Zack Snyder Taking Watchmen As Seriously As We Do

By Katey Rich: 2008-10-07 13:24:57

I saw about 30 minutes of footage from Watchmen yesterday, and while I've already reported pretty much all the news (you can read about that here), I had some thoughts on the footage that were worth sorting out. If you haven't already read about the footage, go here. Spoilers, duh, follow.

There's a whole lot of irony crammed into the first 12 minutes of Watchmen. It's as if Zack Snyder stared for hours at that first image of the smiley face with a slash of blood over one eye, and thought of all the ways he could recreate something so innocuous and horrifying on film. We see The Comedian's murder, in far more detail than we ever get in the novel, set to the strains of Nat King Cole singing "Unforgettable." Immediately after, the mammoth opening credits take us through the history of superheroes in the 20th century, set to Bob Dylan's "The Times, They Are A-Changing"; there's a reference there not only "All Along The Watchtower," the Dylan song quoted in the novel, but the 60s we know that never existed, thanks to the existence of Dr. Manhattan and his fellow avengers.

It's a lot to take in, particularly those hugely detailed opening credits, and newcomers to the story may find themselves to keep track of all those old-timey superheroes in the photos, much less figure out why they see The Comedian shoot JFK from the grassy knoll. But Watchmen fans will be able to take heart, right from the very beginning, that Zack Snyder is taking the story as seriously as they have, if not more. For those first 12 minutes the whole novel is coming at you in a rush, all your memories and fears right there as The Comedian is thrown out of his penthouse window.

The first weird moment came in a later clip, meeting Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II (well, at that point, they're really just Dan and Laurie) in Archie after having sex for the first time. Hearing Dan speak, seeing his bare chest, catching more glances between the two than were ever drawn into panels-- it's unnerving, like seeing ghosts up and walking around. No matter how much you believe in the Watchmen characters, it's still a leap to see them rendered in the flesh.

Oddly enough, it's not as startling to see Dr. Manhattan for the first time, shown in the flashback scene when he arrives on Mars and reflects on the events that turned him into the great blue monster. Billy Crudup's voice, a little high and reedy, is a beautiful contrast to the beast of Dr. Manhattan-- a reminder of the fearful, ordinary scientist he was before he became The Superman. It's hard to know if Crudup will be able to capture Manhattan's disconnect from the story, his unintentional spot on a high horse. But in those few minutes the all-CGI Dr. Manhattan actually made that work. There's a human voice coming from him, but it's never really possible to find a human there.

We only get a quick glimpse of Ozymandias, in the opening credits, and Rorschach gets only one line, in a deep, gravelly voice that sounds really nothing like Jackie Earle Haley's. But the mask! It moves and squirms in a way that you knew was happening when you read the book, but could never really visualize. Again, there's attention to detail there-- a fundamental belief in what Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created-- that seemingly make Zack Snyder the perfect director of this material.

I question Snyder's fight technique, slowing down moments and zooming arbitrarily in on small elements; apparently this was a big part of 300 as well (I never saw that one-- yeah, yeah, save your whining), and I can't quite figure out how it makes the action any better. Yes, it fits the stylization of comic books; yes, it lets you focus on individual moments rather than Christopher Nolan-style confusion. But it can also take you out of a moment when you really want to see Nite Owl kick some prison ass, not focus on him floating through the air. Who knows, it may work great in the larger context of the film. But in the short little segments, I found myself wishing Snyder would cool it with the slo-mo editing effects.

But that's really just a tiny quibble about what was overall visually stunning and moving footage. ComingSoon.net wrote a great, detailed description of all the footage, which I won't bother rehashing. As more footage becomes available and Snyder talks more about his plethora ideas, I think there will just be more and more of us eagerly anticipating Watchmen.

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