hardcore fans boycotting. But they
have to leave some of it out, because
there’s way too much going on in

the 12 issues to even come close

to getting it all in. Even though the
movie has a running time of close to
three hours, some important scenes
were left out or greatly condensed.
But somehow, they were able to make
it almost work.

And I say “almost” because
despite doing a lot right, it’s still
somehow not enough. I say as
someone who has read the book,
anyone who sees the movie without
reading the series first will either like
it a lot or be greatly confused. Before
I get to what went wrong, let me tell
you some of the things the movie did
right.

The characters, for the most part,
are wonderfully consistent from the
book the film. There’s Rorschach,
with his ink mask and his pure hatred
for anything he considers evil; Dr.
Manhattan is so powerful he is losing
his humanity; Ozymandias, the
world’s smartest man, can still barely
contain his ego and his contempt for
every other human, until you-know-
when; and The Comedian, played to
perfection by Jeffery Dean Morgan, is
still laughing in the face of society’s
rules, which he thinks he’s too strong
to follow (and just remember folks,
these are your “good” guys).

The two major departures are
The Silk Spectre and Nite Owl,
but both of these interpretations
are acceptable. Carla Gugino plays

A comic book nerd’s opinion

By Mark Fisher

eeing Watchmen brought to
S the big screen was a strange

experience. The 12-part
miniseries written by Alan Moore in
the late 1980s has long been regarded
as the artistic height of superhero
fiction, and many thought making
a movie out of the series would be
impossible, for many reasons, so
actually seeing it happening before
me on a giant screen in a packed
theatre was not something I would
have ever imagined taking place in
our lifetime.

But that was before comic

book films have become the hottest
moneymaking trend in recent years.
It wasn’t that long ago when comic
book films were all viewed as jokes,
and most of them bombed heavily.
Look up the old Fantastic Four or
Captain America from the 1990s. Or
read about the legal limbo that the
Spiderman movie went through for
about a decade because no one took it

seriously as a moneymaker. Fittingly,
it was the dawn of a new millennium
that brought the tremendous force

of change that was the first X-Men
movie, which was both a critical
success and certified blockbuster.
Soon enough comic book films
became the hottest trend, and every
successful ongoing series has now
either been made into a film or has
one in development.

I suppose someone attempting to
make Watchmen was only a matter of
time, as long as the comic book film
gravy train kept rolling. But this is
the most difficult comic book series
to ever make an adaptation from.
Whereas most comic book films are
borrowed from ongoing series that
have decades of stories to chose the
most solid elements from, Watchmen
only has its 12 issues, all set in 1985.
Can you imagine if they tried to
make a movie from Spiderman that
was still set in 1968? And because
the work is so highly regarded, they
can’t change much of it without the

a noticeably sexed-up version

of The Silk Spectre, but I’m not
complaining; it makes it more
believable that Dr. Manhattan, the
most powerful being on Earth,
would fall for her so hard. And it’s
worth remembering that Alan Moore
never works with artists that draw
attractive women; even in his recent
pornographic series Ex-Girls, every
girl was a four at best.

The other departure is Nite Owl,
who was pretty meek and withdrawn
in the book. In the movie he is a much
more bold and decisive character, not
afraid to take the initiative. Why is
this change good? I’m going to get
super comic book nerdy and tell you
why. It’s because each character in
Watchmen is based on a comic book
character archetype. Dr. Manhattan is
Superman, Ozymandias is Iron Man,
Rorschach is Batman, and so on. Nite
Owl, however, was based on The
Blue Beetle, which is an archetype
that doesn’t exist anymore. Most

 

fy int

people don’t even have the slightest
clue who The Blue Beetle is, so in
order to keep the audience interested
in the character, they gave him a
personality upgrade.

The movie is just as fearless
as the book itself. None of the
gruesome parts have been cut out and
none of the sexist superheroes have
been toned down. The Comedian’s
disgusting acts are still on full display,
as is Dr. Manhattan’s genitalia. The
sex scenes are explicit and downright
kinky. Several of the superhuman
characters in the Watchmen series are
clearly insane by society’s standards,
but each of them has a moment where
you can’t help but think to yourself,
“they just might be right.” The movie
manages to keep this atmosphere
intact, which is especially impressive
because other comic writers who
have tried to make characters that
are similar to Rorschach or The
Comedian or Ozymandias have failed
miserably when it comes to this.
Some of the additions the director
made are outstanding, particularly
the film’s amazing intro that shows
the evolution of the superhero from
the ‘40s to the modern day set to
Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are
a-Changin’.”

But despite its strengths, the
movie still falls short of the book,
in my opinion. “Adaptation decay”
is a term that best suits it. Too many
times, something that was a major
story arc in the book gets reduced
to one scene, or key interactions

between the lead characters are
removed— particularly Rorschach and
Ozymandias, who in the film version,
don’t interact with each other until the
finale. Sometimes what a character is
saying gets lost due to all the action
taking place. In a comic book you
can put as much text as you want
in an action scene without it being
distracting, because someone can take
as much time as they need to read it.
But all the words being said during
the film’s action sequences take away
from both the scene and the words.
And there are a lot of problems
with the new ending; it just falls flat
compared to the amazing climax of
the books.

The ultimate comic book ever
written has been made into a good
film, but not a great one.

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