Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

So as you may guess from the title, I’ve been to see Watchmen. “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” is often translated as “Who watches the watchmen?” but it doesn’t mean watch in a passive sense; it means guard, protect, watch over, which makes writing an answer to that question in Latin actually pretty tricky. If I wrote “custodes custodio” (“I watch the watchmen”) it would actually be wrong, in a literal sense, and “custodes specto”  just doesn’t flow as well. Yes, I do realise I’m a huge nerd.

Anyways, the film was staggeringly faithful to the original. There are bits omitted (what, no pirates‽) and some things modified (what, no squid‽) and some things I think added (what, so much Nixon‽) but for the most part the original is incredibly recognisable. The bravery on display at bringing a film of this sort of magnitude to the screen with 80’s setting and blue penis intact is frankly pretty astonishing, and I’m amazed it got made at all. As an adaptation, it’s pretty much the best that could possibly be done. Also, I think the new ending might actually better, which I’m fairly sure will get me burned at the stake.

But… I’m not entirely convinced it holds together as a film in its own right. I don’t know if I’m coloured by my foreknowledge of the source material, but Alan Moore is absolutely right in some of his criticisms of film as a medium:

With a movie you are being dragged through the scenario at a relentless 24 frames a second. With a comic book you can dart your eyes back to a previous panel, or you can flip back a couple of pages to check whether there is some reference in the dialog to a scene that happened earlier.

You can experience time in the story as non-linearly as Dr Manhattan, flicking backwards and forwards to piece together the story, halt a moment to piece together the motivations, the thoughts, appreciate the detail. In film, you’re slaved to the will of the director. If he wants to spend moments lingering over two characters having surprisingly graphic sex, then so do you, like it or not.

Then there’s the fact that you can feel the artefacts of Watchmen’s origins showing up in the film’s plot. The film feels segmented, because the original story was published as individual comic issues. The film goes from being an examination of the Comedian, to the origin of Dr Manhattan, to the identity of Rorschach (which they far too clearly alluded to in the film, I preferred the genuine shock of the original) with seemingly little rhyme or reason. It feels jarring against the medium.

This isn’t to say it isn’t a good film, because it is, and many individual facets of it are brilliant, but it doesn’t entirely come together in its own right.

I’m not a film critic, so I don’t have any particularly focussed comment, but here’s my advice: grab a copy of the graphic novel, you won’t be disappointed.