Who watches the Watchmen?

I DO!!!!!!!

Well, twenty minute of it at least.

If you're a regular reader, you'd have heard that I don't like my job. Bunch of reason I couldn't be bothered going into right now. However, every now and then, a perk will come along that almost makes up for all the other crap I deal with.

This was one of those perks.

Director Zack Synder is in Australia at the moment, working with a visual effects company on his next project. Guardians of Gilgemesh or something. I dunno, I honestly wasn't paying attention to that part. Zack's current project, however, is the film adaption of "Watchmen", the Graphic novel of Graphic Novels. This is my movie of next year. I'm looking forward to this like no other. So when I found out that we were having a special presentation at work, which included a Q and A with Zack himself and 20 minutes of movie footage, to say I was a little excited is like saying episodes 1-3 were kinda disappointing.

First up, Spoiler alert. I'm about to give away some stuff from the film. If you don't want to know, STOP READING!!!

The footage was in three main sections. There was the opening and title sequence of the film, Dr. Manhattan's origin and history and the jail break. If you've read the book, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

The first part I saw was the Opening and title sequence. The film starts with Edward Blake, AKA The comedian, sitting at home, watching the TV when someone bursts through the door. A fight ensues, one that the comedian comes out the wrong side of. He then gets thrown through a window and plummets to the city street below. This is the event that sets up the whole film, and it's handled beautifully. The fight is fleshed out a lot more than it is in the comic, although there are shots that are taken directly from the comic. One thing I picked up was on the wall of the apartment. A painting hanging there that the comedian gets thrown into is an old glamour painting of the original Silk Spectre. The Comedian having this hanging in his place has a special significance which, if you don't know the story, I'm not going to give away here. When he gets thrown out the window, there is a moment of Zack's trademark slow fast slow motion trick, during which we get a quick close up of the smiley face button which is so significant to the imagery of the film. I know a lot of people were worried about that, but don't be. It works.

After that, they played the title sequence for the film. Big deal, right? Title sequence, so what? If you're a fan of the book, this is going to be one of your favourite parts of the film. This, in a very stylized way, is essentially the history of the superheroes in this reality. It's also a lot of moments that, although they were mentioned in the book, there's never been a visual representation of any of it before. Moments like Dollar Bill's Death or the Silhouette's murder. This will make sense later to non fans. It seems to also show how the inclusion of Superheroes has altered the history of this world. For instance, the plane that drops the bomb on Hiroshima is now called the Sally Jupiter, which is Silk Spectre's real name. I was buzzing like nothing else every time one of these shots came up. The whole title sequence is a fan boy heaven.

The next sequence they showed was Dr Manhattan's origin and History. This segment is essentially Chapter four in the book and is one of the moments I was looking forward to the most. It wasn't till after and I went back and looked at the book that I realised how much they left out of this sequence, because it covered it all perfectly. It's done int the exact same style as it is written in the book. It starts with Manhattan, on Mars, looking at an old photo of him before the accident and a girl named Janey Slater. He starts going back through his history that led him to the point. It covers all of it. The job at Gilla Flats, meeting Janey, Wally weaver - who has been merged with the character of Dr Glass I noticed - The accident, him recreating himself, being with Janey, becoming a Superhero and a crime fighter which includes a scene of the Doc taking care of some gangster type in an extraordinarily gruesome way - I don't want to ruin it for you. It moves forward to Doc ending the hostilities in Vietnam and America winning that war, meeting The Comedian, meeting the other heroes, meeting the new Silk Spectre, Janey walking out on him - you name it. If it was in Chapter four of the book, it was in this sequence. This was obviously an early render, because a lot of the effects weren't completed. Doc looks great though. They seemed to have done him really well.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Zack has stuck EXACTLY to the comic in regards to Doc Manhattan. So, if nothing else, this movie will go down in history as the first film featuring a bright blue, digitally rendered Superheroes dick in it. The sequence ends with Manhattan creating his little palace on mars. This was no where near finished, but it still looked pretty amazing.

The last bit was the shortest. It was the Jail break. Once again, huge moment in the film. It starts with Nite Owl 2 and Silk Specter 2 in the Owl ship, having just had sex. Watchmen was the first book to really make mention of the Kinky Connotations of Superheroes. I mean let's face it. Superheroes are essentially people who dress up in Kink suits and dominate lesser people. Anyhow, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre break into the jail while there is a riot going on. They have to make their way through a sea of crims in order to find Rorschach. This features a fight scene that reminds you very much of some of the battle scenes in 300, with the whole sped up, slowed down styling. Once again, it works. They finally track down Rorschach, who has rather conveniently managed to get his costume and mask back. He's chasing an old Crime boss named Big Figure, who is a midget. Rorschach has just cornered him in the men's room when Owl and Silk find him. This was the only time we got to see Rorschach's mask effect, and it wasn't finished. At least I hope it wasn't finished. Owl and Silk wait some what patiently while they believe Rorschach is visiting the loo. He comes out and they walk off, followed by a great moment that is taken straight from the Graphic Novel.

This whole sequence was drastically shortened from the novel, and turned into more of an action sequence. I get the feeling they do that with the tenement fire as well. Rorschach sounds pretty good, except there seems to be a little of the same thing that maligned Sin City in the way he talks. Just because it works in a comic, doesn't mean it translates to the real world. Of course, I only heard him say four lines. But hard to make a judgement call based on that.

After that, there was a brief montage of completed clips from the film. Like I said earlier, I got to watch it three times, so I picked up on a few things. One of which was Silk and Manhattan walking through a scene of devastation, which seems to me like it came from the end in New York. Also, Ozymandias looks a bit better in context with the film. He looks way to young in the promo photos they released of him, but he fits here.

Oh yeah. The ending. There's been a LOT of speculation on the web about what has happened to the ending. Namely, the rumors have been saying that Zack has changed the ending. This was covered as bluntly but cryptically as could be during the Q and A. What Zack said was that the ending is the Watchmen ending, but the device for that ending has been changed. This was one of the battles he had to chose to get the movie made the way it needed to be made. What does that mean? Again, this is one for the fans of the novel, but my translation is there's no monster. That had to be replaced with something else. Which, in my mind, is a small thing. Admittedly, I was looking forward to seeing that scene replicated, but I think it was more important to retain the tone and the meaning, rather than a specific visual.

All in all, I was thrilled with the job that had been done on the film. For non fans, this is going to be a great film. You're not going to have to have read the book to know whats going on, and so you won't feel like you're the only one who didn't get the joke. As for the fans, There is one thing I can say to you. Relax. Zack has NAILED this. This is the film every fan of Watchmen has been waiting for. You may not see your favourite panel, or hear your favourite line. But you will see Watchmen, the story as it is know and as it has been told represented up there on the big screen. I for one am more excited than ever in anticipation for this movie. I pretty much can guarantee you won't be disappointed.

And on the flip side, I managed to get my copy of Watchmen signed and gave Zack a couple of my comics for him to read. So who knows? Maybe after seeing the mother of all Graphic Novels on the screen, we might one day see the worlds greatest Aussie superhero robotic rabbit up there as well!