watched watchmen

Sorry it's taken so long to report on the movie. Maybe I figured I'd been talking about it too much.

Anyway, to sum up, I really really liked it. Usually, I hate it when a movie follows the book too closely. This, however, is an exception. It was SO close that a huge amount of admiration must be thrown at the makers.

Still, at the same time, taking so few chances GUARANTEES that the book is better than the movie. And for the most part reading the trade paperback of Watchmen is still the way to go.

There were a few tiny things that the movie went the extra mile in.

Probably the most original thing to come out of the movie was the opening credit sequence. Even though it didn't provide the essential backstory it probably needed to, it set the perfect tone for the re-written history that takes place in the story. Some highlights to this highlight: the reveal that The Comedian assassinated JFK, Silhouette kissing the nurse on V-J Day, Dollar Bill shot-up and stuck in the revolving door.

Also, Zack Snyder seems to be getting a surprising amount of credit for his re-tooling of the ending. I must say, that probably do like the new ending better. I think it wraps the story up more nicely to turn the action back around on Dr. Manhattan rather than introducing a completely new element. I am starting to see some flaws in it though. Maybe Alan Moore needed the alien component in there because all the other countries on Earth continued to war around even when they had the fear of Manhattan when he was a pawn of the United States.

I didn't like how they actually called themselves "Watchmen." In the book, the costumed masks never had an official organization called "Watchmen." In my opinion, the reason Moore called the series that is because the superheroes themselves didn't understand that they were acting as unnecessary watchmen. The PEOPLE understood that, which explains the graffiti "WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN?"

Strangely, the other best parts of the movie are the ones that probably should have been excised for time -- like the extended soliloquy of Jon on Mars about his origin (which was absolutely beautiful). I also appreciate that they included the prison sequence of Rorschach. I think it would have been very easy for Snyder to simply have Rorschach evade prison and move the plotline forward early.

I heard the studio wanted to also cut the funeral sequence of The Comedian. Hey, I'm not even going to blame the studio heads for that. It makes sense to do so. I'm really glad they didn't because the guy who played The Comedian was the highlight of the entire film for me. In my opinion, he's EXACTLY how I envisioned the character and the flashback sequences during the funeral scene were awesome.

Love to the guy who played Rorschach as well. Silk Spectre and Ozymandias? Not so much.

So yep. Totally liked it. Here's The Cinematic Experience Review:



Here's an image of me taken at our IMAX screening. Yeah, I dressed as Rorschach, although I probably should have dressed as a naked, blue Dr. Manhattan.