Loved the book, almost hated the movie

Rating: 4/10 (22 March 2009)

I went to see the movie this weekend and must admit I ended up almost hating it (yes, I've read the book... several times even). The main cause for me not liking the movie at all, is because almost every message in the novel doesn't come across well because of bad acting or because it just plainly isn't there. Jackie Earle Haley was very good playing Rorschach, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Patrick Wilson were OK, but the rest failed IMHO.
Ah well, to make my comment pleasantly readable I'll provide a quick summary of good & bad points:
THE GOOD:

The visuals were pretty good (except for Antarctica and Mars).

THE BAD:

Movie pace didn't feel right... some parts felt dreadfully slow & some rushed;

Apart from the movie score itself, terrible choice of music that didn't fit the scenes mood-wise;

The people in the city come across as 0 dimensional characters with no opinion, because lack of dialogue. This has serious consequences for the viewer caring about the movie's ending;

Overall, the acting reminded me of an average soap opera. The words coming out of some people's mouths didn't sound convincing (especially Malin Akerman did a poor job);

A lot of important themes in the book were not presented in the right manner, also some were non-present (fe. discrimination);

Too much unnecessary violence that didn't suit the characters (fe. Dan & Laurie bluntly killing their assailants in the alley fight). Zack Snyder appears to have some kind of gore fetish;

The main characters all possess superhuman strength (fe. Laurie kicking someone 7 yards back denting a dumpster), making them unbelievable as ordinary people;

(Minor) plot holes (the origin of Bubastis, Dr Manhatten's powers & the exact reasons for the Comedian getting killed unexplained);

Character changes (Ozymandias is depicted as an evil villain by, among other things, getting people purposely shot in the Veidt hall scene);

The easter eggs were a bit too much, badly affecting the seriousness of some of the film's messages (saw at least two 300 references + Veidt's computer has a map called 'BOYS' ?? Come on, he's too focused on his master plan to be messing around with sh*t like that & if anything, he should be depicted as asexual);

*MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD* Altered ending didn't make much sense... the countries are supposed to join forces against a God having the power to obliterate the entire Earth with a single snap of the fingers? The book's ending was a way more thought through, reasonable, plan.

I really wanted to like this movie and was looking forward to seeing it, but alas...
RATING: 4 out of 10