Watching the Watchmen
If you haven’t read Watchmen, the graphic novel, do yourself a favour: head on to your local library and borrow it. Game Guru did just that several months ago and he entreated me to read it. I’m glad I did. The story by Alan Moore blended beautifully with Dave Gibbons’ art work and John Higgins’ colouring. It is a truly breathtaking work. We loved it so much that Game Guru bought a copy.
Shortly after I finished reading the novel Game Guru informed me that a movie adaptation was in the works. Since then we have awaited the release date with a mixture of eagerness and trepidation – comic book adaptations have fallen in the gamut ranging from excellent to downright dire. I am glad to say that, for the Game Guru and me, Watchmen, the movie, falls well and truly on the excellent end of the scale.
The movie is the most faithful adaptation of a novel, graphic or otherwise, I have ever seen. There are cuts but these don’t take anything away from the narrative. In fact I would argue that the narrative is actually enhanced by the cuts. The graphic novel really comes to life on the screen with a tightened story and gorgeous visuals. Even the actors looked like Gibbons’ drawings.
Watchmen’s cast is not well known, at least to me, which enhances the experience. They are uniformly excellent but Malin Akerman as Laurie Jupiter (Silk Spectre II) , Patrick Wilson as Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II), Jackie Earl Haley as Walter Kovacs (Rorschach) and Billy Crudup as Jon Osterman (Dr. Manhattan) are standouts. Malin Akerman is particularly delightful, gentlemen (and ladies of such persuasion). Billy Crudup’s voice wasn’t replaced by a robotic one so Dr. Manhattan has a soothing yet detached quality. I wonder, however, if another part of Crudup was digitally enhanced beyond a change of colour. It is large and blue and that’s all I’m saying.
Game Guru and I are still buzzing from the experience. The graphic novel is a proud part of our book library and the Blu-Ray release will become a proud part of our movie collection. Four thumbs up from us.