You know how you sometimes wait for something just knowing it's going to be good? Like Christmas or your birthday when you're a little kid, you know, back when presents really were all that? Or that long-awaited kiss from someone you've liked for awhile? Or that movie you know is exactly right up your alley, that you've wanted to see since it was in production.
Well, I finally saw Watchmen. And it was like the Christmas when I did get the Cowgirl Barbie and her pony with brushable hair. Satisfying.
This may be just me, but I thought the intro and credits were worth the price of admission. The brutal struggle Edward "The Comedian" Blake fought for his life in the opening scenes promised an unstinting acknowledgement that this was not going to be watered down in terms of the violence or strangeness. The story of Moore's alternate universe played out in montage to the tune of "The Times They are A-changin'" really seemed to serve the function of informing the audience about the world our heroes are living in. Visually, the movie can hardly be faulted, being very faithful to the look of the graphic novel. The casting was pretty damn awesome as far as the actors having the right look for the characters. (Your blogger is a very visually-oriented movie-goer, especially where something like this is concerned.) But there were stand-outs:
Jackie Earle Haley was disturbingly Rorschach. It wasn't just a question of face or mannerisms; in costume, Rorschach doesn't really have much in the way of facial expressions or mannerisms, just a menacing voice--but the time spent unmasked, in a prison scene, Haley captured Rorschach's stoic near-psychopathy.
Also regarding Haley--it's kind of understood in Watchmen, the book, that Rorschach under the mask is not a handsome man. It's almost part of the deconstruction of the idea of heroes--in the world of standard comics, heroes aren't just supposed to be strong, or fast, or smart, but also kind of foxy. I checked out his page on imdb.com. He's actually not a bad-loooking guy, but his Rorschach is just as kind of a mess underneath the mask as he should be. I'm not sure how they "Rorschached" him up--but some good part of it was acting, no mean feat when the better part of the role is in a mask. (The way the blots moved on his mask was really a neat trick--a very cool movie touch.)
Also stand-out:
Billy Crudup as Doctor Manhattan. Also not an easy role. Try working through that one--"Okay, you're a physicist who had been basically annihilated and then brought back in one piece as a kind of quantum superman, with a range of powers that involve teleportation, telekinesis, basically power over all matter and energy, with a knowledge of your own past, present and future. A god-like being, in other words. Oh, and you'll have to do it naked and blue."
Crudup really found the "Jon Osterman" part of Dr. Manhattan. * Even if it was just a certain tilt of the head that gave the totally-white eyes a look of wistful sorrow, he found a way to physically convey that for a superbeing, the guy still had feelings. But he balanced that pretty nicely with the other-worldliness of the character--the awesome power, vs. the kind of powerlessness of a man who sometimes can only watch tragedy, even while feeling removed from it.
Now, to address the nearly normal Ms. Juspeczyk and Mr. Driberg. (Malin Ackerman & Patrick Wilson.) I think I loved how nearly normal they came off in this movie, especially the not-quite sex scene (the actual, yes, sex in a flying machine to the sound of Leonard Cohen was also cool, but I think it was the not-quite sex scene that reminded us they aren't superheroes all the time.) Malin Ackerman can't help but be very gorgeous, but Wilson's Driberg is charmingly schlubby--until he puts on the Nite Owl costume. I think the movie could have fleshed out Laurie (Silk Spectre II) just a bit more--she really is more than the sum of her relationships: to her mom(Silk Spectre/Sally Jupiter--played by Carla Cugino with some pretty neat make-up as she plays the older version of her character--I'm glad no especial pains were taken to try and replicate the comic-book version of that character's hair), to Doctor Manhattan (who she has had a relationship with since she was a teeager), which Nite Owl, and with The Comedian. But the story is kind of driven by her relationships, anyway.
As for Patrick Wilson's Nite Owl--the character seems to be the regular guy who just really, really felt like being a hero. He builds gadgets, he has a secret lair under his home, he was left a bit of money, apparently, but he's just such a nice guy. A nice guy who it turns out can turn a group of thugs in an alley into a pile of bleeding people, but still. So nearly normal.
I've read a few reviews that weren't as cool about Matthew Goode's Ozymandius. Me, I think Adrian Veidt's whole point is that he doesn't seem terribly scary. Menacing. The banality of cracked supergenius, as it were. What I think Goode gets right is Veidt's self-absorption. He knows that he's the smartest guy in the room and has all the answers. He doesn't need more than that.
Although the ending was changed about a little, the movie was very faithful. To me, the soundtrack was righteous. I also thought the movie had the right "period" sense, in that there were cues that let you know it was supposed to be 1985. The commercials. The "McLaughlin Group". Lee Iacocca. Also, to get at the alt.universe part, the Nixon & Kissinger make-up was kind of cariacture-like, but right-on, anyway, if that makes sense.
Anyway, I liked it terribly. It's a bloody movie--I did note some patrons had brought small kids with them at my theater, and I don't see this as a "bring the whole fam" kind of movie. I think the violence is necessary about deconstructing how masked avengers really would have to sometimes deal with the vermin they actually came across--not wrap them up for the cops with a note pinned on. No--sometimes break bones. Smash heads. And the movie conveys part of the larger idea of heroism as tied with America--Doctor Manhattan is a man, and a weapon. His influence won Vietnam. Is he a hero--or a tool? The Comedian seems to be the kind of mercenary sociopath spook whose patriotism equals loyalty to the country paying him to kill. Is there anything redeemable in him?
I think Watchmen is a movie that has a great deal of moral ambiguity to it, and violence, some really brutal scenes regarding Silk Spectre I and an attempted rape, and it isn't really a "feel good" action flick. It probably isn't everyone's cup of tea--but I think that's why I liked it. I might even pony up to see it again in the theater. It's got a touch of culty-goodness to it.
*How much is CGI? I mean, I have no idea how these things work--but don't they model after the actor somewhat to feel out mannerisms and stuff? I posted right after the movie and as always, late at night. It's occured to me how much that was a synergy of tech and acting.
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