DVD Review: The Watchmen (single-disc edition) by Roger Vozar

Condensing a book into movie form is always tricky and only more so when the source material is as rich as the "Watchmen." With all its text pages, flashbacks and subplots such as the Black Freighter storyline, it combines the action of a graphic novel with the weight in prose of a literary tome.




There's no way any adaptation would not lack some of the depth of the graphic novel, even with the 2-hour, 42-minute running time of the theatrical release. While that's the case here, the most important elements of Alan Moore's classic survive the translation.

Several scenes are lifted straight from the graphic novel, the strongest of these involving Rorschach, with Jackie Earle Haley capturing the ironic essence of a character named after a subjective mental test who nevertheless colors his views in distinct black and white terms.

Other performances are fine - Jeffrey Dean Morgan is appropriately loathsome as the anti-hero Comedian and Billy Crudup seems not quite human as Dr. Manhattan.

Everything that's needed for a great movie is there, yet something seems lacking. I'm not such a die hard fan that I can't allow director Zack Snyder to take the liberties with the storyline that he did toward the end. When I first read the graphic novel, I was caught in the powerful grip of despair that it evoked in the first half and felt a bit let down toward the end.

For me, what was missing from the film version is that overwhelming sense of dread that this bleak vision might just be the way the real world is headed. That's what sets the stage for the debate about where to draw the line about what actions are acceptable to try and stop the downward spiral.

Of course, that might not be the case for someone who sees the movie before reading the graphic novel. "Watchmen" is entertaining, action-packed and does a good job translating the comic without taking too much artistic license. Having read "Watchmen" first, however, the movie lacks the same "wow" sensation. All the pieces appear to be in place, yet something seems missing.

EXTRAS: Unfortunately, I had the single-disc edition, which has no additional material whatsoever. The 2-disc "director's cut" has an extra 24 minutes of footage, a 28-minute feature on the Watchmen "phenomenon" and a series of brief features called "Live Journals," a reference to Rorschach's book.

An "ultimate" version of the movie, with the animated Black Freighter footage incorporated, is supposed to be released sometime this fall, so completists may want to wait to purchase that release. Of course, as we've seen with other movies, studios will continue to add material and pump out even more "special" editions if people will buy them, so you can never tell when that merry-go-round will end.
Roger Vozar Staff Reviewer