It’s Not as Epic as Its Inspiration, but “The Watchmen” Movie Adaptation is Definitely Watchable

watchmen_poster16Since its release in 1986, Alan Moore’s “The Watchmen” has arguably become the greatest graphic novel to ever grace shelves, inspiring dozens of this generation’s best comic book writers and artists and helping to make the hybrid form of literature a viable one in pop-culture lore.

While the film isn’t as epic in scale and its message, Zack Snyder’s version of the Watchmen is an excellent film that still manages to capture the essence of the graphic novel and makes the most of a can’t win situation.

Considering the huge amount of fans of the graphic novel, Snyder’s job of making them happy and putting together a film that wasn’t five hours long [it could have easily been that long] were nearly impossible. Despite the fact that many of the things that made the graphic novel so unique, particularly the weaving of “The Curse of the Black Freighter” and “Under the Hood” into the main story, are absent, “The Watchmen” is still an enjoyable romp.

Combining the slow-motion effects made popular in films like “300” and “Sin City” with a noir-style narrative [think “The Spirit,” but done well] “The Watchmen” is a buffet for the eyes and is as well-crafted as any other comic book-inspired film released over the past few years, “The Dark Knight” included. As matter of fact, some may argue it’s in the same league as “Iron Man” and “Spider-Man 2.”

Even hardcore fans that feel “The Watchmen” is too way strayed from its source material will find it hard to argue that the film is well put together and manages to live up to the majority of the hype it had around it.

Helping the film achieve this goal is a superb performance by Jackie Earle Haley [Semi-Pro, Bad New Bears] as the masked vigilante Rorschach. Eerily intriguing and equally as dangerous, Haley’s performance is comparable to any top-tier star in Hollywood today.

The fighting scenes alone prove that Haley has the ability to be an action star.

Billy Crudup [Almost Famous] is also uber strong as Mr. Manhattan and when combined with the solid performances of Patrick Wilson as Night Owl II and Malin Akerman [27 Dresses] as Silk Spectre II, “The Watchmen” has plenty of star power and talent on the screen to survive.

Despite the fact that the plot may move along slow at times, the quality of the cast’s performance, combined with great special effects and a top notch soundtrack make this film a worthwhile entry into the canon of the series and one that is an excellent starting point for anyone unfamiliar with the source material.

Sometimes, when you are so close to a piece of literature, it’s hard to distinguish how good anything based on it really is. Because of that, anyone who can separate the graphic novel of “The Watchmen” with the movie will find it immensely enjoyable.

Fanboys, however, may have to look elsewhere.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

1 Comment

  1. This movie was dragged and extended, but if interested, a person can really understand the numerous flashbacks and then get the sense of what the movie is about. My friend thought this movie was long, boring and lacked action, but I saw much more in it than action. To understand the characters’ early life and problems, I thought this was a good movie even if it was long. The graphics are touching also. Since Zack Snyder directed it, it reminded me a lot like 300, where the graphics are tough yet realistic, and every punch looked painful.

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