Mr. Man Hatting.

Today’s review is for Watchmen Chapter 1, the first part of a two chapter animated film based on  the Watchmen comic book. I’m expecting as I write this that this review is going to be incredibly short, so I’ll just get right into it.

Watchmen Chapter 1 was directed by Brandon Vietti, who you may know as the director for Batman: The Brave and the Bold that first aired in 2008. The script was written by J. Michael Straczynski who you’ll know from his story writing on 2011’s Thor and 2013’s World War Z. You old nerds will remember him as the writer behind episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She: Ra, and The Twilight Zone back in the 80s, as well as a bunch of other shows like Real Ghostbusters, Captain Power, and Murder, She Wrote.

Series creator Alan Moore chose to remain uncredited for this movie because he hates Warner Bros. And who can blame him? David Zaslav strikes me as the kind of guy who would be getting kicked out of bars if he wasn’t a rich executive.

If you don’t know the story behind Watchmen by now, wow have you been living under a rock or you’re twelve. Watchmen is a series that takes place in an alternate timeline where the world is screwed and everyone kinda knows it and is just bracing for the end. The United States and the Soviets are on the brink of nuclear war, and everything looks like it’s heading toward Armageddon. Tricky Dick Nixon is still president and the world is in the epilogue phase of superheroes that the public has long since rejected and forced into obscurity.

Rorschach (Titus Welliver) is investigating the murder of another superhero The Comedian (Rick D. Wasserman) and trying to uncover if superheroes are in fact being targeted for assassination. Dr. Manhattan (Michael Cerveris) who is basically a living God on Earth slowly realizes that he has grown apart from the human race that he is no longer a part of and hasn’t exactly cared about in decades. Ozymandias (Troy Baker) turned his superhero fame into a massively profitable corporation. Meanwhile Night Owl (Matthew Rhys) and Silk Spectre (Katee Sackhoff) are two heroes who took the manacle from predecessors, and find themselves with a chance to rekindle their youth and feel useful again.

Watchmen is a great comic, and Chapter 1 so far is a very loyal recreation of it on the big screen. With 87-88 minutes per half, the whole film is going to be three hours in length give or take a few minutes. The CG animation is very pleasant to look at and I thought the voice acting was great as well, although there are some scenes you could tell were rushed likely for time. The actors occasionally felt like they were belting out a line because it needed to get done with. Otherwise though the presentation was fantastic.

The reviews that I’ve read from viewers are very telling. I’ve noticed that fans of the comics and those who hated the 2009 Zack Snyder film for not being a faithful retelling of the comics absolutely love this movie. Meanwhile the people who enjoyed the 2009 movie aren’t so positive about this because it is different from the film. The first half of the story goes right up until Rorschach is arrested. Considering I don’t think the second half will be a big departure from the first half in terms of quality or writing, I’m going to pre-emptively give that one also an A and won’t be reviewing it.

Good thing the trailer obscured Dr. Manhattan’s poorly drawn benis.

Rating: A