How many Watchmen would a Watchman watch if a Watchman could watch Watchmen?

[williamjm]

I went to see Watchmen at the cinema today, having previously finished reading the graphic novel last weekend. I'd actually bought the graphic novel from Amazon about sixth months ago after commenting on catrionamacnair 's livejournal that it sounded interesting and I might consider reading it before the film came out and being told I had to buy and read it immediately it was so good. I did buy it shortly after, but then took quite a while before actually getting around to reading it although the imminent release of the film finally made me pick it up (I also had to wait a bit for it to dry out, since Amazon helpfully left the package outside my door all day on a day when we had a torrential thunderstorm).

I thought the novel was very good, although not quite perfect it was thought-provoking and had some fascinating characters and an intriguing alternate-history. I'm still not quite sure what to make of the ending, the moral question it poses is interesting but I found it a bit hard to entirely suspend disbelief for some key elements of the villain's plan which do come out of left-field and the bit about telepathy doesn't really seem to fit in well with the rest of the Watchmen universe (which is relatively realistic, blue teleporting superman with god-like powers notwithstanding). Also, how many plans must you have considered before deciding your best option is to genetically engineer a giant telepathic squid that you're going to drop on New York as a pretend alien invasion? It's almost like the superhero movie equivalent of trying to assassinate someone by putting lots of snakes on a plane they're travelling on ;)

I also felt the 'villain' could have done with more characterisation in earlier chapters rather than getting a huge amount of exposition about his past being given as his plan is revealed. Also, I really hate the plot device where supposedly intelligent people have easy-to-guess passwords which allow their plot to be discovered - if anyone would not have an easy-to-guess password it would be Veidt

I thought the film was good as well, it was a fairly accurate adaptation for the most part. It is missing a lot of bits that are not crucial to the plot but do add depth to it (the Black Freighter most obviously) but since the film is so long already I can understand why they cut bits out. The ending is lacking a giant telepathic squid attack, which I feel is mostly an improvement, although it felt a bit rushed (I realise this is a hypocritical complaint since I was complaining about there being too much exposition in the graphic novel ending). I thought the characterisation and acting were mostly fairly good, although Nite Owl II does end up turning into a generic superhero by the end, even though in the early parts of the movie I thought the characterisation was faithful to the novel. The directing was mostly pretty good, although I agree with some other comments that it lacks subtlety at times and the film is arguably sometimes unnecessarily gratuitous.


 

Comments

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

There is a "special edition", 30 minutes longer, which will also be released on DVD. Meanwhile, there's an animated version of the Black Freighter tale due out on DVD next month.

[williamjm.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if having the Black Freighter as a separate DVD makes that much sense, it's main purpose is to contrast with the main plot of Watchmen which only really works properly if it is interleaved with the main story. The 30 extra minutes do sound potentially interesting, though.

[maltaran.livejournal.com]

You could argue that Veidt meant for them to guess his password, so that they'd come to Antarctica instead of staying in NY and being killed by the squid.

[the-corbie.livejournal.com]

Certainly, he doesn't seem surprised by their arrival.

The bigger flaw is that Veidt doesn't seem to have considered the possibility that either Rorschach or Nite Owl might have done exactly what they did in fact do, i.e. leave behind evidence of what they'd uncovered in case they died. Big 'oops' there from the world's smartest man. ;) Still, I suppose he had a lot on his mind. :p

I didn't feel the 'Manhattan attack' worked much better than a giant telepathic squid, in the end. For a start it lacked any really credible explanation - why did Manhattan suddenly start blowing up millions of innocents? Oh yeah, 'the world's punishment for flirting with WWIII', wasn't it? Hmmm.

For another thing, it relied on him being identified as the author of the attack almost instantly, which was achieved by a throwaway line about his 'energy signature' being detected at the site of the attacks (I wondered if I'd walked into an episode of 'Star Trek' at that point). Given that the world was on the brink of nuclear war and hey, some of our cities seem to have been destroyed by something that looked like a nuclear explosion, you'd think the more natural reaction would be 'launch the missiles!' before people started analysing 'energy signatures', even supposing they had the ability.

OTOH, giant psychic squid.

(Which worked in the comics because hey, it was a comic, and they were riffing on the sort of thing that happens in comics. But I agree a movie audience would have been saying 'huh?')

[williamjm.livejournal.com]

The bigger flaw is that Veidt doesn't seem to have considered the possibility that either Rorschach or Nite Owl might have done exactly what they did in fact do, i.e. leave behind evidence of what they'd uncovered in case they died. Big 'oops' there from the world's smartest man. ;) Still, I suppose he had a lot on his mind. :p

He also underestimates Manhattan's powers, so Veidt is certainly not infallible. That said, it would have made more sense for him to send Rorshach and Nite Owl off on a wild goose-chase somewhere, which shouldn't be too hard with some planted evidence. Or maybe he secretly feels the need to monologue about his brilliant plan to someone, even if he is sensible to do it after he's set it in motion.

For a start it lacked any really credible explanation - why did Manhattan suddenly start blowing up millions of innocents? Oh yeah, 'the world's punishment for flirting with WWIII', wasn't it? Hmmm.

I'm guessing that Veidt-owned newspapers and TV stations are quick to get Veidt's version of events out there. I also wondered if the military aide who initially identified it was Manhattan's energy signature rather than a nuclear strike might have a lucrative consulting contract with the defence portion of Veidt Industries. It's not really Veidt's style to leave such things to chance.

[fenryng.livejournal.com]

Do you have any suggestions as to other comic graphic novels that I might enjoy, or is it not a format you tend to venture into often?

[williamjm.livejournal.com]

I think this counts as the second-ever graphic novel I've read (the first one was a Clerks graphic novel I read to distract myself from the fact that people were watching the Mike Myers Grinch film in the same room), so I'm not the best person for recommendations in this area.