Watchmen review in the sense of an adaptation

Rating: 5/10 (8 March 2009)

When dealing with an adaptation like this it is hard to judge one piece without judging the other (the original). I felt that watchmen took a ballsy approach to dealing with the graphic novel both a visual sense and with how it dealt with the story (plot/characters/dialogue, etc.).
Knowing that Zach Snyder is a die hard comic fan, I know he had good intentions with dealing with this piece and probably equally understood the challenges and pressures from the creators of the comic and it's fans alike.
I think Snyder did a good job referencing the comic book, I feel that much of panels are brought to life in the frames of this film. For example, it appears that Snyder and his production designer made a perfect floor plan of the Night Owl's lair from the frames the comic, everything from the staircase to the cabinets to which way his spaceship/hero-cruising-vessel faced in relation to the comic frames. I think this shows a great attention to detail, the mood transfers well from the literary piece to the visual, even with the changes made. In the opening scene when The Comedian is murdered, the book's color scheme is dark and cold, but focuses on the color red, the film's adapted this scene very well in its cold and dark feeling but went with a blue color scheme. While this may seem minimal to some people's eyes, I feel that one of the comics main driving force is its use of color.
In the sense of the story, I think Snyder tried to keep as much of it as possible, but by doing that I think the film felt long, sluggish and boring at many parts. Some may argue that this shows a faithful respect to the adapted material. On the other hand I would argue that in this case (most of the time) it is quality over quantity. I feel by Snyder trying to minimize cuts to the story he compromised its quality as it loses its pizazz in the conversion from page to celluloid.
My grade: c+