Fantastic graphic novel, fantastic film. Watchmen is not your ordinary superhero movie. This isn’t like Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk. It’s not an adrenaline fueled non-stop action packed summer blockbuster. Sure, you have your action here and there throughout the movie but it’s actually greatly driven by story. If you start watching this movie expecting something like Iron Man or even 300 (another comicbook adaptation by director Zack Snyder), you could be dissappointed. This is a thinking man’s superhero movie, if you will, and mainly targeted for adults.

Minutemen: The Silhouette, Mothman, Dollar Bill, Nite Owl, Captain Metropolis, Silk Spectre, Hooded Justice, the Comedian (kneeling) [founded in 1939]Crimebusters: the Comedian, Silk Spectre II, Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias, Nite Owl II, Rorschach [founded in 1966]

Essentially it’s a story about superheroes in a world where superheroes are unwanted and hated. Technically, though, they aren’t superheroes. They are masked adventurers. The only character with actual super powers is Dr. Manhattan.

The plot revolves around a Crimebuster who is murdered. This eventually unravels a conspiracy theory of a “mask killer” which could be connected with events of the Cold War. A fellow Crimbuster investigates the murder and the rest of the movie basically plays out like a detective story. All of which takes place in an alternate timeline.

Anyway, the director’s cut of Watchmen includes about 30 minutes of extra content not found on the theatrical release. After having watched both versions of the movie, I have to say that the D.C. is a lot closer to the original graphic novel. Not by much though. On the D.C. there are a few scenes throughout the movie which are slightly extended. I only really noticed a couple of additional scenes.

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The one additional scene that is quite noticeable is when Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl, gets murdered by the Knot Top gang. This occurred in the graphic novel but not in the theatrical release.
Some members of the Knot Top gang hear that a masked adventurer dressed like an owl broke Rorshach out of prison. They are infuriated by this and mistakingly believe that Hollis Mason is the same Nite Owl that broke him out.
Since it’s assumed Mason would have eventually died during the events that took place later on, it was easy to cut the scene out of the film. As Snyder puts it, it was easy to cut out “without destroying the movie.”

Considering all of the source material, it’s pretty amazing how closely they adapted it to a 3-hour film. Even the Watchmen: Motion Comic, which I’ll get to a little later, is about 5 hours long. Alan Moore’s Watchmen is an incredible piece of work and truly is one of the best comic books of all time. The movie has been in development hell since the early ’90s with many people deeming the novel as “unfilmable.”

Alan Moore:

“My book is a comic book. Not a movie, not a novel. A comic book. It’s been made in a certain way, and designed to be read a certain way: in an armchair, nice and cozy next to a fire, with a steaming cup of coffee.”

In 2003, David Hayter (the voice of Solid Snake, bitches!) completed a script for a Watchmen movie, which he called “a great adaptation [...] that absolutely celebrates the book“. Despite Moore’s disagreement with the project, he gave his blessing to Hayter’s script which was ultimately used for Snyder’s film adaptation.

Two substantial events that were removed from entirely from the film are the ending and the story within a story, Tales of the Black Freighter.

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Tales of the Black Freighter does make an appearance in the D.C. of the movie but only for a scene. TotBF is a pirate comic book which is read by some dude at a news stand. Throughout the graphic novel are snippets of this story intertwined into the Watchmen story.

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It shows up in the scene right before the murder of Hollis Mason.Despite it not being in the movie, they made a separate short animated film for it.It’s only about half an hour but it’s pretty much the same as the story in the book.

I’m drawing a blank on what else to say about Watchmen. The movie is great and I highly recommend it to fans and regular folk alike. A friend of mine, our very own Niko945, had never read the comic book but really enjoyed the movie. A lot of “critics” and über Watchmen fans have given the movie bad reviews. Watch the movie for yourselves and make your own opinions. And like I said at the start of the post, don’t go into this movie expecting an action packed superhero flick.

Watchmen is set to release on July 21st, 2009. That’s less than two weeks away. Head on over to Amazon and place a pre-order or pick it up at your local retailer of choice on the 21st. I’d recommend staying away from the Theatrical Cut and only getting the “Director’s Cut” edition on DVD or Blu-Ray. Or you can wait for the rumored “Ultimate Edition” which will come with the TotBF animated short edited into the movie so it plays out like it did in the comic book version of Watchmen.

You can also pick up the graphic novel for less than $15. At the time of writing, it has 666 5-star reviews out of 874 total reviews. 666…that’s a lucky number, right?

If you’re not one for reading but would still like to experience the original story, buy the Watchmen: Motion Comic on DVD or Blu-Ray. It’s pretty interesting how they made Dave Gibbons’ original drawings come to life. This is quite different than an actual animated film, so check out the trailer below. Also, there is only a single voice actor who narrates for both men and women. It’s a bit odd at first but the narrator does a decent job of it and you’ll get accustomed to it.

And lastly, you can pick up Tales of the Black Freighter on DVD or Blu-Ray. $20 is pretty expensive for a 26-minute short but it does come with a half hour mockumentary for Under the Hood. UtH is the autobiography of Hollis Mason, where he explains the events of how he became Nite Owl, and discusses the formation of the Minutemen. It was also printed at the end of chapters in the graphic novel.

P.S. …is it just me or was there not enough blue penis in the movie version of Watchmen…anyone?