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I've just gotten back from watching a movie I'd been highly anticipating.
"Watchmen" has been on my list of things to see ever since I found out it was being made. I loved the graphic novel, and regrettably, the movie does not live up to it. Not even close. To anyone who disagrees with my assessment, good on you. Everyone has different standards and I suppose there is some comfort that some could enjoy the movie while I could not.
To those interested, here are a bunch of nitpicks that ruined it for me (more egregious plot-revelations are cut to avoid spoiling too much for those that still want to see it):
The acting is somewhat unconvincing and wooden, with a possible exception of Dr. Manhattan, who didn't appear wooden enough. I also didn't like how some of the characters are portrayed:
- Dan Dreiberg wasn't old enough. ( And this is why )
- Edward Blake was way too old. ( I really mean this. )
- Dr. Manhattan's voice wasn't deep enough for my taste.
- Rorschach's voice... it doesn't change to reflect the differences between his "normal" tone of voice and his "rorschach" tone of voice (something I was looking forward to hearing).
- I didn't sympathize with movie Adrian at all, since some of his redeeming features have been removed completely. ( And this is why )
- A number of characters are missing despite their impact on the main plot. ( And I miss them... )
- The Big Conspiracy is ( different from the book. )
- Important plotlines feel hollow, because there hasn't been enough time devoted to fleshing them out. ( Hollow as in empty. )
- Two of my favorite pieces of dialog from the book were cut or butchered, but the scenes are there, so I can be certain this won't be remedied in an extended edition. ( And these are the scenes... )
- Apart from the plotlines feeling hollow, the whole fleshed out world and culture is largely limited to the opening credits and Hollis talking to Dan in their beer session.
- Most irritatingly, time that could have been devoted to these was used for (in my opinion) irrelevant scenes. ( You may disagree with my assessment of irrelevant... )
- The movie is excessively violent. This is under the consideration that the book isn't excessively violent (and it certainly isn't made for children). ( Click here to read about violence )
- The New Frontiersman doesn't appear until the end.
- The Police Strike Riots get largely glossed over. The Keene act is merely mentioned in passing.
So, again, I'll say this is my opinion, influenced by how I interpreted the graphic novel when I read it. I was terribly disappointed by the movie, and while I can admit I may have judged it too harshly, I've left a number of things that bothered me while watching it out of this analysis, because in retrospect, they were appropriate for the adaptation from picture to motion picture. Also, not everything about the movie was bad. The effects and action scenes weren't bad, Dr. Manhattan's "aura" comes across nicely, and unlike in the book, the American flag in the cemetary scene gets folded correctly.
