Watchmen Review

After a steep loss of revenue the past 2 weeks Watchmen could use some support, and I'm here to give it a ringing endorsement.

Watchmen is based on Alan Moores geek-tastic comic book series turned graphic novel. The graphic novel has won a Hugo and is on Time's Top 100 Novels of All Time list. It is considered essential reading for any geek. Ever. But Watchmen has also been considered an "unfilmable" book. *Keep in mind from this point on I HAVE read the novel and am writing the review from the aspect of a fan*. Personally, yes, it's jumpy narrative and plot set up do seem to detract from the idea of seeing it as a film. Personally, I was wrong.

I'll start with the bad. You've probably heard 2 opinions of the movie. The geek boy version which goes like "IT WAS AMAZING! GO SEE IT NOW!" and the normal average Joe version which goes like "It was kinda long with some cool action scenes. But it was really long". Both valid points. Of course Watchmen is trying (unintentionally) to be the new Dark Knight (it's a sin to make the comparison, I know). It's trying to be dark, violent, and edgy in the comic book genre. But the unfair comparison was always going to linger no matter what happened and to get it out of the way, The Dark Knight is better in every aspect.

Watchmen's unnecissary length becomes an issue very early on. For a fan of the novel it's easy to tell that attention to detail was a necessity for Zach Snyder (the films director). The movie's time between action sequences are too long to ask a viewer to sit through. Also the movies lack of character development becomes an issue. While I knew each character well from the novel, the movie simply lacks the colorful back story each character has.

But those 2 issues aside I quite enjoyed the movie. The action scenes were reminiscent of those done in Snyder's other film 300. Slow to fast camera takes that never make quick cuts and keep focused on the fight. Each of the characters were well represented, particularly Jackie Earl Haley's portrayal of Rorschach is certainly the most interesting of the group. Then of course Night Owl and Dr. Manhattan also gain some interest (the doc is a blue man with the powers of God for...God's sake!).

The novels depth is somewhat lost on the film though. Sure it tries to deliver a meaningful statement on society near the end (I won't ruin it. Chill.) but it doesn't transcend well. Overall Watchmen for the geek in me was phenomenal. As a regular moviegoer though it's effect is somewhat diminished, but it is still good none the less. Geek Grade - A, Normal Grade - B+