WATCHMEN

At times overwrought, always hyperviolent, often plodding, and overly long, Watchmen is a movie that was probably better left on the pages of its source graphic novel. It tries to answer the question of which is more evil or dangerous—a being that is omnipotent but only semi-omniscient (Dr. Manhattan) or a being that is (almost completely) omniscient but only semi-omnipotent (Ozymandias)? Then there is the additional problem of beings who are completely nihilistic, uncaring, and divorced of their humanity—Rorschach and The Comedian. These four characters are the most interesting, even as I find that I have nothing in common with them. I cannot relate to them because these are distant gods. Their problems are not those of "the people" in the way those of the Greek or Norse gods are, which is what makes those pantheons intriguing for me. The two superheroes of the Watchmen who are the most human—Nite Owl and Silk Spectre—are the least interesting, partly because they are following in the footsteps of predecessors and partly because they are "drawn small." They don't get nearly the attention of the other four.

The movie does have a few things that work well. First, its alternate universe doesn't seem too different from ours, although many of the same problems remain. Second, the phantom of nuclear annihilation, which was very real in the 1980s, is alive and well in the world of the Watchmen as well. The paranoia of all-out nuclear war fuels much of the storyline, raising its own questions about the good or evil of humanity, about the presence or absence of God, about the need or lack thereof for masked vigilantes to curb our desires.

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I checked out the graphic novel from the library at the same time as renting the movie. I ended up watching the movie first, which I now regret. After reading the first chapter of the graphic novel before firing up the home entertainment center, I now no longer feel compelled to read the words of Alan Moore or engage the artwork of Dave Gibbons. I am sure that the graphic novel is a better piece of art than the movie, since it seems more complex and contains elements that don't work on film, but it is now soured by my experience of a movie that as I stated above was better left on the page.