Watchmen

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A real treat. DVD and Blue-Ray

Summary

The first thing to note is how true to the book the movie is. It's been awhile since I read the book, so maybe there's a point or two I'm missing, but I didn't see any significant deviations except (of course) the ending, which I'll get to in a moment (without any spoilers).

Staying true to the plot is nice, but what's far more important is to stay true to the spirit and aesthetic. Creating a similar feel in a different medium in no easy task, but here I think we have an example of a pretty much unqualified success.

Often when reviewing a remake of something else, one is forced to step away from the original and wrestle with preconceptions and expectations. Watchmen has none of those problems.

Indeed, I think the only significant deviation I detected actually made the story work better. For me, that change was closer to an improved second draft than anything else.

Details and Notes

The one big challenge for viewers, which is inherent in the story, is getting into a world threatened by nuclear destruction. They certainly make clear that that's the world of the Watchmen, but it's in large part a part of the background. Very real, but in many ways pre-supposed. This world would have been immediately accessible to someone living during the Cold War, but less so to a modern viewer.

Although it was always a very real danger, and we should all be glad that we avoided a nuclear confrontation (or more likely, accident), the "known quantity" and the existence of a "balance of power" seems preferable to the state of the world today, which is characterized by asymmetric power, desperate acts of terrorism, and random violence. Global annihilation seems far less likely, yet to many it feels as if their own personal danger has increased.

In this way, it makes the world of the Watchmen seem almost quaint. We can assume their world and cheer them on, but it's hard to detach entirely and we end up asking, "Well, that's all well and good for you, but what about my problems?"

This is in no way a criticism of the movie or plot, but is something to be aware of. Watchmen was originally written as a alternate world that looked very much like our own. Now, it's just an alternate world. The story has moved from "near fiction" to just plain fiction.

Spoiler Alert.

Of course, the big plot change is Ozymandias' disaster. In the book, he creates the illusion that a previously unknown alien race is threatening earth. In the movie, the story is that Dr. Manhattan has gone off the rails. I'm not sure which works better as an exogenous threat, but I think the Dr. Manhattan ploy is more elegant. It makes uses of the elements at hand, and serves to put a period on the sub-plot of Dr. Manhattan's growing detachment.

I prefer the change, in part, because for me Dr. Manhattan is the most interesting character. I like that Ozymandias' movie scheme interacts with this most interesting character whereas in the book, Manhattan just trails off. There's that moment in the movie where you think Dr. Manhattan is going to take umbrage at the thought that he would do something. Indeed, there's moment of confusion before he understands the implications and it seems only natural that it will transmute to anger. But then you realize that's not how Dr. Manhattan works. That's the underline, the period to his change.

You do kind of get that in the novel, when Dr. Manhattan shrugs off Ozymandias' attempt to vaporize him. For me, the acceptance of his portrayal as one of the worst villains of all times is much more poignant.