Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 3/17/09 Section: Arts & Society

Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures The band of vigilantes who call themselves the Watchmen are pictured above.

Watchmen is perhaps the most loved graphic novel of all and was the only graphic novel in Time magazine "ALL-TIME 100 Best Novels" list. Thus when 300 director Zac Snyder took on the lauded material, he had gigantic shoes to fill, but he successfully comes up with a faithful adaptation that should please both the fan-boys and newcomers alike.

The multi-storyline plot of the film is set in an alternate-universe's 1985, where Cold War fears and costumed heroes permeate the fabric of the American landscape. The now-defunct crime-fighting vigilantes known as the Watchmen are forced to reconnect when one of their own is brutally murdered. The victim is "The Comedian" (played with sadistic-perfection by Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The Comedian lived a checkered life where the good he gave to the world could easily be overshadowed by the bad. But any of the possible motives for his killing are, in the mind of fellow masked hero Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), narrowed to one: a plot to murder all of the former superheroes.

As Rorschach sets out to warn the other four remaining Watchmen, we find four very seemingly different lives. Dr. Manhattan (played by Billy Crudup) is in a loveless relationship with Laurie Juspeczyk a.k.a. Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman). Dr. Manhattan, whose blue appearance is the result of an accident at a nuclear testing facility, is currently working for for the government-a job in which he is completely preoccupied, leaving Laurie in absolute isolation.

Nite Owl II or Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson) leads a much quieter life where he frequently visits the elder Nite Owl to talk about their respective glory days. On the other end of the spectrum, the final remaining Watchman, named Ozymandias (played by Matthew Goode), is a highly successful businessman who has capitalized on his superhero past.

Zac Snyder and screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse clearly understand the noir-feel of the source material as well as its social and political implications. They alter the third act of the story, but the ending is just as effective, nuanced and painfully rewarding.

Perhaps what is the most visually pleasing aspect of Snyder's directing is how he slows down action scenes rather than the fast-paced shaky camera style that has been in vogue. This slower and more artful approach to the brutal violence the film is laced with allows you not only to really see and experience the action, but also to feel the effects in a visceral sense. One scene involving an attempted assassination scene with Ozymandias proves why Snyder deserved the job.

The other strong points in the film are the powerhouse performances by actors Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach and Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan. It can be particularly difficult for an actor to live up to fervent fans' image of the character in the graphic novel. And yet both actors do exceedingly well in recreating the character from the page to the screen. Haley's Rorschach is dark, paranoid and yet incessantly bent on justice.Haley brings haunting perfection to depths of this key character and leaves nothing left to desire in his performance. Crudup's stoic interpretation of Dr. Manhattan also hits the bull's-eye with his unaffected voice and even his movements. These are the kind of performances that turn the imaginary into something so undeniably real.

The film has its faults with weaker performances made by Malin Akerman and Matthew Goode. Also, the almost three-hour running time is a bit draining considering the heavy material and pervasive violence.

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