I once gave this a 7/10. Rewatched it and giving it a 9.
Who Watches the Naught Films? - A Review of “Watchmen: The Director’s Cut”
First regarded as one of the most important graphic novels ever written, later the film provided a representation that polarised its viewers. The price of peace, the nature of man, relativity of time and the fruits of evil… these are all themes discussed in “Watchmen”.
I can still remember the first time I read “Watchmen” – it was a graphic novel like non-other I had seen. The questions posed, the themes explored… when it’s all over, you’re sitting there with a blank look on your face, trying to figure out how you would have reacted to every conflict that was presented.
When the first trailer hit, we were given a taste of the art direction, and shown how practically every shot in the film was replicated from the novel. Zack Snyder actually used the source material as his storyboards, only making minor changes, and then the occasional drastic change (mentioned below).
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Alan Moore’s story (paired with Syder’s alternate ending) presented a fantastic narrative. I can’t even begin to list off the moments of moral ambiguity, action and drama that keep you on the edge of your seat, or even just the plain old badassery. When the film ends, you’ll instantly be in internal dialogue with yourself on whether or not you’d agree with Rorschach or Ozymandias. You’ll contemplate what it means to see the world through the eyes of Dr. Manhattan. The film’s portrayal of someone who transcends time and space is done masterfully. As I mentioned in
my review of “Lucy”, for the most part, our understanding of his abilities is portrayed from the perspective of other characters, and he still has links to humanity that are explored in the “Birth of Dr. Manhattan” sequence. The last wink at the audience with the journal is also a fantastic talking point. Was it all for nothing?
The overall “look” of the film is very gratifying for the most part. It’s beautiful, grim and filled with contrasting colours. Every shot in this film is composed with so much focus that it’s hard to not be drawn in. It isn’t until we get moments of horrible CGI that we flinch a little. Snyder’s over-reliance on computer-generated images tends to act as a crutch on his film. In cases where miniatures, practical effect and composites of real footage could have easily been used, you scratch your head when the camera pans from a real shot, to an obviously CG rooftop, to another real shot. Don’t get me wrong, it looked great in the majority of the scenes, but the times that it stood out, it really stood out.
Hand-in-hand with the above, the slow-motion shots were a bit much at times. In my opinion, slow-motion has be used for purpose (ie the first “Matrix” and “Inception”
, but once it’s just for visual candy, it becomes a little exhausting and coupled with the crutching CG, it can really take you out of the scene (as it did for me in the opening sequence). But again, there were times where it was merited and for that I still give Snyder credit.
The changes from the book are apparent for the most part. To me, there are two that stand out most – the first is how Rorschach deals with the murderer of the little girl. In the book, he handcuffs the killer to the furnace, hands him a saw and sets the house on fire. The filmmakers changed this due to possible association to the movie saw. Personally, I would’ve gone “the hell with that” and left it, but we don’t know what powers were at play behind the scenes resulting in this change. The second is the big cataclysmic event at the end of the film. Without spoiling it too much, I enjoyed it a lot more than the one from the book. The original ending seemed to come out of nowhere and felt as though Alan Moore was sitting at his keyboard drunk and went “yeah, that’ll do” before passing out on his bed. Although I prefer Snyder’s ending, the fact that he left Bubastis in the film is confusing. Why would Ozymandias waste his time genetically engineering creatures if not for the original ending? It’s just out of place and feels random without context and (again) the CGI looked awful.
The music selection for this film was fantastic in the way in fit the story with the exception of a couple of songs. At times it made the film feel like a parody (of Apocalypse Now with the Vietnam sequence) or a scene from Smallville (Comedian’ funeral) and although the scenes on their own are great, they stand out like a soar thumb in context of the rest of the film. One of them that stood out most was the awkward pairing of picture to sound during the sex scene – really irked me. Aside from those select pieces, great selection. This category is one that people still find themselves quarrelling over when it comes to this film.
At the end of the day, I loved this film and I’ll give it a solid 9/10.
For a full list of changes between the Director’s Cut and the Theatrical Cut click here.
Source:
http://thespeakingmute.tumblr.com/post/104533455503/who-watches-the-naught-films-a-review-of
