Watchmen "Who Will Save Us Now?"

Directed by: Zack Synder

Starring: Jackie Earle Haley & Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Watchmen tells the story of several masked vigilantes, with only one of them actually possessing super powers. Due to a public outrage, Richard Nixon, who is in his sixth presidential term, passes a bill that outlaws vigilantes. All of them decide to retire, with the exception of one, Rorschach. When another one of them, The Comedian, is murdered, Rorschach begins his own investigation believing that someone is killing masked vigilantes. However, Rorschach soon discovers that a much more sinister plot is at hand.

Based on a DC comic of the same name, multiple filmmakers have tired for years to adapt Watchmen into a movie. What makes the Watchmen comic interesting is that it was only a one 12 issue series. Take any another DC superhero that has had a movie, such as Batman or Green Lantern, and you know that there have been hundreds of comics written with those characters allowing screenplay writers to pick from hundreds of reference points for their movies. The screenplay writers of Watchmen had to stick closely to its source material, therefore creating a very faithful adaption of the comic book. I even read that the director, Zack Synder, allowed the actors to carry a copy of the graphic novel on set, so if a line in the script was different from the comic, the actors could say the line from the comic.

Watchmen is a bit of rarity in its field, it is a Rated R superhero movie and a “hard” R at that. With the exception of Kick-Ass and Super, I cannot think of another “hard” R superhero film. When Watchmen initially came out in theaters, it was financially performing poorly. So the screenplay writers, David Hayter and Alex Tse, asked people to watch it again in theaters because it was possibly discouraging big movie companies to not take chances on movies like Watchmen. So I did my part and watched Watchmen twice in theaters.

I believe Zack Synder was an excellent director for Watchmen for a couple reasons. One, he has proven that he is great with working with material that has already been established. For example, his remake of Dawn of the Dead in 2004, his adaption of 300 in 2006, and his adaption of Legend of the Guardians in 2010. He is also a great action director and his use of slow motion seems to always make a fight scene seem cooler.

Watchmen also contains my favorite opening credit scene ever. In Watchmen, you learn that there has been two groups of vigilantes from two different time periods. The opening credit scene in Watchmen tells the story of the first group of vigilantes in a very stylish fashion while even giving us some “insight” to some of America’s more controversial history.

From directing to storytelling to acting, Watchmen is a very memorable movie that I highly recommend.

9 out of 10
Trailer for Watchmen: