Wasn't bad, but wasn't that great.

Rating: 6/10 (25 February 2012)

As a fan of the graphic novel, I was very excited to find a cheap copy of this movie and see it for the first time. But, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. I didn't hate the film, but there were flaws that kept piling up. For instance, in the beginning, the script was pulled straight from the book, and while I appreciate the effort to stick to the source material, that was not the way to do it, as it made the dialogue forced and feel unnatural. The actors did a fine job, but places like that made me wince at the way they delivered lines. Another problem I had was the lack of character development. it felt like they tried to build up each character in about five seconds, with minor flashbacks and with silent scenes in the opening credits, whereas in the novel, much more effort and time was put into each individual. The last big problem I had was the music choice. There are times when a non-obvious choice for underscoring fit in the movie (The opening with Bob Dylan's "The times, they are a-changing" or near the climax, with Jimi Hendrix's "All along the Watchtower"), But there were some points were the music didn't work at all, like when Jon (Dr. Manhattan) was in Vietnam, the choice of underscoring made it seem cheesy and cheap. I do have to say though, almost everything else was good. The costuming, the sets, the cinematography, however, when you miss on two of the big ones (writing and score) you're missing to much in my opinion. All in all, I'm glad I watched it, and if you're into darker, grittier super heroes that are a bit more twisted, I recommend you see it, however, I do believe it's been over-rated.