Josh Reviews the Animated Watchmen: Chapter Two!

As I wrote in my review of Watchmen: Chapter One — the first half of this two-part animated adaptation of Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons’ masterpiece from 1985-86 — I was dubious when I first read about this project.  I love Watchmen and have read the original series over and over again through the years.  But I felt like the DC/Warner Brothers folks had gone back to the Watchmen well far too many times.  There was Zach Snyder’s 2009 film adaptation (of which I am a defender, and I like the extended director’s cut even more), Damon Lindelof’s magnificent HBO sequel series (click here for my review), DC’s series of Before Watchmen mini-series (an assortment of comic book mini-series serving as prologues to the events of Watchmen, released in 2012), Geoff John and Gary Frank’s Doomsday Clock mini-series from 2017-19 (which brought characters and themes from Watchmen into the DC universe), and more.  It felt like, enough already!

So I was sort of bowled over to watch the animated Watchmen: Chapter One and realize that it was fantastic!  And I’m pleased to report that the concluding half, Watchmen: Chapter Two, is also terrific!  Together, these two animated films are a beautiful, enjoyable, faithful adaptation of the original Watchmen series.  Wow!  I am surprised and impressed!

Chapter Two picks up the story immediately following Rorschach’s capture and arrest, and it’s a bullet-train ride straight through to the conclusion.  As a super-fan of the original comic book series, I was once again impressed by how writer J. Michael Straczynski (the mastermind behind Babylon 5) has taken all the many plot and character threads from the original comic and translated them for this adaptation.  It feels like every single moment and beat I loved from the comic has been included here.  I know Mr. Straczynski needed to make a million changes, little nips and tucks and re-organizations, but he’s done his work in such a way that it all feels seamless and like the comic has been translated directly to the screen.  This is terrific work.  I never got the idea that Mr. Straczynski thought he was better than the source material, or felt the need to add his own story-ideas onto the project, as so often happens in movie adaptations.  Instead, it feels like Mr. Straczynski set as his goal to be as faithful to the source material as possible, while at the same time making sure this worked as a movie.  I’m particularly pleased that the ending with the squid — which was (in)famously changed by Zack Snyder for his 2009 live-action movie adaptation — has been preserved.  Yay!

The fantastic voice cast from Chapter One is all, of course back for Chapter Two.  Titus Welliver (Bosch, Gone Baby Gone, Lost) is once again terrific as Rorschach, bringing intense emotion to his performance as the gravelly-voiced vigilante.  Mr. Welliver keeps Rorschach real, without ever tipping over into silly caricature (which would be very easy to do with this character).  Matthew Rhys (The Americans) and Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, Bo-Katan on Star Wars Rebels and Clone Wars, and also The Mandalorian) are front and center as Chapter Two focuses in on their characters of Dan and Laurie, two retired super-heroes with very different feelings about their youthful evenings spent in tights on rooftops (Dan is nostalgic, Laurie is regretful), who have to suit back up to try to save the world.  I was very pleased by how Dan and Laurie’s relationship was developed here in Chapter Two, and Mr. Rhys and Ms. Sackhoff are both absolutely perfect as these characters.  Troy Baker is also great as Adrian Veidt, who also gets a lot more focus here in Chapter Two.  Mr. Baker really nails Veidt’s charming but cold personality.

I continue to be impressed by the gorgeous CGI animation.  First off, the terrific character-design work was able to accomplish the near-impossible and capture the very specific look of the way Dave Gibbons drew these characters in the original comic.  I’m so happy with this approach.  These faithful character designs really help this adaptation feel real and true as Watchmen.  This adaptation wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without maintaining Mr. Gibbons’ designs.  Second, the lush animation is able to incorporate so many of the wonderful background details from Mr. Gibbons’ original comic book pages.  That world-building was critical to the comic, and it’s equally critical to the success of this film.  These details and layered designs help the world of the story feel real as an alternate history of a world warped by the presence of Dr. Manhattan and the other super-heroes & villains.  Not only that, but I thought there was a beauty to the animation in this film — the gorgeous colors, the expansive backgrounds — that’s often missing from these direct-to-disc (and/or streaming) DC/Warner Brothers animated projects.

This two-part animated adaptation of Watchmen was fantastic.  I’m glad to have seen it, and I’d love to see DC/Warner Brothers continue to release animated films of this high level of quality!

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