Watchmen (2009) Review

 

Watchmen (2009)

Following the murder of retired superhero The Comedian, Watchmen follows Rorschach and the rest of the old team as they try to prevent a nuclear holocaust and a conspiracy to take out old supes in an alternate version of 1985.

The story, based off the graphic novel by Alan Moore, is what makes this “superhero” film so good. It’s a dark, noir-type thriller, where we bounce between the present and the pasts of each character in a way that fits the narrative. Understanding their backstories is half the battle. The rest is the deviation of bright elements or humor, and instead show a bleak, heartless, and extremely dark look at what the world would be like with and post-superheroes.

The characters, above all else though, make this movie. With an all-star cast including Patrick Wilson and Malin Åkerman, it’s Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Jackie Earle Haley who make the film so good. Crudup’s soulless and omnipotent Dr. Manhattan is complex and uncaring, in contrast to Haley and Morgan, who are equal parts entertaining, badass, and so violent, creating the mold for what dark antiheroes would be like on screen.

Director Zach Snyder brings Alan Moores graphic novel to life, using the novel as a storyboard for the movie, with each scene jumping out like a piece of art with intense beauty and accuracy. It also helps that the graphic novel is already dark, so making the adaption so, works almost too well. It’s action, visuals, soundtrack, story, and themes make such a rich, complex, and pervasive story like Watchmen not only work, but succeed in being, in my mind, the best comic book movie ever created.

It’s not flashy with it’s set pieces, nor does it drag in length, despite being around 3 hours, but it stands out through amazing character development and a terrific story that climaxes in an intense and graphic showdown, where the real culprit behind the conspiracy isn’t a twist, but a moral decision to save the world at the cost of the one man who can save it.

It’s not just a good comic book movie, but a phenomenal movie in general.

10/10