Click image for showtimes. Here for iMax (recommended)

Robert Altman made a movie version of Popeye (Wikipedia, IMDB) back in 1980 that you have probably never seen, but one of the reviews stuck in my head. It went something like "Popeye would have been an amazing movie if there had never been a Popeye cartoon." And that's my top-line review for Watchmen as well; it is a visually stunning, compelling, complex, and unbelievably dark big-budget film, but it is absolutely impossible to see it divorced from its source material. Had this sprung fully formed onto the screen — like, say, Buckaroo Banzai (Wikipedia, IMDB) — there is no question it would be a masterpiece. Saddled with the inescapable anxiety of influence that goes along with a translation of Alan Moore, the film manages a curiously circumscribed bravura, as if Director Zack Snyder himself is in the same situation as the narrative's puppetmaster, struggling with the knowledge that Rorschach's journal exists.

I was in the front row (A114) for the midnight show at the iMax theater in Providence Place last night, and it was sold out. The audience was pin-drop quiet for most of the 2:45 running time (except for some sporadic giggles at the musical choices which are, uh, eclectic.) There was not the hooting and fist-pumping one sometimes sees at action movies, indeed, this is at times a morbidly contemplative experience, and if there are folks who have not read the book, simply following the twisty plot is going to require a good deal of attention.

There's the rub for me as a reviewer. I cannot watch the Watchmen without bringing into the theater 23 years of reading and re-reading this text. I wasn't scanning for plot, and I literally have no idea what a viewer who had never read the book would come away with. If all this sounds like equivocating, it is. Director Zack Snyder has captured not only the visual look of the comic, but also, in an interesting way, tried to represent something about comic book movies, the inherent tension between the static image within the panel and the moving frame come to life, a device he plays with effectively in the title montage and Jon's photo. I could tell that Snyder was aware of, and deliberately crafting a thoughtfully self-referential film (we are, after all, in the second age of reference: Coppola deploys "Ride of the Valkyries" to thematize the Air Cavalry in Apocalypse Now, and Snyder's re-use for Dr. Manhattan in Vietnam is both sly wink and twice-baked metaphor.)

That he has remained true to the source material is indisputable. Without spoilers, it's hard to be specific, but knowledgeable readers will recognize key images and beats. And the necessary liberties taken to reduce a massive novel to screenplay are rarely intrusive and occasionally deft compressions. While there will be much ink spilled about changes to the ending — again, without spoilers it is hard to be specific — for me it was as satisfying a rewrite as one could hope for. It is not embarrassing and fans will not cringe outright, though they may mutter about the questionable too-easy realpolitik that the new climax implies.

Every reviewer will likely have their "what I missed most from the graphic novel," and here is mine: Rorschach's internal narration outside the child murderer's house. The liberty taken with the interaction between Rorschach and the killer didn't bother me; that, I felt, was a reasonable compression. But eliding the beat outside (and it is exceedingly difficult to write this without giving away plot points) seemed the loss of a pivotal moment, both for Rorschach's character and the narrative. And the loss of the Black Freighter subplot (not a spoiler) and the characters around the newsstand made me wish the running time had been even longer.

All that said, this is still an impressive film, both for its unflinching deconstruction of the psychology of (super)heroes and the world obsessed with them, and for its exposition of the absolute insanity of a time, just 20 years ago, when the world lived under the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation. It is dark, and ugly, and violent, and immaculately beautiful at the same time. Recommend seeing it in iMax if you possibly can.

Click to buy on Amazon

With less than two weeks until the premiere, some details are beginning to emerge, trial balloons, no doubt, to prepare (and soften up) the hardcore geeks, and while Wil Wheaton's widely blogged review is carefully spoiler-free, the same cannot be said for the new book "Watchmen The Film Companion."

Wil Wheaton's review is worth reading in its entirety. The lead says it all, and will no doubt help calm those still harboring reservations. He promises no spoilers and though die-hard fans can interpolate a couple of points from what he says, it is unproblematic if you are a newcomer to the text. (Though he promises some spoilers in this evening's MTV show of the same name...)

The richly illustrated, 186-page "Film Companion" brings more reassurance, though this comes at the price of a couple of major spoilers. If you don't want to know before you go, don't look. If you really, really have to know what Snyder replaced — and if you know what I mean, you know who you are — you won't be disappointed.

Update: The Zack Snyder Q&A from the MTV "Spoilers" show is up. If you don't want to know about the squid, don't go read it.

With the release of Watchmen now less than three weeks away, WB has debuted an online viral marketing effort, comprising a web site for the fake newspaper "The New Frontiersman" and an associated Flickr stream, as well as a couple of videos on a YouTube channel. Oh, and of course, there's a widget:

As of right now, the only local theatre listing for March 6 is the Regal Cinemas in Swansea, and if you want to see it in iMax, it looks like you may have to head up to Jordan's in Natick.

Resources:
Official WB site (newly updated)
I Watch the Watchmen (downloads)
The New Frontiersman (fictional 1985 newspaper)
New Frontiersman on Flickr (some tasty fake artifacts)