Don't expect a direct transfer from page to film and you'll be as pleased as I was

Rating: 9/10 (9 March 2009)

I'm a fan of the graphic novel. Actually, I'm more than a fan of the graphic novel, I've read it about 15 times. I've got a real deep rooted foothold into the world of Watchmen, and into its story and mythology...
So it was with an anxious sense of doubt that I watched this movie. Now, I went in fearing the worst, I thought it would've been a butchering of the source material. A real bad quick over with the story and added fight scenes to keep the laymen interested. Something that didn't even skim the surface of what the graphic novel really was...
It was these expectations that were shattered. More moments than I can count were seemingly taken straight from the pages and placed on screen, with real actors in the place of the drawn caricatures that I'm so used to seeing. Moments where things were filmed in such a way that I gasped or chuckled when I saw how they were taken straight from the comic and slapped onto the screen.
However I also knew that when the medium changes, so does the message. Something is always lost in the translation. From film to the page, from the page to film, it doesn't matter, somethings just naturally work better or worse with each medium, and it was at this point in mind where I walked away satisfied with what Zack Snyder accomplished. Those who expected the EXACT story, word for word, action for action portrayed exactly on film as it was on the page were setting lofty goals from the beginning. What's the point in having Dr. Manhattan teleport everyone from the studio to the parking lot, then teleport himself to the old bar in the Gila flats to get the picture before going on to mars? When you can save a few minutes on screen (and a few hundred thousand dollars in SFX), by having Dr. Manhattan carry the picture of himself with Janey to the T.V. interview, and then just teleport himself straight to Mars from there? What's the harm in that? Whats the harm in changing things around a little just to aid in story development on screen? Most of the changes I saw in the film were made to do just that.
But alas... some people set themselves up to be disappointed right from the start. Lofty expectations create a long fall to reality I'm afraid. Understanding that not everything in the graphic novel can be portrayed on film is a good place to start for fans of the graphic novel right at the beginning. It is with this in mind that you walk out of the theater in awe as to how much the film makers took straight from the text. It's truly remarkable... who cares with the ending varies from the comic to the film? The film ending works better for the film anyways, and fits in very nicely.
The only point of contention I had with the film was the over the top violence. Now, with some characters it actually fit. Both Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan in the source material have skewed morals and have lost touch with what is humanly acceptable. When these two characters are on screen and are the source of the over the top violence, it just fits. However, when it was Dan and Laurie involved in the violence it just didn't seem to work. Both have different sets of morals and different principals than Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan.
I loved the casting. Dan and Dr. Manhattan were perfectly cast. Billy Crudup was spot on with Dr. Manhattan. Jackie Earle Haley couldn't have done a better job. His running dialog in the film is exactly as I imagined it when I first read the source material. The casting on the whole was very good. Even Matthew Goode was a real good choice for Ozymandias, even though I was worried he might be a little too small looking for the role.
All in all, I was very pleased with the final product. Well done Zack... Well done.