Awesome movie (with Disclaimer)

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2009)

Disclaimer: 1) Read the novel 2) Pay attention 3) Avoid viewing with anyone that knows nothing about the Watchmen 4) Avoid viewing with anyone that doesn't like complex plots 5) Avoid viewing with someone who doesn't like graphic violence 6) It is LONG but for good reason
Pros: - Great cinematography and graphics - Respectably true to the source material - Rorschach is awesome - Acting (for the major character) matches what I expected
Cons: - Looses some people with so many plot elements happening and sometimes not in chronological order - Theater version will be worse that the DVD due to time constraints - Some "slow" parts but if you like the source material you wont mind as much - Could have been better if they didn't follow the exact timeline as the book rather than jumping around as much.
OK so I read the novel about 2 months before I saw this movie so everything was pretty fresh in my head... and in my opinion this movie represented the book very well considering how much content is jammed packed into the novel. For example... A good deal of the back story dealing with the minute-men was packaged into the opening credits; the issue with this is that I understood what I was seeing but an average viewer would miss the context. Think of it this way... this movie has trouble standing upright without instruction and the graphic novel provides the manual.
**SPOILERS** One thing I though the movie captured rather well was the "mood" of the novel. I say this because I saw the movie with someone who hadn't read the novel... and they were shocked at parts like the Comedian shooting JFK and the pregnant girl. Granted those things we're horrible but thats the point; hes a "hero" and supposedly greater than everyone else yet is actually more evil - as opposed to most comic heroes that have small personality problems at most. Also, the representation of the popular characters were close if not exact to what I had visualized when I read the novel. Rorschach was perfect - voice, psychotic mood, mannerisms. Comedian and Night Owl II were right on, and Dr. Manhattan was just as emotionless/detached as I had hoped. The rest I don't care as much about.
Another note, I actually like the ending of the movie better than the book. A) the movie ending better facilitated the plot's translation to the screen. Given some giant squid thing would have seem out of place related to the rest of the movie material. B) The movie ending had the same effect as the novel ending. Plus it offered a more reasonable future for Dr. Manhattan.
-AX