This fan boy must admit this film didn't work

Rating: 5/10 (22 January 2010)

The first time I saw this movie I was just happy to see this graphic novel brought to life. I enjoyed the whole film because of this. I got a lot of pleasure out of all the little details in the film. There was a lot of criticism of the film right from the start and as a fan boy I was insulted by this.
However after seeing the film a number of times I am forced to agree with the criticism. The film as it stands now is a giant mess. The pacing is all wrong. The kind of drawn out exposition that can work in a graphic novel just doesn't work here despite the actors best efforts. The story is confusing to people who aren't familiar with the graphic novel.
The story is disjointed. It ranges from completely manic to gratingly slow. Some of the key points in the film are exposed in a few frames while unimportant scenes of padding drag out forever.
Alan Moore, the writer of the graphic novel, didn't give his approval to the adaptation because he said it was impossible to adapt. He had tried for years to do it adequately. To me that was Alan's silent seal of approval for the Director to hack and slash the original story to make it work for the screen. Yes you would have endured the wrath of fan boys but the film could have been something special. Instead the director and screen writer decided to double down on a failed concept: forcing the graphic novel even more directly straight onto film. Alan Moore told you this was impossible Zack perhaps next time you will listen to advice?
The failure of the overall film shows that Alan Moore was right. Many of the effects/action sequences are quite a bit of fun. Many of the intellectual points and ideas in the film are compelling individually.
However taken as a whole the thing fails miserably.
Its really a shame because the concepts in this film are incredibly relevant to today's world. The idea of unlimited resources and how today's greedy society is probably striving to wipe out the concept. That is interesting. Many of the fight sequences are downright cool and convey the brutality of violence really well.
The idea of Atomic power being personified in superhero form is pretty awesome.
However as soon as you encounter a scene that works. Along comes a scene that falls flat, feels forced, or is unnecessary to ruin the party. This ultimately makes the film more taxing than enjoyable to watch.
Bummer.