The Tauz Watches Watchmen: Pt. 3

Finally, here we are, at the end of my tedious review of Watchmen. If you haven't already, go check out this post and then this post for the full effect. Now... the money shot, so to speak...

The Tauz's Watchmen Review.

Part 3: The Movie (continued).
(A.K.A. The Adulation and Lingering Questions from a Fanboy)

(Both Graphic Novel AND Movie SPOILERS, ahoy!)

The things that gave me Fanboy Boners:

Honestly, even though I found a laundry-list of stuff that annoyed me, the makers of this film recreated the world that was in the book. This world was no doubt that in which Dr. Manhattan and the rest of these fucked-up folks resided. They did excellent work, seriously.

And although I didn't realize it while watching, a TON of the dialogue was lifted straight from the original word balloons. That is so awesome. Who'd have thought that using a script of intelligent dialogue as a script for dialogue in a movie would provide the audience with intelligent material to view?!? What a twist!

As was the rumor from very early on, the makers of the film went to great lengths to bring the intricacies of the panels to life on the big screen. And they succeeded, right down to some very minute details. The mes-en-scene and backgrounds were spot-on, despite the glaring lack of sugar cubes. The many shots from the funeral scene, as I recall, reminded me specifically of their corresponding panels from the novel.

For me, the movie really brought home the fact that Jon was killing people, straight up. Even though he explodes a few people in the novel, for some reason, what he was doing never really hit me. But when he's walking through the fields in 'nam, explicitly ending peoples' lives by causing them to burst, that'll drive it home for ya. I think this really portrayed the danger that Jon's power presented to the rest of the world a little more effectively on screen than it did on the page.

99% of the characters were pulled off well, physically.
And while Dan could have been a bit chunkier and the doofus at the New Frontier needed to be a curly ginger-haired fatso, they did a great job with the casting. For every one (1) tiny mis-casting, there were about five (5) dead-on similarities waiting to blow you away.

The Number One Dead-Ringer, though, was Jackie Earl Haley as Kovacs, the man behind Rorschach's mask. During the interview with the psychiatrist (another homerun casting/make-up job), you are watching the pages turn, dude.



Were You Aware?
Jackie Earl Haley also played Kelly Leak in the 1976 classic The Bad News Bears?



And Matt Frewer!! They got Max Fucking Headroom to be Moloch! Nobody's seen this dude since he was on that episode of Star Trek: TNG where his character is "from the future", and now he turns up as MOLOCH in WATCHMEN?!? So, so good. They totally nailed this aspect of translating material between the media.

Jon's dong was everywhere. I think it showed up more in the movie than it did in the book, but the fact that they included the full frontals (forgive me) took balls. Bully for you. And if it made you uncomfortable, get over it. Also, the fact that they eased the audience into the fact that he was fully nude a lot was good. It wasn't like he was out there and lovin' every minute of it in his debut scene. It worked just like it did in the book: it exemplified how very disconnected from humanity Jon actually was. Thanks for manning up on this one, filmmakers.

Another thing they got very right that helped to enhance the movie-going experience was the soundtrack! Sadly, it took me until I heard Hendrix's rendition of "All Along the Watchtower" to realize that they were using the songs that were quoted on the closing pages of each chapter of the book! Excellent usage. Actually hearing them totally added a little something special to the story.

And exchanging Jon for Adrian's Fabricated Alien in the big ending plot change was probably necessary. The unknowing American public would not have swallowed that very easily, I don't think.

Case in point: I got the following IM from a friend of mine who had seen the flick without having read the book...
"hopefully you enjoyed Watchmen. i thought it was ok. good story, but i guess i expected more. someone at work explained the giant squid, yeah, glad they changed that part a bit. but i figured out the good guy became bad at the beginning."

Some will not agree with my above-quoted friend and I on this, but they are probably the same purist-blowhards who will heckle the people in line for the movie with cries of "Unfilmable!" So, you know what? They can eat me.

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I am not sure how I feel about the following things:

The energy plot change. I think I was okay with it, because we got to see Lee Iacoca bite it. Hilarious.

Laurie's character seemed to have benefited from this version of the story. She wasn't as whiny, spoiled nor as annoying as she was in the book. I liked her better as a character in the movie, but wasn't she written in the book to be a bit annoying and spoiled on purpose? Maybe it was just Miss Akerman's performance that added likability to Laurie? Still not sure how I feel about it, but it's a fun topic for discussion.

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but Jon was working with Adrian from the beginning, right? So he added to the probable cause of his own alleged attacks in the end? Hmm. Not bad, but my jury's still out on why he'd be willing to be involved with Veidt, even before the start of the "Mask-Killer" plot line.

They took some of the stuff STRAIGHT from the art in the book. Now, I realize that I just praised the filmmakers for doing this, but the sad fact is that some stuff that they did do straight from the book, came off as cheesy, rather than coincidental and/or significant and wryly meaningful like they did in the book. Two examples of this spring to mind: When the Laurie's elbow sets off Archie's flamethrower:



...and after Jon and Laurie have concluded their conversation on Mars and they pull out to reveal the giant smiley face:



Now, while in the book, this visual has a lot of poignant functions, seeing it in the movie just made me giggle. I don't know why, but seeing it on the screen, I recognized it as being something straight from the panels, but it didn't hit me like it did while I was reading it. It didn't remind me of The Comedian, who had just been revealed to be Laurie's dad. Nor did it hit me that Jon's somewhat fickle decision to help humanity is just another in a series of cosmic jokes leading to the situation that Adrian has wrought on the world by the end of the story. I just giggled cuz it was a smiley face on Mars. That probably just speaks volumes about what it takes to entertain me, movie-wise. Anyshit...just another discussion point for future nerd gatherings.

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The Final Verdict:

I think most of the changes that I complain about seem like they could have been interpreted into live-action very seamlessly and practically. It left me wondering why they decided to leave out the little shit, like the sugar cubes. Not hard to throw 'em in there, is all I'm saying. Or making Rorschach's capture more faithful to the art.

This points to misplaced accuracy. They went for artsy duplications and not always action duplications, which could have been just as cool, if not cooler than the original depictions. This confuses me.

That said, I enjoyed seeing these characters in the flesh, with all of their faults and flaws intact. I think there were some differences between the book and movie that should have been avoided; that would have made the movie even better, had they been imported from the book more directly. But I still think it was an amazing flick. I plan to own this on home video one day, along with the supplemental Tales of the Black Freighter animated short that has already been released.

I recommend both the graphic novel and the movie to anyone who likes this kind of stuff. Not for moms. Certainly not for kids. But I bet my brothers will love this just as much as I did.