The problem with Watchmen, other than its director, is the expanse of the source material both in content and complexity. At over 400 pages, if it were a screenplay it would run more than 6 hours. Inescapably, something must be cut. When I saw it at midnight amongst a bunch of excited boys, the atmosphere provided more than the film. My original thoughts. “Oh, Watchmen. Beneath the glitz and glamour, plastic suits, cheesy lines, bad acting, and barrage of cartoony effects lies a story, an idea, an opinion about the world and our place in it. With this, it seems only through the strange medium that we can self-reflect, a self reflection obscured partly by questionable musical selections, strangely uncomfortable sex scenes, and unfortunate CG effects. Just like 300, the trailers remain epic, the films do not.”
I would not change anything about these ideas as I first presented them. Much of the choices are indeed questionable. One can practically hear Snyder giggling with the glee of a fourteen-year-old girl as Night Owl and Silk Spectre 2 go at it to Leonard Cohen’s Halleluiah. The special effects, though wholly necessary, are overbearing. The suits are clunky and acting unbelievable. I’d like to suspend disbelief and enter the Watchmen world but simply unannot.
I shouldn’t be too surprised. 300 boasted an awesome and epic trailer much like Watchmen. However, other than flashy stylistic time dilation and strange visuals, the film was empty, ridiculous, and disappointing. So this brings us to Zack Snyder. His only other feature credit being the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake. With little under his belt besides mindless entertainment whose success rides on the number of ‘Awesome!’ moments, Snyder seems a novice recipient of the Watchmen helm. Paul Greengrass, Darren Aronofsky, and Terry Gilliam were all candidates to direct. We can only guess how it would have fared under their control.
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