Good but not great. Very faithful though.

Rating: 7/10 (27 June 2009)

Well, the big day is finally here, and we've all been waiting for various amounts of time for the film adaption of the popular comic book spectacle known only as Watchmen. Made by the so-called visionary director of recent cinematic borefest 300, this movie was obviously a big target on everybody's radar, and I wasn't sure what to think of it - how could anyone, let alone Zack Snyder, make a film adaption of a book as layered, complex and involving as Watchmen? The answer to that question is, they took the easiest way out and just made the movie scene-for-scene with the book. Not a bad idea in the end, although there were a few minor changes. I'm quite frankly surprised how much fun this was to watch.
I think the main draw here for the comic-book fans is the number of not-so-subtle nods to them in the way that the movie really did pull most of the scenes here right out of the book, dialogue and all. I mean, word for word, seriously. The most shocking part of this to me, aside from the abysmal opening sequence and the stupidly gory fight scene in the allyway, was the Dr. Manhattan soliloquy on the moon, which was actually pretty much carried out in full, flashbacks and all. Rorschach's journal is vocalized a lot of the time, too, and I kind of expected that. The flashbacks are all done with high regard to the novel, and a lot of the time I was just sort of nodding my head along with it, as the book was still fresh in my memory and none of it really surprised me.
The violence was heavy, bloody and dark as Hell, and I was much more entertained here than I was watching big, beefy men with no shirts on sloooooowly stab each other to death in...you know, that other movie. Like I said, the beginning is silly, with the violence being kind of pointless and very poorly constructed, but after that it gets better. The scenery is awe-inspiring, with huge, bright, vivid landscapes filled with shadows and intricate details and everything else that's just icing on the cake. Just look at the city streets; V for Vendetta wishes it looked that good. And the scenes on Mars...holy hell! The costume designs, too, are all amazing, and it's a slap in the face to other comic book films that they made everyone look so much like they did in the original book. I mean...aside from Ozymandias, they look like they jumped right out of Alan Moore's graphic novel.
Okay, so enough book comparisons, how was the movie as a movie? Well, this was very long, very detailed, and very over the top in every aspect. The explosions are loud, and they're bright, too; I had to cover my eyes a few times. The story is told in a very jumpy comic-book-esquire format, which is no surprise, although honestly I would have preferred a totally different adaption by a smart director like Chris Nolan instead. Everything moves fast, so fast that it gives the illusion of the movie being shorter than it is (and also being ironic in the way that 300 dragged more than a car with flat tires). The story is very stylized and charismatic, with the use of several songs during the "bigger" moments that I actually liked a lot; they added an extra special something to the movie that I found charming and invigorating, even. Not something I'd like to see in every movie, but it works surprisingly excellently in this one. And yes, Dr. Manhattan's speech does get a bit tedious - working only in the book format, apparently; a direct copy-paste of the novel dialogue to a cinematic form is not a good idea - but for newcomers, I imagine it will at least be interesting to listen to, if not too long. And the great special effects will even keep the comic fans watching.
The ending is quite a spectacle, with a new bit added in that I found quite cool; won't spoil it, though. It is a lot darker in some ways, a lot lighter in others, and more Hollywood-ized, and I found that it worked. Watchmen is about as good of a straight-ahead comic book adaption as we'll get these days, so far at least, and although it is not perfect, I found it extremely entertaining and definitely worth re-watching. It isn't particularly life-changing, lacking most of the gravity and weight of the novel, but it is a provocative, interesting look at superhero films, and those who have never experienced the novel before will be in for a real treat. Recommended.