My opinion swings like blue dong.

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2009)

I was first introduced to the Watchmen graphic novel when I was about 12 years old. I thought it was the coolest thing because this comic didn't hold back any punches. It had blood, nudity and profanity unlike our Marvel Superheroes of that time. I was into this novel, and I was the geek who had a closet love for Watchmen and who was also in a flock of other kids, who thought Wolverine or Spiderman was so F-in cool that they looked at me funny whenever I brought this cult classic up.
18 years later, as the great Watchmen novel slowly went to the back burner of my memory, I hear and anticipated the movie to be released by Zack Snyder. and I said to myself:"No way. I thought I was the only one and maybe like a dozen or so around the world who know about Watchmen." Now everybody is on the bandwagon to anticipate Watchmen's greatness or flop. I hyped myself so much for the Watchmen to be my all time favorite. I was walking around thinking: "Yeah, this movie is going to cure my nearsightedness and make me psychic or prophetic or something." Well none of that came true.
After viewing Watchmen, I realized that what when I was young I missed out on the story and the adult situations that enveloped this classic. I think it was because I was too young and immature to comprehend its complexities at that time. This movie did me a favor by making me want to reread the graphic novel and bypass the blood, nudity, and violence in order to actually enrich my life by understanding the underlying story of Watchmen.
I admire Zach Snyders attempt to match his grandiose direction against Alan Moore's concept, even though it doesn't compare to the novel. Hopefully Alan Moore, can at least give Zack Snyder credit for making this attempt. The director did his best to match story and style in a live sense. And for a movie that is two and a half hours, of course it would leave a lot of that story out. His director's cut on DVD promises the movie to be over 3 hours long. Some people who hated this movie, hated it because of 3 things. 1) They were bored because it was too long, 2) they didn't understand the movie, or.....3) (the best reason)... it is no where near the greatness of the graphic novel. If they hated this movie for any other reason. Well, they don't go out much...
On a technical note, special effects and CGI were there and convincing. Acting was okay all around, (Even Silk Spectre and Ozymandias weren't all that bad). Sorry, I didn't go around looking for flaws in this movie. My only complaint was the multiple story lines felt a little too forced and that some characters weren't developed enough, namely Ozymandias and to a certain extent Night Owl 2. I know, I know, it would have been a three and a half hour movie if it did. And yes, the ending was rather disappointing and I thought the climax should have been more moving than just a brief explosion.
I didn't like this movie as much as I did 300, which had a simpler story line.
On a positive note, this movie left me with some nagging questions and I am willing to see this again on DVD. But I will turn back to the graphic novel before anything. I still strongly recommend it. If this movie did any thing, it reinforces the marketing of this great great novel.