Watchmen

Short Review:
I liked it a lot. I thought Zack Synder did a good job compressing the graphic novel into a 2.5 hour movie. It was a visual feast. Rorschach was awesome.


Long Review (Filled with SPOILERS!!!!!):
This is just a copy of a comment I made on a TV blog I read.

I enjoyed the movie a lot. I'm a comic geek, but never went gaga for Watchmen. Let the flaming commence.

I understand why it's so highly regarded. I understand its impact. But that was twenty years ago by the time I read it. I was like one year old when it originally came out. I found it... to put it bluntly... boring. I guess that highlights that I'm not a literary man.

As a single narrative it's hard to stay engaged. The emphasis is on all the back stories of the characters. The murder of the Comedian sets up the story, but is lost in all the history. The Black Freighter intercuts the narrative, making it difficult to move forward. A story that could have been told in six issues was expanded to twelve. There's a lot of stuff in there. It's certainly dense. If you have the patience you'll probably be rewarded. I don't have that patience.

This is why I liked the movie. I remembered enough about the story to have no problem following along. It hits all the major themes - sure maybe not as fleshed out as it could have been, but it was enough to give you something to think about.

I tried rereading Watchmen afterward. I ended up skipping all the same things (the prose, Black Freighter) and ended up thinking Snyder did a good job compressing the interesting parts of Watchmen into a 2.5 hour movie. I see the point that this maybe isn't a movie that should have been made, but I'm glad it was.

I'm just going to make random comments in response to previous comments:

I agree that Laurie's revelation came very sudden in the movie. I was not impressed by the actress.

I would've liked to see more of the psychiatrist, although that would be too much of a detour for the movie.

The sex scene might've been cheesy, but it's in the book, including the fire climax, which I found amusing. I'm juvenile.

The movie is R for a reason - blame the parents.

I like the slo-mo, speeding up, and zooms. I think it's an interesting experience. Like when reading a comic book, when you move through panels, the artist may zoom to different parts of the scene or you can take your time to admire a certain sequence.

By speeding up time, I think Snyder can get away with a lot more violence without it being too uncomfortable. A lot of discomfort is the anticipation or the act of violence, not necessarily the final result. He speeds up time to the point where he's almost just cutting to the bone finally breaking or the cleaver having entered the skull, and so he can illustrate what has happened without putting you through the act of it happening. He presents you with the shocking image and relieves you of it quickly.

I still think the original squid ending, a truly external threat, makes more sense in uniting the world.

Rorschach was awesome.