pretty good movie, until the ending.

Rating: 5/10 (18 September 2009)

This review is going to be practically impossible to give reasons of my opinions without giving spoilers, so tread carefully. Right off the bat, I'll complain about the ending. Replacing the giant squid with Dr. Manhattan does not make sense. The whole point was for the huge threat to be unknown, and not associated with either the Americans or the Soviets. Dr. Manhattan however, is known and is typically associated with America. And thus the Soviets would probably blame the American government of losing control of him. The countries aren't "unified and pacified". Also, since they know Dr. Manhattan's energy signature, they could have traced his location to the North Pole and attack (they should be able to trace him, as Silk Spectre says that he was on Mars). It just doesn't make sense, particularly when they keep in the fact that he left for another galaxy. Moving away from the ending, another problem was the origins they told for the characters. They just didn't focus on them, as barely important scenes. Dr. Manhattan, whilst his lines were impressive (good job, Hayter) they just weren't delivered well with the actor's tone of voice. Malin Akerman was just wooden, although she did seem as though she was trying. Some stuff like their jab at George W. Bush was just unnecessary, I admit he's a moron but he's out of office, it's old news. They called themselves the Watchmen which they never did in the graphic novel, it's supposed to be ambiguous. Snyder brought the action up too much. The slow-motion was annoying, the fighting was just dancing and the scene where Rorschach jumped out of the window and continued fighting was just ridiculous. They made Ozymandias seem too much like a villain, giving him an evil glare and look like Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. And why keep in the genetically created tiger? It's a set-up for the squid, so why keep that in? Enough complaints, time for good stuff. Rorschach and Comedian were really well portrayed by their actors, sounded just like I imagined they would. The opening credits were a really good way to show the alternate history of Watchmen. At first I thought they pushed the symbolism with the doomsday clock too much, but for a film it's appropriate. The glass fortress Manhattan made actually looked better than the graphic novel's, with the whole clock thing. Overall, this is just an okay movie. Would've been a 6 or 7 if it wasn't for the ending.