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THE AISLE SEAT - by Mike McGranaghan

"WATCHMEN"

I want to be clear about something from the get-go: Watchmen is one of my favorite books of all time, and I treasure it. The Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel ranks right up there with my other favorites, like Donna Tartt's The Secret History, and Nick Hornby's High Fidelity and Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher. It is a work of surprising depth and innovation, a story that celebrates the superhero myth while simultaneously tearing it to shreds. Having grown up on a steady diet of comic books and superhero tales, reading Watchmen was a revelation. It perfectly rendered the other side of the coin - the ugly "reality" behind the common fantasy of costumed crimefighters.

The story takes place in an alternate 1985, where Richard Nixon is still president and superheroes have been outlawed, save for a select few who give the United States an advantage in fighting the Cold War. One of those exceptions, the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is brutally murdered in the opening scene. A former colleague known as Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) sees the beginnings of a sinister plot to eliminate all the other crimefighters. He makes his way around, visiting former members of the group to issue a warning. They scoff at him, but before long they are all having misfortunes visited upon them. Someone ties to assassinate Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode), a.k.a. Ozymandias, who hung up his cape and became a billionaire by capitalizing on his former image. Rorschach himself is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison.

Then there's Jon Osterman, a.k.a. Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) who was accidentally zapped with atomic rays and turned into a big blue creature able to move particles with his mind; he exiles himself to Mars after being accused of spreading cancer. The only person who might be able to lure him back to Earth is Silk Spectre (Malin Ackerman), his sort-of girlfriend. The government wants to keep Dr. Manhattan happy - his allegiance to America makes the Soviets nervous - and has therefore coerced her into staying in the relationship, despite her growing attraction to Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), yet another superhero who has grown impotent both physically and emotionally since hanging up his cape.

That's the outward story. Watchmen - the book and the movie - take frequent digressions to explore the real ideas, namely the fallibility (and questionable sanity) of people who put on funny costumes to fight crime. These are characters who unanimously have personality disorders: some are vain, others insecure, still others bordering on psychopathic. Thematically, the story addresses global conflict, the balance between good and evil, what it really means to be a savior, and at what cost humanity deserves to be saved. Heady stuff, for sure.

My biggest fear about the Watchmen movie was that it would somehow be simplified or dumbed down. Thankfully, it hasn't been. Director Zack Snyder also made 300, another adaptation of a popular graphic novel. What I like about Snyder is that he's a fanboy himself. A lot of times when you hear about a beloved property being turned into a film, it's easy to worry -for good reason - that Hollywood will screw it up. When Zack Snyder's name is attached, you at least know that the movie version will be made by someone who fundamentally gets it. Snyder and writers David Hayter and Alex Tse have retained all the depth and complexity of the source material. Certainly, not everything can be included, and the film does away with some of the peripheral stuff that added flavor but wasn't necessary for the move to the big screen. (Bye, bye newsstand guy and "Tales of the Black Freighter.") Watchmen makes for kind of an interesting companion piece to last summer's The Dark Knight in that both are comic book movies that elevate the art form in part by daring to present challenging themes that go beyond the basic "hero versus villain." The two pictures additionally share an admirable willingness to end on a morally ambiguous note.

Snyder is very faithful to the vision of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, yet it goes beyond simply filming what's on the page. The director finds a way to transfer the energy and motion of the comic to the screen, while adding little touches that are distinctly his own, such as the excellent opening credit sequence, set to Bob Dylan's "The Times Are A-Changing," that stylishly compacts some of the back story into just a few minutes. Many of the fight scenes are also a little longer here, giving Snyder a chance to riff on material from the book. The only genuine difference is the ending, which has been altered slightly, apparently because the original grand finale might be considered insensitive post-9/11. But even the new ending is true to the novel's intention, as it guides the plot to the same thematic destination.

Watchmen takes time to explore the histories of all its characters. The actors chosen may not be the biggest "stars," but they are all interesting performers who bring something compelling to the roles. This is especially true of Jackie Earle Haley, who plays Rorschach, a character whose intense morality is occasionally veiled behind a nihilistic personality. Haley is perhaps not the first person who springs to mind for this part, yet he captures the moody, uncompromising spirit of the character. I also really liked Billy Crudup as the conflicted Dr. Manhattan. This is potentially the most difficult of the Watchmen to play, as he's big, blue, existential-minded, and often naked. Crudup really does a great job portraying the ethereal being who tries to find a place in a cosmos that barely makes sense to him.

Any novel as obsessed-upon as Watchmen is doubtlessly going to inspire different views from fans when it jumps to the big screen. Some will think the movie is a brilliant rendering of the book; others will feel it misses the mark. That's just because different folks experienced the original incarnation of the story in different ways or saw different things in it. (Newcomers will either really dig the deconstruction of the superhero mythos or reject it outright.) All I can say is that the tone, feel, and pace of the movie matches almost perfectly what I envisioned when I read this tale on the page. As an admitted fanboy, I think they got it exactly right. I walked out of the theater completely satisfied. The film has a stunning look, abundant intelligence, and a blessed retention of most of the ideas that made the graphic novel a classic in its genre.

Watchmen gave me a big old nerd-gasm.

( out of four)


Watchmen is rated R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language. The running time is 2 hours and 40 minutes.

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