Watchmen
Reviewed by Ogre3000
Posted March 8, 2009
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The Watchmen movie is an adaptation of a maxi-series (12 issues) of comics, put out by DC Comics in 1986 by Alan Moore (writer) and Dave Gibbons (artist). It was directed by 300's Zack Snyder. It is the story of '80s America, it's society, politics, Cold War and superheroes in an alternate time line gone wrong. Nixon is still president, we won the Vietnam War. The saga revolves around a former superhero group called "The Minute Men" who are, were: Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl (II), The Comedian, Silk Spectre (II), Rorschach and Ozymandias. It opens with the death of The Comedian, one of the more powerful, brutal members of the group. Rorschach believes there's a huge conspiracy and a "war on masks" has begun.
Welp. I will break this into the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good:
The story was almost page-for-page, word-for-word in each and every scene. Up to a point. The acting and characters were dead on, 100 percent the original comic. I just read the collected album a few nights ago and the dialogue and scenes were perfect.
The bad:
Welp, I felt the pacing dragged a bit. I could hear people around me sigh as the back stories and lots of talking in between action was slowing the movie down. Yep, you need all the story points but tightened up a bit.
The ugly:
Welp, I have to say, I was very disappointed in the movie. And it was from following the comic down to the bone until the climax. To me it was like suddenly you are watching, let's imagine, "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" movie and at the big moment, Ol' Honest Abe is shot by, ROBERT E. LEE?!!! Eh, what the hell?! And of course, you folks that haven't read the original comic have no clue of the huge change in the ending. But it upset me, depressed me and I won't see Watchmen ever again nor have anything to do with it.
What else can I say? If you are a die-hard comic fan that loved the comic, I can only recomend the first 2 hours or so of the movie. Otherwise, if you are like me, disappointment awaits. If you haven't read the comic, welp, probably no big deal then, you won't know the difference since you don't know the original plot point. Ignorance is bliss and I am sure Snyder was counting on that.
2 stars for 2 great hours but -2 for that last 45 minutes. And I won't buy the DVD and I own the real story already, dammit.
Until next time,
OGRE3000
For another perspective, please see Galen's review.
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