A nearly flawless rendition--but not for everyone

Rating: 7/10 (3 April 2009)

When I first heard that Zack Synder was on board to direct this film, I thought to myself 'hey, this couldn't be too bad'. After all, the 300 film was faithful to the comic, so I was interested to see how this would turn out. When I did see the film, I was completely blown away by how amazing close to the graphic novel it was! So, it's safe to assume this is a good film, right? Well... yes and no. Baring in mind, I'm coming from the point of view of someone who has read the comic Watchmen (one of the greatest stories of all time), so naturally I'm being a little biased to the film. As a comic fan myself, it really winds me up when film companies get comic book adaptations wrong. Most of the time, they just take the basic plots of the book and then end up doing their own thing, ruining the story and character. But in Watchmen, it's practically like the book--albeit a heavily edited version of it. While I'm sure fans of the comic will really enjoy this film, those who haven't read the comic may struggle with it. The long running time, slightly complicated story lines, graphic violence and some rather unpleasant central characters will probably put off a few film goers who aren't that big on epic comic book films. Though the film has a running theme of nuclear war, it's more a character driven film--and every character seems to have a story to tell, so this film may feel a little drawn out to some people. My advice is that if you want to see this film, I'd suggest reading the comic first--that will make the film a little easier to follow as it has some character development and back story left out in the film. But if you are a fan of the comic, you will most likely think this film does the story justice. Overall, it's one of the better comic book adaptations in recent years. Not quite as groundbreaking as The Dark Knight, but nearly as dark and with an ending that is both bleak, but hopeful at the same time.