So Close, yet So Far Away: Watchmen Blu-Ray Review

I am aware that the film came out a while ago now but after seeing that the blu-ray is coming out so I thought I’d finally write my review. Before I say anything else, if you haven’t yet seen ‘Watchmen’, go buy and read the book first. It is critical that you have read it before you go and see it. Some people have said that the film ‘Watchmen’ is the most loyal comic book film made and to a certain extent they are correct. For the first hour or so, the film is almost panel for panel with the book. However, here comes the big problem known as the middle and the fact that a hell of a lot of the plot was taken out of the film adaptation. Conseqeuntly ‘Watchmen’ the film has two big problems: one editing and two (before seeing it I would have never thought I would have referred to this as a problem) it relies to closely to the source material.

The Editing

As I have stated above, if you are not including the prose sections of Watchmen such as Under the Hood, the first hour give or take is almost perfect compared to the book in every way. the attack upon the Comedian, Rorschach’s inverstigation etc. But then we hit the middle. Now the loss of the squid to me was not necessarily a big problem. However, Synder and co had to adapt, they had to create a new subplot that could be bent around the main plot that was still woven into the ‘Watchmen’ film. Did they do this? No. Furthermore, important sub characters such as the newspaper seller are completly deleted. This makes no sense as they were away in which the Watchmen plot was built as the formula of the book was story, character developmen, story, character development etc etec. So without the newspaper seller et al, the film had the potential to become 2 and a bit hours of straight character development and thats what we get. What is more, the character development that is kept in the film is odd (again, this only really occurs in Act 2). The audience is ‘treated’ to the Silk Spectre/Nite Owl can he get it up saga in full whereas Rorschach’s origin chapter, chapter 6 (best chapter of the book in my opinion) is heavily cut down. When I first saw the film this bemused me as Rorschah is the fan favourite, he is in many ways the main character of the book as he narrates to us what occurs and was used as the main attraction to lure people in. So why cut his chapter down? Surely it would have made more sense to cut Silk Spectre and Nite Owl down not Rorschach? When it comes down to it, he is the character a lot of people came to see. After this we are thrown back into the forefront of the story but for people that have not read the book, it would seem as a whole, Synder had lost his audience. I am aware that this was the case because the majority of people who I know who did not read the book and went to see the film did not have a clue what was happening by this time. So, we’re left with a film that feels as if a huge gaping hole has being cut out of it which in all tense and purposes, it has.

Too Loyal to the text

This sounds an odd complaint and in any other comic book film I’d complain if it wasn’t so loyal but it’s loyalty (and as mentioned above it is only loyal to character development) is its downfall. Because ‘Watchmen’ the book is so rich a tapistry, it is impossible to cram everything into the film and therefore it needed to be redeveloped for the film. Again, Synder in some ways should be praised because his version is better than what a lot of other people had wished to create, but his genius is constrained by the paranoia that if he even took a few steps outside the box, the film would fall. If we look back at the film, certain charcaters development could have being chopped and moved around to make it more audience friendly as many people really did not know what was happening. Furthermore if you are not a comic book fan you want to be able to go to see a film that does not need homework before hand: you want a film that people can go to see and enjoy. Then, once they’ve watched it, draw people into the medium. But I don’t feel this was the case with ‘Watchmen’.

The key problem I have with the UK release of the blu ray is that it is the theatrical release. In my opinion, many of the problems will be solved with the extended version such as the plot getting back on the right track in act 2. But for some reason, the Brits don’t get that. A real shame.

‘Watchmen’, however is not all doom and gloom. I think that Synder, to a certain extent did the best he could and did a pretty good job at that. What is more, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian and Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach embody the roles better than I think anyone expected. In particualar Haley who almost transforms into Rorschach his performance is that good.

The Film  is still good enough to buy and watch again and again and I believe if Alan Moore did watch the Watchmen (which is doubtful), I think he’d be happier than he expected.