The adaptation of one of the best comics of all time is a work faithfully and well made.
It was between 1986 and 1987 that was released in the United States a graphic novel that changed the course of comics at once. ''Watchmen''is a creation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Moore has always been famous for the way that leads eccentric, but is considered a God by lovers of comics, it was him who came to great stories, the vast majority already adapted for the screen, like''V for Vendetta,''''Do Inferno''and''Constantine''.
Moore, besides being famous for being almost a hermit, is also well known for hating adaptations of his works, and always keep away from the productions of them, leaving all the credit for someone else, taking its name from the credits.
But of all his works, surely the most famous is''Watchmen,''now considered a cult. It tells the story of a reality where heroes are masked during the '80s, during the Cold War, the clash that lasted for years between the U.S. and USSR, and a nuclear strike is already scheduled, and the end of life on Earth.
The rights to an adaptation appeared in the 90s, but it was a great ado and a bartering of directors and some names listed to interpret the heroes such as Robin Williams and Jamie Lee Curtis, who plans to adapt to difficult shooting scrapped themselves.
Terry Gilliam, the director famous for films like''Fear and Loathing''and''12 Monkeys''had already made up versions of the screenplay of''Watchmen,''only now in 2000, was brought back .
At first it was Darren Aronofsky of Requiem for a Dream''and''new''The Wrestler'', quoted for the long drive, but he wanted to adapt the story to modern times, ie using as the background not the Cold War, but yes, the Iraq War. The studio hated the idea and again,''Watchmen''proved to be a work really hard to accept ..
More here comes a long in 2007 titled''300,''an adaptation of the novel by Frank Miller, another famous big name in creating great stories, and''Sin City''as his most famous.
The studio was impressed with the director's fidelity to the original graphic novel. He was such a Zack Snyder, who was only in his resume - as well as''300''-''the remake of''Dawn of the Dead, George Romero, the father of zombie movies.
Snyder is a declared fan of the history of Moore and Gibbons, and he managed to be very faithful to the original work.
The plot revolves around the vigilante group Watchmen. In 1977, Keene Act ended that wave of superheroes that existed in the U.S., which has led some to reveal their secret identities to the world, while others decided to continue working, however, helping the U.S. government. The movie starts right after this, where the Watchmen are no more. A former member of the Comedian is found dead, shot through the window of his apartment building. The sociopath Rorschach, the Comedian former companion, begins to believe that there is a conspiracy to kill all the masked heroes and so decided to go after all the other former members of the group, to warn them.
Among them, besides the Rorschach and the Comedian, Spectral is the beautiful, the Owl (a kind of Batman, with craft and equipment of last generation), Ozymandias (considered the smartest man in the world) and Dr. Manhattan, the only group to be empowered, and almost a god.
It's good to leave well explained for those who do not know the original story that this is a comic book different from other more famous because it has a peculiar way of telling the story, and is full of violence and some sex scenes, without to mention the extremely gaudy costumes and artificial, that many people may find ridiculous.
There is in them, small changes in original costumes, but they were all adjusted in a way that would look better on the big screen, and like Moore, Snyder wanted to make a reference to the great heroes of a more ironic, which he explained through the nipples Ozymandias clothes, like those of Batman in the Schumacher era.
But behind the story of heroes, there's a whole storyline involving conspiracies, politics, ethics and even philosophy, and this is what differentiates''Watchmen''of other stories of superheroes, not to mention the already mentioned great deal of blood and violence. For the season, the HQ was a thud, and so the film had to be even more violent, because even in times where movies and Jason Jigsaw no longer impress much, the story where heroes break legs and arms, and bullets that pierce bodies in the best style slow-motion (already adopted by Snyder in''300'') to make everything even more uncomfortable, that would be great. Even the almost rape scene became more violent.
The script is well written, and even adopted some dialogues transported directly from the comics. But near the end, the story seems to have lost a little, and when everything is clear, it is not so clear, at least not so much to those unfamiliar with the comics. There are some dialogues hams, but there are other very well written. Soon, the script ends up being average.
On technical issues,''Watchmen''is Oscar worthy. Sound effects that explode in the ears of the viewer, incredibly well done visual effects (the scenes of Manhattan on Mars are great), exaggerated costumes, but very well done, and finally, best of all, the art direction that enhances the colors yellow, purple, brown and black, plus red and blue too, are well distributed within the screen, and every building in town is simply identical to the work of Moore.
For those who like action, there is still great fight scenes, very well choreographed, as a result of battle and imprisonment in the house of the Comedian.
There is also the highlight of the soundtrack, well chosen, filled with songs of the era, like Simon & Garfunkel and Bob Dylan - it has its great song The Times They Are A-Changin 'in the great opening credits, the best part of the long .
In performances, impressing no actor either. Jackie Earle Haley, who already has an indication even at the Oscars for''Little Children''is the best, playing the odd Rorschach. The voices hoarse and serious and even switching to red hair, identical to the original character left. Patrick Wilson, who had worked with Haley in Little Children'',''continues with his face always daft, but here it works because it is so even though the owl is. Malin Akerman is beautiful as Spectrum, but has a normal performance, especially in scenes where more uses its tight glue or the sex scenes.
Billy Crudup is Dr. Manhattan, the only one to possess powers of Watchmen. Without any emotion, it was changed when he was 30 on a machine in his laboratory and since then has extraordinaire powers as teleportation and telekinesis, and can see their future and past. Here, Crudup used the famous "performance capture,''where we see clearly that it is the actor's face etched into character. There are Jeffrey Dean Morgan in a great performance as the English Comedian and Matthew Goode as Ozymandias, the most criticized at the time first photos, but actually managed to stay in character very well.
We still have the first Spectrum, played by Gugino Calar, and Richard Nixon, embodied by Robert Wisden, which became very similar to the late president, who in real life, he renounced power in the late '70s, with the Watergate scandal, so Nixon was not even president at the time that the story where the movie takes place.
At most, it is''Watchmen.'' A great adaptation, with some messages between the lines, that have made her one of the best comics of all time. Great on technical issues, Snyder shows here his best work so far, the work of a passionate original work, and this may be the biggest flaw for those unfamiliar with the plot, they may end up lost in the end, even with a small piece changed, it was much better on screen.
Great action, this is a good choice for those who enjoy comics and a plot more complex and different, and better, that probably will not have a continuation (that would be a crime with fans of the graphic novel), the great defect of movies hero today.
