Watchmen : Les Gardiens

Some time after "The Boys" I decided to give this film a rematch... Back in 2009 it was still a time when there was not that many similar to each other superhero films Watchmen cam out a bit too early..., What makes Watchmen feeling so fresh in 2020 is that it's completely different to most of Marvel films.... The characters in Watchmen feel more like real people than idealistic figures you usually get - they age, they change opinions on things, they do wrong things... The world is also much more similar to ours in 2020 that it was in 2009... Brilliant film 9/10!

After 14 years I watched this film again. And after all the MCU shenanigans, I gotta say this film is a masterpiece, from the story to the music and the super heroes. The fact that they are vulnerable makes it more interesting.

Like I said in the tittle, the world wasn't ready for this movie, if it had came out in this time it would've blown the front door. The way it was made, special effects, graphic fight scenes, nudity, dark tone and soundtrack, Zack Snyder really knocked it out of the park with this one. This is how every super hero film should be made. Not a blockbuster comedy wanna be.

For a super hero film, a true 10/10 in my book!

Let's get this out of the way - Watchmen the movie is not as good as the graphic novel.

Zack Snyder's Watchmen is not your average graphic novel adaptation. Unlike with 300, which was short and sharp and shallow and easy to adapt, the original Watchmen is incredibly dense and, as written, unfilmable. So Snyder did something very smart - he didn't even try. What he did instead was to take the world of Watchmen and rebuild it in a way which made a virtue of this new medium (film) rather than try to cram the graphic novel into a cinematic form.

Nowhere is this approach more obvious than in the film's title sequence. A wonderfully composed collage of images depicts scenes from the universe of Watchmen in a way which is only possible in the movies. In this way, we are subconsciously introduced to a world where costumed heroes are a part of everyday culture and brought, in a stylish and fluid way, from the original days of the Minutemen to those of the Watchmen. This introduction is cinematically perfect and is indicative of the heights which the Watchmen movie is perfectly capable of achieving but not quite capable of sustaining.

Watchen is a brave film for a major studio to make and without a doubt it would not exist in its present form without the success of 300. It is incredibly dark (both in tone as well as shooting style) with events that would be anathema to any other superhero story. The less you know about the story, the better so there will be no spoilers here but suffice to say Watchmen's version of a happy ending is a far cry from the Hollywood norm.

Snyders brings his unique approach to action to bear on Watchmen, expanding on the action scenes in the comic without making it feel too redundant. His efforts are ably supported by the incredibly game cast, excellent cinematography and near perfect visual effects - this film is incredible to look at but also manages to create an entire world in a way which most superhero stories never do. The attention to detail in even the smallest scenes is commendable and the dense flashback structure means the same attention is paid to the presentation of full and complex characters.

Snyder has made a film which is gorgeous to look at, agreeably violent, well written, wonderfully designed and features some of the best small scale action sequences ever committed to celluloid. But, naturally, not everything is perfect. Most of the performances are excellent, with a cast of relative unknowns who manage to distinguish themselves despite constantly competing with overbearing effects and design. Patrick Wilson, in particular, does great work with a difficult role as Nite Owl, while Jackie Earle Hayley is blistering as Rorschach. Unfortunately in a film which could have done with a strong female presence, neither Carla Gugino nor Malin Ackerman make much of an impression, despite having quite a lot of screen time. Synder's musical cues are another bone of contention - often pushing the tone of the film into the realm of parody. And the ending... well let's just say it cheapens the experience in search of the lowest common denominator and the whole package suffers. On a related note, neither of the stories major revelations are handled that well. These moments were genuinely shocking in the graphic novel but are almost glossed over in the film.

Don't get the wrong impression, Watchmen is a good film, sometimes a great film. Snyder has managed to make a movie which is a terrifically well balanced compromise between accessibility and fidelity. That anyone can sit down in the cinema and experience a distillation of the Watchmen universe in just 163 minutes is a marvel. It does not deliver the depth of feeling and connection of the novel but that is more a matter of the differences in the media than a failure on the part of the film.

On its own merits, Zack Synder's Watchmen is a dark and twisted tale peopled with complex characters whose motivations are not obvious even to themselves. It is a solid film, sometimes rising into the extraordinary, and deserves to be successful. This is not Alan Moore's Watchmen but it is a competent extension of the universe into another medium and a worthy cinema-going experience.

The times did change. After so many super hero movies this one has become the best one of them.

I thought this movie was just OK when it came out in 2009. Now watching it in 2023 I am watching this movie realizing I was an idiot in 2009. I see the Boys and almost every comic movie since in it in 2023. They've all pulled something from Watchmen. Superheroes with real people problems that have real opinions negative and positive doing both good and bad things all the time. It's great and I'm finally seeing what those that got back in 2009 that were way ahead of the curve. Acting, camerawork, effects, costumes, story, nostalgia, all put on full display in this movie. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jackie Earle Haley put on a show in a movie that I felt like everyone was exceptional. That's how good they are. Give this another go if you're somehow here reading this debating on whether you should watch this movie.