Watchmen Initial Impressions (SPOILER FREE)

Posted on: March 5, 2009
7 comments so far (is that a lot?)

Having just gotten back from the Arclight in Hollywood, where I saw the movie with John Campea from TheMovieBlog.com, and other friends, I wanted to give a spoiler free initial review with a full review tomorrow.

Watchmen is a good movie, that is ultimately disappointing to the hardcore Watchmen fan. While the movie faithfully recreates the visuals and even most of the dialogue of the original Alan Moore comic book, the tone is uneven and not completely in sync with Watchmen the graphic novel.

To the average movie fan, the movie will be entertaining, and they will enjoy the action and special effects. They will also be a little confused as they try to pack so much information into the 2 and half hours, and in the end they might not be sure what happened.

For the first half of the movie, it’s all setup and backstory, so for someone that’s read Watchmen it’s slower. But the second half it starts to move much faster, and picks up steam.

I still think both Watchmen and casual fans will find the movie entertaining, however those of us who know the true genius of the original comic book, will feel like there’s something missing.

watchmen_movie_image__37_

THE GOOD:

Visual Effects for Dr. Manhattan were fantastic

Liked the casting for Dr. Manhattan, Rorschach, The Comedian and Ozymandias

Back story on Dr. Manhattan was done well, sense of isolation and detachment from mankind

Costumes were really well done

Opening sequence sets up backstory nicely

Rorschach’s scenes in jail are great

THE BAD:

Didn’t like the casting for Nite Owl and Silk Spectre (especially her)

Missing scenes that were not essential to story, but essential to the characters personalities and tone of story

Certain visual effects looked off on some scenes.

Fighting sequences are too much like newer Batman movies (not that they aren’t good, just doesn’t fit Watchmen for me)

Some of the makeup wasn’t that great on certain characters (Nixon, The Original Silk Spectre)

Rorshach’s voice is too Christian Bale Batman

Rorschach’s changing mask was distracting (while it looked cool, didn’t fit with his character)(editor’s note: I know that the mask in the original comic book changes, however from panel to panel, you don’t really see the the transformation process, which makes it look like a living alien on his face. It would have been better if they just changed it from shot to shot, in a more subtle way)

80’s Pop Music didn’t work for me, preferred the scored music better

I will have a full review with more details later on.

- Dennis

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19727 Responses2009-03-05+10%3A29%3A48Dennis to “Watchmen Initial Impressions (SPOILER FREE)”

Chuck Norris Says:
March 5th, 2009 at 3:47 PM
As I said over on John’s site, the one thing that nagged at me during the film is every time Dr. Manhattan had one of his many soliloquies, they sounded exactly like one of those fucking “Mastercard/Priceless” ads…And then when I got home, I looked up Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan) and found out that he is indeed the voice behind those ads. What I thought was at first a fault of the production was just a by-product of the casting. Now I’m okay with it.

Anyway, having never read the graphic novel, I don’t feel like I quite got the whole gist of the story. Hopefully a second viewing (later tonight) will help fill those holes.

Jackie Earle Haley was fucking brilliant. When Rorschach makes his declaration in the prison cafeteria (”None of you understand. I’m not locked up in here with you…You’re locked up in here with me”), holy fuck that was awesome!

Good call on the “Rorschach/Batman” voice.

Oh, and since Jonny Green taught me the concept, I was able to apply the knowledge. Dr. Manhattan: definitely a shower and not a grower.
Dennis Says:
March 5th, 2009 at 10:21 PM
That’s funny that it actually was him. Since I didn’t recognize the voice, I liked Crudup as Manhattan. Can’t say the same for Silk Spectre.
The Discriminating Fangirl Says:
March 6th, 2009 at 10:25 PM
You know, I actually liked Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II. The only other thing I’ve seen him in is Phantom of the Opera, and Raoul isn’t exactly the greatest character ever. So maybe I went in with lower expectations, but I liked him pretty well.

Then again, I haven’t read the comics yet, so I can’t compare his performance to the original character.
Dennis Says:
March 6th, 2009 at 10:51 PM
Patrick Wilson wasn’t bad, but I think he was miscast. Niteowl II in the comic book is a slightly older, overweight guy and he was younger, better looking, and not quite as awkward as in the original.

For Silk Spectre II, I didn’t really like her performance. Sometimes when she talked in the movie, it felt like she was just reading lines.
Beckett Says:
March 13th, 2009 at 10:26 AM
I disagree about Rorschach’s mask – I don’t think it would have been better if it had just changed frame-to-frame, especially if there are no cuts in the shot, if that makes sense. In graphic novel/comic book format, the resources you have to work with are limited, thus the mask doesn’t *actually* move. I thought it was great they way the did his mask in the movie, and not at all distracting. Kinda like the “motion comic” that came out on iTunes of the first chapter last November – did you see that?

Also, his voice didn’t bother me. Christian Bale’s did, but not just because he overdid it – his lisp always bothers me – but Rorschach’s didn’t because it was part of his character. How else do you interpret the wavy speech-bubbles in the book?

For me, Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach was by far the best part of the movie, he did it perfectly, and unlike in reading the book, I remained sympathetic towards Rorschach from the beginning. I liked Manhattan, Comedian, and Ozymandias, although all their characters were missing a little something for me, but the performances were done really well, even if the script left elements out of their character development.

I agree about Sally Jupiter and Nixon’s makeup, it was distractingly bad. Maybe they would have done better to cast look-alikes and not change their faces with makeup.
Beckett Says:
March 13th, 2009 at 10:29 AM
PLUS another thing about the mask (I know, beat a dead horse, but…) Rorschach says about the material when he found it and got the idea for his “face” that it never ceased moving, like it was alive. So yeah, case and point.
Dennis Says:
March 13th, 2009 at 1:47 PM
I know that in the story it says that it’s moving, but just because it can in the movie, doesn’t mean it has to be so obvious. Also it didn’t look natural like cloth moving, it looked very digital and alien like.

As for the the speech bubbles, if you notice when Rorschach is in prison, the different speech bubbles are gone, my guess it that the strange speech bubbles were more to indicate a muffled sound coming from under the mask.

From Rorschach’s speech patterns, and his limited word cadence, I imagined his voice to be more monotone, rather than coarse. I guess the only real answer would come from Alan Moore himself, but he’s not talking.

Hopefully with the director’s cut, it will be bring back scenes that were missing and help develop the characters more. I truly missed the coffee scene on Nite Owl’s ship.