Watchmen (2009)
“A Comedian died last night, and nobody cares. Nobody cares but me.” – Rorschach.
Watchmen (2009)
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Written by: David Hayter (screenplay), Alex Tse (screenplay), Dave Gibbons (graphic novel illustrator)
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino
I went down a bit of a Zack Snyder blackhole after watching the new Justice League, and realised that I’d never seen Watchmen. I don’t know why, because I remember it having a lot of hype upon release and seeing it hundreds of times on streaming services. And first impressions – it’s visually stunning and surprisingly engaging, especially when you consider its place in Comic Book Movie history.
A quick history lesson:
Watchmen was released in 2009. This followed the comic book boom of the 2000s (with the Blade, Spiderman, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Dark Knight franchises smashing box office records), but preceded the explosion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the MCU spring boarded off the success of 2008s Iron Man to take over the 2010s).
Therefore 2009 was a weird intermediate point – comic book movies were making money, but they were still mainly ‘lighthearted’ films, with production companies siding with the ‘safer’ intellectual property of good overcoming evil, and cartoon characters. The two main exceptions to this were the more dramatic Dark Knight movies, and the darker Blade movies.
The success of these two franchises are important, as Watchmen – a much darker, R rated film - had been in production purgatory for almost three decades. Based on a 1986-87 DC Comics series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the rights to Watchmen was acquired by 20th Century Fox back in 1986.
After a few years of writing and rewriting the screenplay, the rights of the project moved to Warner Bros in 1991. Famous Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam was attached to direct, but couldn’t raise enough money, and Warner Bros. dropped the project.
Over the next decade, the script then bounced from Universal Studios to Revolution Studios and again to Paramount Pictures, with directors attached to the project including David Hayter, Michael Bay, Darren Aronofsky, and Paul Greengrass.
Finally, the project found its way back to Warner Bros. in 2005, with Tim Burton considered briefly before Zack Snyder was appointed as director.
Principal photography for Watchmen ended in February 2008, with the film released a year later.
So it took 30 years for this movie to be greenlit for production. Why? The story is both extremely dark and incredibly complex, with a lot of main characters. It’s not a popcorn flick, and struck me as a cross between Sin City and Justice League – dark themes, antiheroes, and a plot that is difficult to follow. All of these aspects are massive red flags for a production company who want a ‘bankable’ film. Times have changed, with the R-rated 2019 Joker making over a billion dollars, but in 2009 Watchmen was a big risk for Warner Bros.
500 words in and I haven’t even given a high-level plot overview…sorryyyyy. This is partly because it’s so bloody confusing, but I’ll give it a go:
The movie is set in an alternate United States, where in 1939 a group of costumed vigilantes form a group called the ‘Minutemen’. This group evolves into the “Watchmen” during the 1960s Vietnam War era and through to the 1980s Cold War, with the group assisting the United States government in changing the outcome of world events. As anti-vigilante protests sweep across the nation, President Nixon outlaws ‘costumed adventuring’ in 1977 – this leads half of the heroes to retire, and half to become government agents. When old Watchman ‘The Comedian’ (Dean Morgan) is killed, Rorschach (Earle Haley) decides to investigate his death, teaming up with other members Nite Owl (Wilson), Silk Spectre (Akerman), Doctor Manhattan (Crudup), and Adrian Veidt (Goode).
Let’s start with the bad – with no jokes, heavy dialogue and graphic violence, this movie is a LONG 2 hours and 42 minutes. It’s a slog, and your head might hurt as you try and work out who is who, and why people are doing what they’re doing. This is partly because the movie jumps across time with multiple explanation flashbacks, but also because it’s pretty depressing. At different stages of the film, the ‘heroes’ murder innocent people and commit sexual assault – this is all fine as it’s part of the film, but the overwhelming grimy world Snyder has created doesn’t lead to a fast-paced thriller. The other ‘bad’ aspect – more of a nitpick – do these guys have superpowers or what? Doctor Manhattan is clearly a demi-god, but I thought the rest of the characters are just meant to be normal citizens with cool gadgets and combat skills (they’re basically poorer versions of Batman). However, they all seem to be super strong and super fast? This is never properly explained, so bugged me throughout the film.
Now the good – the casting, the visuals, and the final third of the film. Ensemble films such as this usually live and die with the cast, and they’ve knocked it out the park here. No one is an A-lister - with Patrick Wilson and Billy Crudup probably the most famous faces - but everyone’s performances were great. The visuals – as with all Zack Snyder movies – are stunning, with most scenes filmed on a New York City backlot that was built specifically for the film, and over 1100 visual effects shots added in post production. These visual effects help accentuate the dark, depressing alternate New York City backdrop for the film. The final third of the movie is easily the best part, as it wraps up what is a maze of different storylines into an exciting conclusion. I won’t go into specifics, but the ending gets incredibly philosophical, with discussions of time, utilitarianism, and the big picture discussion of humanity’s impact on the planet. For a comic that was written in 1986, this is eerily forward thinking, with environmentalism and sustainability becoming an unavoidable part of our lives in 2021.
With a cerebral script and dark themes, Watchmen can be a difficult watch if you’re not in the right mood. However, it also provides comic book movie aesthetics with a more nuanced storyline. I’d say that this combination makes Watchmen something you should add to your list – it’s unique for the genre, and likely paved the way for the modern day R-rated movies such as Deadpool and Joker. Pay homage to one of the originals by watching this sometime soon.
Rating: 7/10
Due to the 30-year production, there is an INSANE list of actors/actresses considered for some of the roles. These include:
Laurie Jupiter: Hilary Swank, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Connelly, Jessica Alba
Adrien Veidt: Tom Cruise
Nite Owl: Kevin Costner, Christopher Walken, Richard Gere, John Cusack
Sally Jupiter: Liv Tyler, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ann-Margret, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sigourney Weaver