Rating: ****
Review Date: 12/8/24
Cast: Troy Baker, Katee Sackhoff, Adrienne Barbeau, Corey Burton,
Jeffrey Combs, Grey Griffin, Kelly Hu, Dwight Schultz, Rick D. Wasserman,
Titus Welliver
"There don't seem to be many laughs around these days."
"What do you expect? The Comedian's dead."
It's 1985. Richard Nixon is president, superheroes have either been outlawed or pressed into government contract work, violent crime runs rampant, and the world is on the brink of nuclear war. A former vigilante crimefighter known as The Comedian (Rick D. Wasserman) is found murdered, and other former masked heroes are starting to disappear as well. Only Rorschach (Titus Welliver) sees a pattern and recognizes the threat, and he sets out to warn his former colleagues and find the killer. But things are different in the 80s than they were in the 60s, and everyone is so much older. The stakes are higher and so is the danger.
"Watchmen" is arguably the greatest and most important comic book ever written, and I find it ironic that writer Alan Moore refuses to be associated with it in any way. He has gone on record saying that people misinterpreted and warped what he was trying to say, which of course is the curse of any creative genius. Maybe we're all like The Comedian and we just didn't get the joke? Dave Gibbons was the artist on the book, and the animated film's greatest achievement is matching his original style. That said, the animation can be jarring to look at and takes a while to get used to. While the animation does an excellent job of recreating the book's aesthetic, the voice acting falls a bit short and doesn't always match the weight and tone of the narrative. Most everyone sounds a little flat, as if they were being suffocated by a cloud of melancholy. Only Rorschach and The Comedian sound like they have any spark of life in them, although I found Titus Welliver's performance to be more forced and gravelly than necessary. The ambient music is superb and creates a chilling sense of tension and dread throughout. Chapter 1 ends with Rorschach's arrest, which sets up Chapter 2 nicely.
"Watchmen" is an incredibly dense piece of work, and the adaptation is quite good. Granted, I haven't read the book in over 30 years, but everything seemed intact and I didn't notice any glaring changes or omissions. Seeing it now as an adult is very different from reading the book as a teenager, and its complexities seem much heavier now. I had also forgotten just how grim and depressing the book is, which was a great reflection of the times. I'm glad they decided to split the film into two parts, not because of the amount of content, but rather its intensity. I had intended to watch both chapters in one sitting, and even though Chapter 1 is only 84 minutes long, I felt completely exhausted and emotionally battered by the end of it. It's relentlessly heavy and it never lets up.