Review: Watchmen-Chapter One

Can a franchise like the Watchmen survive a cancel-culture-ridden United States of America? This is what concerned me when I first heard about an animated adaptation of the classic Dave Gibbons/Alan Moore collaboration because clearly the HBO-produced show didn’t but I’m happy to announce that this animated adaptation directed by Brandon Vietti and co-written by J.Michael Straczynski.

Now, you may be perplexed as to why DC would produce an animated feature given that we already had pretty-head-on adaptation from Zack Snyder that was a rather flawless adaptation, especially if you were lucky enough to get the director’s cut featuring the animated adaptation of Tales of the Black Freighter. Admittedly, I am too…but with WB Discovery fist-fucking every animated series and movie that it seems to announce I’m perfectly happy just getting SOMETHING that releases from the company that is largely complete. Now, other reviewers are claiming this is a more faithful adaptation than the live-action version, an interesting conclusion give that this is the first chapter and we have yet to see the complete comic series adapted as yet, so I’m going to leave the jury on that one until part two (which is teased in the credits) releases.

So far, so good. That said, not only do I think the live-action adaptation is actually quite a bit better in a lot of ways that actually helped to enhance the source material, given that the Snyder-directed film is by far a more cinematic achievement given that the fight choreography is vastly superior, the violence more gritty, and a far better soundtrack. Moreover, with the aforementioned Tales of the Black Freighter being relegated to nothing more than an odd nuisance versus the true adaptation that came with Watchmen’s home release, I can’t say I agree that this adaptation is a cleaner take on the franchise. It’s good, but standard in every conceivable way with none of the panache that Snyder gave it. And I will wholeheartedly take a soundtrack featuring the likes of Bob Dylan, Nena, and others over more Captain Metropolis.

I also couldn’t help but be turned off by some of the voice-directing decisions of the near 90-minute feature-length. While I think Titus Welliver (Rorschach), Rick Wasserman (Comedian), Matthew Rhys (Nite Owl) make for solid contributions, Troy Baker (Ozy) and especially Michael Cerveris (Manhattan) sound very stoic and, at times, robotic in their respective executions of their characters especially whence compared to the live-action characters. Everyone else was very mid, at best.

Even with all of that, it was difficult for me NOT to get excited at reliving some of my favorite scenes from Watchmen yesteryear. From Manhattan’s transformation to watching Rorschach go nuts, Watchmen-Chapter One features all of the dark and dreary pathos that the original comics does but doesn’t do the little things to truly send this adaptation over the top. At times, the quick cuts between the various scenes are a bit assertive, but the action sequences are very uninspiring and even clunky at times despite the promising animation production for the narrative scenes.

Watchmen-Chapter Two doesn’t release until 2025 and not only am I curiously excited to see how this adaptation truly plays out, I wouldn’t mind seeing these guys get together and fuck around with the prequel and sequel comics.