incidentally i thought i'd done a review on this, but apparently not. ho-hum.
The Comic
Rating: 9.5/10
The watchmen comic is genrally famous for it's excellent storytelling, unique premise and flawed but brilliantly written characters. you'd have all on finding a comic with more layers, subtleties and emotional and moral punch than this novel-length graphic novel.
trying to tell teh plot is difficult, so i lazily turn to wikipedia to give you an idea:
SPOILERS
Quote:
Story:
Watchmen is set in an alternate reality which closely mirrors the contemporary world of the 1980s. The primary difference is the presence of superheroes. The point of divergence occurs in the year 1938. Their existence in this iteration of America is shown to have dramatically affected and altered the outcomes of real-world events such as the Vietnam War and the presidency of Richard Nixon.[16] In keeping with the realism of the series, although the costumed crimefighters of Watchmen are commonly called "superheroes", the only character who possesses obvious superhuman powers is Doctor Manhattan.[17] The existence of Doctor Manhattan has given the U.S. a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, which has increased tensions between the two nations. Eventually, superheroes grow unpopular among the police and the public, which has led to the passage of legislation in 1977 to outlaw them. While many of the heroes retired, Doctor Manhattan and The Comedian operate as government-sanctioned agents, and Rorschach continues to operate outside the law.[18]
[edit] Plot
In October 1985, New York City police are investigating the murder of Edward Blake. With the police having no leads, costumed vigilante Rorschach decides to probe further. Discovering Blake to be the face behind The Comedian, a costumed hero employed by the United States government, Rorschach believes he has discovered a plot to terminate costumed adventurers and sets about warning four of his retired comrades: Dan Dreiberg (formerly the second Nite Owl), the superpowered and emotionally detached Doctor Manhattan and his lover Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre), and Adrian Veidt (once the hero Ozymandias, and now a successful businessman).
After Blake's funeral, Doctor Manhattan is accused on national television of being the cause of cancer in friends and former colleagues. When the U.S. government takes the accusations seriously, Manhattan exiles himself to Mars. In doing so, he throws humanity into political turmoil, with the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan to capitalize on the perceived American weakness. Rorschach's paranoid beliefs appear vindicated when Adrian Veidt narrowly survives an assassination attempt, and Rorschach himself is framed for murdering Moloch, a former supervillain.
Neglected in her relationship, and no longer kept on retainer by the government, Juspeczyk stays with Dreiberg; they don their costumes and resume vigilante work as they grow closer together. With Dreiberg starting to believe some aspects of Rorschach's conspiracy theory, the pair take it upon themselves to break him out of prison. Doctor Manhattan, after looking back on his own personal history, places the fate of his involvement with human affairs in Juspeczyk's hands. He teleports her to Mars to make the case for emotional investment. During the course of the argument, Juspeczyk is forced to come to terms with the fact that Blake, who once attempted to sexually assault her mother, was in fact her biological father. This discovery, reflecting the complexity of human emotions, re-sparks Doctor Manhattan's interest in humanity.
On Earth, Nite Owl and Rorschach continue to uncover the conspiracy surrounding the death of The Comedian and the accusations that drove Doctor Manhattan into exile. They discover evidence that Adrian Veidt may be behind the plan. Rorschach writes his suspicions about Veidt in his journal, and mails it to the New Frontiersman, a small, right-wing newspaper in New York. The pair then confront Veidt at his Antarctic retreat. Veidt explains his underlying plan is to save humanity from impending Atomic war between the United States and Soviet Union by faking an alien invasion in New York City, which will annihilate half the city's population. He hopes this will unite the nations against a perceived common enemy. He also reveals that he had murdered The Comedian, arranged for Dr. Manhattan's past associates to be diagnosed with cancer, staged the attempt on his own life in order to place himself above suspicion, and eventually staged Moloch's death to frame Rorschach, all in an attempt to prevent his plan from being exposed. Finding his logic callous and abhorrent, Dreiberg and Rorschach attempt to stop him but discover that Veidt has already enacted his plan thirty five minutes ago.
When Doctor Manhattan and Juspeczyk arrive back on Earth, they are confronted by mass destruction and wide scale death in New York City. Doctor Manhattan notices his abilities are limited by tachyons emanating from the Antarctic, and the pair teleport there. They discover Veidt's involvement and confront him. Veidt shows everyone news broadcasts confirming the cessation of global hostilities and cooperation against a new threat; this leads almost all present to agree that concealing Veidt's truth from the public is in the best interests of the world to keep it united. Rorschach refuses to compromise and leaves, intent on revealing the truth. As he is making his way back, he is confronted by Manhattan. Rorschach tells him that Manhattan will have to kill him to stop him from exposing Veidt and his actions, and Manhattan responds by vaporizing him. Manhattan then wanders through the base and finds Veidt, who asks Manhattan if he did the right thing in the end. In response, Manhattan states that "Nothing ever ends" before leaving the Earth for a different galaxy. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk go into hiding under new identities and continue their romance. Back in New York, an editor complains about having to pull a two page column due to the new political climate. He asks his assistant to find some filler material from the crank file, and the series ends with the young man reaching towards a pile of discarded submissions, near the top of which is Rorschach's journal.
While the art style is somewhat simplistic in both execution and pannelling (manga fans maight be dissapointed with it), it does its job and the storytelling and vibrancy of teh world it sets up more than makes up for it.
layered with subplots and subtext, you can read it countless times and always find something new (for example, it's always worth searching the backgrounds of the panels), and the characters are so layered and flawed that it takes a couple of readings to fully apreciate all of their relationships and whatnot. finally, the political and moral points the comic makes are fasinating.
David Gibbons (the artist) noted that: "[a]s it progressed, Watchmen became much more about the telling than the tale itself. The main thrust of the story essentially hinges on what is called a macguffin, a gimmick ... So really the plot itself is of no great consequence ... it just really isn't the most interesting thing about Watchmen. As we actually came to tell the tale, that's where the real creativity came in."
-thsi is certainly true. The comic is a journey that roots you as it gradually progresses. the plot is something that seems to happen without yur realisation and is always secondary to the characters, emotions and the world that is reveled to you.
in short - a wonderful comic you'd be a fool not to read.
9.5/10
And now, the film...
What struck me about the Watchmen film was it's striking attention to detail and faithfulness to teh comic: i've never seen anything executed so faithfully.
here's a few proofs of the level fo detail we're talking about here...
http://www.firstshowing.net/img/watchmen-comic-comp1.jpg - the newsvendor (one of my favourite characters) was genrally edited form the film because the extra storyline was so surreal and only enforced messages we already knew. BUT they did put him in to glance at smile
http://www.firstshowing.net/img/watchmen-comic-comp3.jpg
http://www.firstshowing.net/img/watchmen-comic-comp4.jpg - even the shop backgrouns are faithful to individual comic panels
http://www.thedorkreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/watchmen-comic-1.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IE_FLO8DHU0/ScY3gMa5eDI/AAAAAAAABvI/2y-UnhrGx4Q/s400/Watchmen-comic-movie2.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IE_FLO8DHU0/ScY3gmFYJ3I/AAAAAAAABvQ/fhvKxtM2pyc/s400/Watchmen-comic-movie1.jpg
COMING SOON
