Watchmen Graphic Novel Becomes Graphic Movie
I finally got to the theater to see Watchmen last week. Having never read the graphic novels and never hearing about them until promotion started in earnest for the movie last year, I was intrigued but did not really know what to expect. Before seeing the movie I was informed that it was a dark superhero film in which superheroes are outlawed by Richard Nixon who is still President in the mid 80’s. If the thought of Richard Nixon still being President was not frightening enough I was also informed that there is a character named Dr. Manhattan who is big and blue and spends much of the film naked with a big blue appendage that is not covered at all. The film is not a horror movie though, but do not bring your kids to see it as it is not Spiderman by any stretch of the imagination.
First let me say I really enjoyed the Watchmen, however I felt like I was missing out on much of the story. I commend the filmmakers for apparently not trying to milk five or six movies out of the Watchmen novels as they are doing with the Marvel Iron Man/Avengers franchise. That said Watchmen may have warranted a few movies. The first one could have been the origin and the second one would have likely been able to be to the Watchmen franchise what the Dark Knight was to Batman. Maybe they will revisit the Watchmen at some point, but it does not appear too likely. It did great at the box office the first week, but dropped off precipitously after that. It does have graphic nudity and multiple sex scenes so again it has a limited audience compared to say a pg-13 Spiderman.
Back to the graphic nudity and sex scenes for a moment. While much of the talk in the media and on the internet had to do with Billy Crudup’s Dr. Manhattan and his big blue phallus, I believe Malin Akerman stole the show when it comes to nudity. She played Silk Spectre II. She not only had a sex scene with Dr. Manhattan, but also had two with Night Owl II. Akerman is incredibly gorgeous. She sounds like Cameron Diaz and looks like Jennifer Morrison, who plays Dr Cameron on tv’s House. She is not quite as skinny as Morrison and seems to be more likeable than Diaz. Unlike either Diaz or Morrison she has a propensity for doing extremely wild sex scenes. She was previously in the terribly unfunny Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller. They play newlyweds who are really not too familiar with each other. When they go on their honeymoon Stiller is horrified to learn how crazy she is in the bedroom. There is a sex scene in which she screams obscenities at him and urinates on him. Without getting too graphic lets just say that she is not satisfied by Stiller and insults his sexual prowess repeatedly. That was the first film I ever saw Akerman in and it left quite an impression. She is strikingly beautiful and I remember being surprised that she would be willing to do scenes such as that. Many up and coming young actresses would have been leery of shooting some of the scenes that she has done so far. In Heartbreak Kid she was probably counting on Stiller and the Farrelly brothers, who had previously been wildly successful with Something About Mary, being able to relive the old magic. Obviously that did not come to fruition, Stiller at least did rebound later that year with Tropic Thunder, but I believe she was right to trust in Watchman director Zack Snyder, previously of 300 and Dawn of the Dead.
It will be interesting to see if Snyder tries to branch out from the graphic novels he has done. All three of his movies have been interesting. Dawn of the Dead was not as good 28 Days Later, but it was one of the better zombie movies in recent years. 28 Days Later was directed by Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire, who is now an academy award winning director so being the second best director of zombie films in recent years is not as bad as it may sound. Snyder is scheduled to helm Sucker Punch which is described as Alice in Wonderland with guns. It will be interesting to see how that goes. He has lined up a who’s who of young hollywood starlets for the film which is not exactly Alice in Wonderland, which will be also returning to the screen soon with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, but that sort of the quick tagline to describe the film. In another side note on Johnny Depp. In the trailers prior to the Watchmen I saw the trailer for Public Enemies which stars Depp and Christian Bale and is directed by Michael Mann. It looks incredible. I am excited to see it. Depp who seems to be better at choosing unique roles and films than anyone in Hollywood plays John Dillinger. Billy Crudup who plays Dr. Manhattan in this film takes on another interesting role as J. Edgar Hoover in Enemies. So he goes from a naked blue radioactive superhero to a cross dressing FBI agent.
Akerman and Crudup are not the only ones from this film who have chosen intriguing characters to play in recent years. Jackie Earle Haley who played Rorschach in Watchmen will play Freddy Krueger in the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie. As is usually the case when I hear they are remaking a film from my childhood, when I heard they were making a new Elm Street I rolled my eyes. People get upset and rightfully so when there is talk of remaking one of their favorite films, but let’s not overreact here. It’s not like Bret Ratner is reimagining the Godfather. Sure I enjoyed Nightmare on Elm Street too, but it wasn’t the Exorcist. The Elm Street movies were initially scary and later became sort of a joke. As much as I am not going to be scouring the net and posting on message boards about how excited I am for the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie, I do think they picked the perfect guy to play Freddy. Haley was really effective as Rorschach and I could see him playing Freddy. He reminds me of a cross between Alan Coulter of Late Night with Dave Letterman and ESPN’s Skip Bayless. Unlike Coulter who has the perfect announcer’s voice and Bayless who has a voice that could be used to coerce confessions out of detainees at Guantanamo Bay it is so annoying, Haley’s voice as Rorschach was just the right balance between being tough and scary, but not being too over the top like Bayless. I have little doubt that Haley’s performance in Watchmen helped earn him the part in Nightmare and he deserves it. Sorry I had to step away from my computer for a moment as my dog was howling because I left ESPN on by accident and he could not take listening to Skip Bayless any longer.
Ultimately I enjoyed Watchmen although I was slightly unsatisfied. I felt like I could have used another movie. Thankfully according to director Zack Snyder the director’s cut will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray and will contain between an additional hour to an hour and a half of previously unseen footage. Hopefully it will not just be the equivalent of deleted scenes that did not belong in the movie. I would highly recommend this movie to most except for those who are easily offended by violence or nudity. Hopefully after seeing the director’s cut on Blu-Ray I will be more satisfied than I was after leaving the theater.
Did you know?
Johnny Depp also starred in the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Okay you knew that already. Well did you know that Malin Akerman was in Nightmare on Elm Street Part two? No of course you didn’t because she wasn’t, but I had you there for a second.
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