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When I reviewed Watchmen on its cinema release earlier in the year, I had not read the celebrated graphic novel, and I loved the film (read my review). Now, though, I have read the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons source material - and my opinion of the film stands. Certainly the comic is an extraordinary piece of work, deserving of all its acclaim, but I also believe that Zack Snyder's film adaptation is as good an adaptation as could possibly be made from it. It's a superb film, completely atypical of Hollywood big-budget fare, accessible to receptive viewers unversed in the original source - like me - while still remaining sufficiently faithful to its events, themes and characters to satisfy longtime fans.
So, of course, it was embraced by neither.
It is simply astonishing to me that the overwhelming consensus of this film could be summed up as 'apathy'. Such a dark, emphatically adult work was never going to have the broad, multi-demographic appeal that the studio backers were hoping for, but Watchmen is an extraordinary effort: complex, exhilarating, uncompromising. Snyder - who directed the commercially successful but shallow 300, the antithesis of Watchmen - and his collaborators make so many spot-on decisions that the very few missteps are excusable and insignificant. The casting, pacing, visuals and overall tone of the piece are perfectly attuned to the story's sensibilities.
The unsung hero of the film is Patrick Wilson as the nerdish Dan Dreiberg, AKA Nite Owl II, a Batman-esque figure without the riches (he's blown all his money on his fancy technology). Wilson is the emotional core of the film, a retired superhero who claims to not miss the old days but secretly longs for the thrills and dangers of crime fighting. He's the point of identification for the audience; a lonely everyman figure living off TV dinners who has weekly nostalgic drinking sessions with his predecessor, Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl. It's impossible not to think of Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent when watching Wilson's endearingly bumbling antics, but Dreiberg is even more hapless: Kent was never hit with impotency problems when bedding Lois Lane. Watchmen is certainly an ensemble piece, with no main protagonist (something that another director may have elected to change, as it would have been easier to focus on one character), but by the end, Dreiberg earns the hero stripes.
The more attention-grabbing performances, but equally deserving of acclaim, come from Jackie Earle Haley as the masked vigilante Rorschach, who plays the part of detective complete with hard-boiled gravelly voiceover, and Billy Crudup, hidden behind some outstanding CGI, as Dr. Manhattan, the only true superman in the film. Both are wonderful; the diminutive Haley was born to play the anti-hero Rorschach, and manages to emote even with a layer of material completely obscuring his face. The reveal of Rorschach's backstory is one of the film's most suspenseful sequences, managing to both disgust and inspire pathos simultaneously. Meanwhile, Dr. Manhattan truly challenges Gollum in the CG-character supremacy stakes. The most extraordinary aspect of the character is how subtle the CG work is; Crudup's performance is extremely restrained and distant, but the effects are up to the task of conveying every minor nuance of the actor's expressions. Of course, Manhattan has proven to be one of the film's most contentious elements, as for much of the time he's completely in the buff, and Synder isn't prudish with his camera. But really all that the uproar reveals is how insecure Western viewers are with nudity.
There are several sequences in the film which are just outstanding. Dr. Manhattan's arrival on Mars, when he reminisces about his origins and past relationships, is amongst the best. Scored perfectly by Philip Glass's "Pruitt Igoe" and "Prophecies" from Koyaanisqatsi, the sequence unfolds non-linearly (reflecting Manhattan's perception of the universe) to both moving and thrilling effect. Another superb moment and one of the film's most exciting is a tenement fire rescue by Nite Owl and Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman); after so much waiting for the heroes to spring into action, the sense of relief and elation is palpable. The ending, too, is brilliantly judged; it's one of the film's few sizeable diversions from the source but it is, if anything, an improvement (all the pre-release concerns about the lack of "the squid" are revealed to be misguided), and seems an entirely natural and logical conclusion. The Director's Cut contributes another great scene that was missed from the theatrical: the fate of Hollis Mason, cut to the elegiac Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, as immortalised in Raging Bull.
So, what does this extended version, only available currently in Region 1, add to the film? Mostly the 24 additional minutes comprise minor scene extensions and character moments that fill in small gaps in the narrative. In truth, very few of them are essential - even the Hollis Mason scene, while superb in its own right, has little overall impact on the narrative - but the net result is that the film feels more complete. There are a couple of unnecessary additions better left on the cutting room floor (the first new footage, involving some cops catching Rorschach in the Comedian's apartment, adds nothing and necessitates the deletion of a clever scene transition), but overall they seamlessly slot in and further enrich the narrative of the film.
The extras
For a two-disc edition, this is actually quite scant when it comes to extras. The first disc is the 3-hour film alone - the commentary (or rather, the newfangled "Maximum Movie Mode") is Blu-ray exclusive. Disc 2 is mostly filled by a digital copy, which cannot be activated outside North America and is therefore useless to overseas buyers. The most substantial featurette - indeed, the only new material - is the 30-minute "The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics", which does what it says on the tin. Then there are the eleven video journals previously available online (interesting but brief), and the music video for My Chemical Romance's surprisingly good cover of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row", which kicks off the film's end credits. In the UK, Paramount are the distributors rather than Warners, and while they haven't seen fit to release the Director's Cut, the R2 Special Edition is actually more loaded with extras. Those with Blu-ray players, though, will want to import the US Blu-ray, which is the DC, along with the best selection of extras and is region free.
Another point worth noting: Synder has promised an even longer cut (integrating the animated Tales of the Black Freighter, already available separately), along with a shedload of extras, by the end of the year.
The summary
A brash, bold, unique blockbuster. Watchmen is a marmite film for sure, but is best approached with an open mind and a willingness to engage the brain cells. The Director's Cut is worth seeking out, but the changes are not seismic.
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