Yawn

Rating: 3/10 (9 March 2009)

An embarrassingly poor attempt at translating the Watchmen graphic novel to screen. To sum it up in a few words, this film is devoid of structure, is nigh on plot less, at best the narrative is messy, its far too long and is ridiculously overblown at pretentious. Zack Sneider has taken the source material, transferred it to screen, and left behind any subtext, depth and in fact just about anything of genuine interest. What we have instead is something unfathomably difficult to follow, mainly due to Sneider's horrible scattergun approach to plotting, and also without any real sense of empathy. There are too many characters that are not fully developed, and there is absolutely no reason for anyone to sympathise with them or care about them. In an attempt to imbue characters with a sense of moral ambiguity, we are left to rely on voice overs and shoddy 'flashback' sequences that are lacking in depth and development. Far too often we are forced to rely on characters' words, as Sneider himself appears to lack confidence that the film itself is able to convey anything. He is right to lack of confidence, as Watchmen fails to deliver on just about every level.