HOLLYWOOD POV: "Watchmen"

Who knew back in 1986 and 1987 that the almost complete set of WATCHMEN comic books I bought (and never opened and immediately bagged and stored away in the dark) would be on sale on ebay twenty-two years later trying to fetch many times their original value? So you can imagine my excitement to see how they handled what had been called an impossible film to make. How could you take a twelve volume period 1980's story about costumed vigilante's that ranged across planets and time, above ground and below, and involved multiple story lines, nuclear war, deep back-stories, the assassination of JFK, the Russians, and a 4-term President Nixon?

Long considered a brilliant and seminal piece of work - and called "the greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced" by LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof - WATCHMEN, is just about as highly anticipated by fanboys and grrrls alike. WATCHMEN is a long and thrilling ride with great attention to detail and dialog. With panels straight from the pages of the comic book come to life, and dialog directly from page to screen, the look, the feel of the originally imagined story by Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons has been translated faithfully with energy and commitment by Director Zach Snyder.

To maintain consistency of vision Snyder went so far as to hire the original artist to draw a few additional scenes added for the film. Key scenes from the book are reproduced so faithfully that when I asked him, Gibbons admitted that Snyder actually tore scenes right out of the comic book and put them in his storyboards, and every effort was made to use those scenes in telling the story. Even dialog was lifted word for word out of the original comic book most especially the dialog of my favorite character, Rorschach's, terse and twisted paranoid narrative.

There are a few missing plot points (the comic-within-a-comic Black Freighter story, which is being issued separately for the Director's Cut DVD version, which will be coming in at close to 4 hours, and the two newsboys who are seen in only one pivotal point near the end of the film) and a few additional story points added for the film to make more sense for the 21^st century audience (no squid this time around).

The film hews closely to the story and mythos of the original WATCHMEN as visualized by its creators, even though Alan Moore has taken his name off the project and vowed to "spit venom all over" Snyder's film version. Moore had bad experiences when he felt Hollywood mangled From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta (though I personally loved V), and those experiences forced him to take his name off WATCHMEN. In the process he angered lots of fanboys who are still taking out their wrath on Snyder.

Don't believe the morose reviews you will likely be reading from people too old to connect with this timeless story. Most of those reviewers won't even understand that the costumed heroes in WATCHMEN, with the obvious exception of Jon Ostermans' Dr. Manhattan, are supposed to be real people just like you and me, and not the super heroes we are used to who fight evil with their super powers. The costumed vigilantes of WATCHMEN are regular people who just got tired of crime, crime bosses, and power-crazed politicians and took matters into their own hands. They sewed their own costumes and created their own alter egos and began fighting crime because they just couldn't take it anymore.

Moore's original impetus for the story line was to reflect 1980's anxieties and to deconstruct the superhero concept, hence his use of real people dressing up as costumed heroes. WATCHMEN takes place in a world with an alternate reality to ours. It's a world where Richard Nixon won the War in Vietnam, got rid of presidential term limits and is in his 4^th term as President and worrying about the Soviet nuclear threat.

The story begins in New York where police are investigating the murder of Edward Blake, aka The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). When they cops come up with no leads costumed vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley doing some brilliant work) takes on the challenge. And like any other noir crime detective, Rorschach follows whatever leads he can come up with.

After excellent title credits that set up most of the back story, which in the original graphic novels were written in short stories in the back of each issue (written by the first Night Owl, Hollis Mason, and called Under the Hood) the opening scene is shot by shot a recreation of the original panels that began the story in the books with the famous yellow Smiley face pin with a drop of The Comedians blood.

Soon Rorschach realizes he's in the midst of a plot to eliminate  and discredit all past and current costumed heroes so he tries to warn his now out-of-work comrades. He reaches Dan Dreiberg, the current Night Owl (Patrick Wilson), the glowing blue - and only true super hero of the bunch - Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) and his lover Laurie Juspeczyk (Malin Akerman as the second Silk Scepture, a costume she inherited from her mom, the first Silk Scepture), and Adrian Veidt (the hero Ozymandias played by Matthew Goode).

As Rorschach investigates and the others join in and reminisce they discover a nefarious conspiracy that links their shared past to a catastrophic future. Each character has time to develop and each story is tightly tied together.

Over the past 22 years since the graphic novels first came out many different entites have had a hand in trying to get a WATCHMEN movie made. The project was first bought by Producer Larry Gordon in 1986 for 20th Century Fox. Joel Silver at Warner Bros. had a version, and creator Alan Moore declined to write the script, then Terry Gilliam was set to direct, and they toyed with the idea of having Arnold Schwarzenegger play Dr. Manhattan, but the money fell apart and Universal got a shot.

Then Paramount got their hands on it and Darron Aronofsky was set to  direct for about a minute. Daronofsky left to do his pretentious THE FOUNTAIN so Paramount tossed it to Paul Greengrass, who wanted Joaquin Phoenix as Dr. Manhattan, Simon Pegg as Rorschach (ouch!), with Daniel Craig Jude Law, and Sigourney Weaver attached. WATCHMEN wounded up in turnaround and fans feared it would never be made.

Court disputes between the various studios who all wanted to profit from something they couldn't get off the ground went on up till the end of 2008. After 300 did stellar business a relatively unknown Director Zach Snyder was approaced to helm WATCHMEN and the rest is now history. When Snyder got involved all talk of updating the story to present time fell away and a film more true to the original story took shape. It's up to you now to see if they succeeded.

Check out my original WATCHMEN almost complete set (missing only issue #11) for sale now on ebay. The sale ends March 7, 2009 at 11:42 PST.

And keep checking back at ebay. I've got an extra copy of #6 (the Rorschach issue) that artist Dave Gibbons just signed when I spoke to him on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 that I'll be putting up for sale in a few days. He's got an awesome signature to go with his awesome artwork.

For you real fanboys & grrrls I also recommend the collaborative WATCHMEN wikia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ © 2009 by Digital Dogs~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Digital Dogs rating: A

MPAA rating: R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language.

Running Times: 180 Minutes

Producers Wesley Coller, Herb Gains, Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Deborah Snyder, Thomas Tull, Director Zach Snyder, Screenplay David Hayter, Alex Tse, with art by original artist Dave Gibbons (graphic novel illustrator), and original story by Alan Moore (graphic novel), DP Larry Fong, Editor William Hoy, Music Tyler Bates, Actors Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer, Stephen McHattie, Rob LaBelle

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		Digital Dogs, Gather Movies Correspondent - Los Angeles
	Digital Dogs' column, HOLLYWOOD POV, published every Thursday to Gather Essentials: Movies is an insider's look at the art, people, and product of Hollywood. Digital Dogs is an opinionated writer, editor, and digital designer who lives and works in the Entertainment Capital of the world. DigiDogs' unique reviews are usually written well before a film's release date, and definitely worth the advance look at the films that influence the world. Keep up with Digital Dogs' movie review series by joining her network, or subscribing to her content.