Director Zack Snyder really was on a hiding to nothing when he took over from a long string of directors attached at one time or another to the big screen adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons hugely influential and much-loved (to the point of obsession in some quarters) comic mini-series Watchmen. Whatever he did with the property he wasn’t really going to win – unlike Spider-man, Superman, Batman or Fantastic Four, the characters of Watchmen aren’t as well known with the general public and the die-hard fans would inevitably find fault with whatever he did. What he came up with is probably the best adaptation we were likely to ever get, one which hews closely enough to Moore’s original to appease fans (though a major change in the closing moments caused much internet fury) but never quite making the comic’s densely plotting and philosophical concerns entirely accessible to the casual viewer.
Writers David Hayter and Alex Tse take an almost reverential approach to the source material, lifting camera angles, dialogue and set designs direct from the printed page though jettisoning details (the relationship between the newsvendor and his young customer for example) that rankled with some fans. It departs from the original text most noticeably in the mechanics of Adrian Veidt’s deranged plan to save the world (the genetically engineered fake alien squid that devastates New York is replaced by a less impressive but perhaps easier to understand series of detonations in the worlds major cities rigged to look like the work of the film’s only genuine superhero Dr Manhattan) though many missed the comic-within-a-comic pirate tale Tales of the Black Freighter that Snyder recreated as a short animated feature released separately on DVD.
Hayter and Tse retain many of the more problematic (for mainstream audiences) elements of the original, including the alternate 1980s setting (where Richard Nixon – seen here with a bizarre but appropriate Pinocchio-like nose – is still in power, the godlike Dr Manhattan won Vietnam for the US and costumed vigilantes have become so prevalent that legislation has been introduced to curb their activities), the time-skipping narrative (the challenging chapter in which Manhattan lives out various moments of his live at the same time is extremely well done) and the resolutely adult approach to what is still seen by many as a juvenile medium (Snyder held out for an R rating, punctuating the very few scenes of traditional superhero action with all the sex, violence and politics that Moore and Gibbons used in the comic to deconstruct the superhero). The adaptation makes few concessions to those unfamiliar with the comic (it’s hard to imagine that anyone completely oblivious to the source would be able to make much sense of what’s going on) which, along with its extraordinary length, seemed to be among the main complaints from the non-fan community.
Visually the film is never less than stunning. The Mars sequence in particular is breathtaking and the title sequence – a potted history of this alternative universe – is one of the film’s many highlights. Snyder underscores the images with an unobtrusive score from Tyler Bates and a pleasing selection of songs (Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence, Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower) and his choice of Philip Glass’s mesmerizing Prophecies from the Koyaanisqatsi (1982) soundtrack is simply inspired.
Performances are mostly excellent with Billy Crudup taking a creditable stab at the thankless role of the increasingly inhuman Dr Manhattan but the show is stolen by Jackie Earle Haley whose turn as the brutal vigilante Rorschach is pitch perfect. Malin Ackerman came in for some criticism as Silk Spectre II but, while admitting that she is the weakest link in the acting chain, it must be noted that Laurie Jupiter is far from the most interesting or best sketched character in the story anyway.
Watchmen divided fan opinion and failed to set the box office alight. It remains though a bold and heroic attempt to do justice to a story that had defeated some of the best directors of their generation. It isn’t perfect (what’s been retained is stunningly done but what’s been left out is greatly missed – and changing the final mechanism of Veidt’s plan is hugely disappointing) but as an attempt to film what had long been held to be unfilmable it’s a remarkable achievement. Sadly, it was never really going to stand any sort of chance as a film – it was never going to bring in any new fans to the comic and stood every chance of alienating the already considerable existing fanbase. That Synder did such an impressive job on a difficult adaptation is nothing short of miraculous.
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