fun but disappointing.

Rating: 5/10 (16 March 2009)

When I saw this movie a week ago, I walked out of the theater not really knowing what to think. The film definitely had not held up to my high expectations but I had enjoyed it despite myself. Afterwards I told my friends it was worth seeing, although there were some glaring problems. More and more as the week went on, though, I found myself thinking about the movie and how it stacked up against the book and found myself feeling more and more disappointed with what I had seen. Ultimately what stuck with me most about this movie was how not challenging and not compelling it was. For an adaptation of a revolutionary book that really changed the game as far as how graphic novels could be written, Watchmen the movie plays it very safe and comes of as ultimately being tame and kind of awkward even. I'm not so sure sticking to the story of the graphic novel as closely as it did was such a good idea. Sure fans of the book were craving a fidelitous adaptation but it's important to remember that comics and movies communicate in very different ways and that trying to adapt duologue word-for-word and shots directly from the panels, while loyal to the text, wont automatically make a good movie adaptation. I have some other complaints that are pretty specific, but this one is kind of hard to put into words. I guess what it comes down to is that the movie felt like it was missing something - maybe commitment. Watching the movie, it almost seems like director Zach Snyder was so afraid of screwing up, he couldn't bring himself to do anything really interesting or give the audience anything to think about, at least not anything new, which kind of begs the question: why adapt it in the first place? There's an answer to this question, but I don't know if Snyder ever bothered to seek it out. Instead he made a mostly faithful movie of a great graphic novel and wound up with something ultimately mediocre. live and learn i guess.
As far as specific complaints about the movie, my foremost complaint is about the soundtrack. I cant tell you how much a decent soundtrack would have improved this movie for me. As it stands, the music is either clichéd or inappropriate to the point of being distracting. "The Times, They are A-Changin'" despite being a little obvious, I thought worked well for the opening credit sequence but after that it just goes downhill. "Sounds of Silence" for a funeral scene? "Flight of the Valkyries" for the Vietnam war? "All Along the Watchtower", "Me and Bobbie McGee." Who picked these? a fourteen year old? I mean could the songs have been any more obvious or over-used? And then there was the use of Leonard Cohen's "Halleluja" during the already god-awful sex scene. beautiful song. terrible application. I don't think I've ever seen a sex scene try to take itself so seriously and fail at it so badly. "99 luftbaloons" is in here too and will confuse the hell out of you as to why it was chosen for the scene it's in.
as far as acting goes, I was most disappointed with the portrayal of Laurie Jupiter by Malin Akerman. For a character with a lot of emotional baggage, she seemed pretty vapid and stiff. I also wasn't crazy about Patrick Wilson as Night Owl. While he seems like a good pick, his performance, with a few exceptions, seemed forced and as stiff as Ackerman's. There were some bright spots though. Jackie Earle Haley was excellent as Rorschach. He even looked the part when his mask was taken off and really overall did a beautiful job of capturing the Rorschach character - he gets a lot of screen time which is good. I also differ from a lot of people i know in liking Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan and Mathew Goode as Ozymandius. Though, they aren't quite how I imagined the characters from the the novel, they both put an interesting spin on the characters and ultimately stayed true to them, which was enjoyable to watch.
Ad a final, nit-picking complaint, I found the CG Bubastis to be really annoyingly CG looking.
Ultimately, It was a fun movie despite itself but it doesn't really stand on its own. I'll probably see it again but it'll be hard not to think of how much better it could be.