Each fighting scene at one point or another was set in slow motion, completely over stretching the length of the film, and tarnishing pivotal moments.

            Despite all these annoyances my biggest issue with the film was the soundtrack. Each song chosen from the actual time of the 60’s and 70’s depicted the era perfectly. Sadly, this beautiful ambiance was ruined by any instrumental piece that followed. All the instrumental pieces had a mockery tone, as though trying to turn Watchmen into the 60’s version of the Batman television series. The whole attraction to the graphic novel was how dark and gritty it was, unlike any other comic that was previously on the shelves. There was no “WAM”, “BOOM”, or “POW” found in The Watchmen graphic novel, it had blood, rape, sex, and nudity. This was the first comic to be real. Gibbson illustrated the artwork on black paper instead of white to capture the sinister atmosphere.

            Snyder did achieve an amazing cast. I personally applaud his selection with unfamiliar actors, making the characters more believable. Instead of seeing someone tremendously famous play a character, the audience is seeing only the character and not the actor. It made everything more believable. Furthermore, though I love the graphic novel, it is particularly hard to follow. The writing continuously jumps back and forth between characters and times, also secondary stories in between. Snyder masterfully has broken down the novel and piecing it together while still keeping the flashbacks at appropriate times. The symbolic scenery is as well epic. The subtleties of the World Trade Center in the background really brings this comic into the real world, and how situations like this can really happen: “I think the irony of the ending of the movie is the World Trade Center is the only thing that is not destroyed in the movie. I think it’s a statement that goes to a culture that created the comic book, and now the culture that exists after it. The reality of what the graphic novel is getting at is now a much deeper residence,” Snyder said.

            Overall I would give the film Watchmen two grades: A- for fans of the graphic novel, and B for people who have never heard of The Watchmen until now. The movie really is just one big moving pop up book of the graphic novel, overflowing with action that all moviegoers can appreciate. Yet, having never read the novel, I found many people within the audience left confused, lost, and at times bored (due to loss of interest with the two previous statements).