Faithful To A Fault

Rating: 5/10 (25 November 2019)

I feel pretty confident in saying that the book was better. I don't remember who said it, or where I heard it, but there's an argument against comic book adaptations because while yes, it's a visual medium, the images you see are carefully constructed. They are designed to convey power, weight, and emotion all within a single, efficient, story-moving frame. You do not need to see the connecting actions between frames because your brain fills them in for you. Imagine how a comic book would portray a noggin-smashing uppercut. On the page, you would find the punch at its most kinetic. All that is captured is the climax, and that's all that is needed. Comics are albums of photos all taken at precisely the right moment.
In a film, you have to deal with the wind-up and consequences of that uppercut. There's more room for error. The images onscreen don't match up with the ones constructed in your head. That's no criticism of the film itself, but it's an example of the inherent folly of trying to directly adapt a comic book page by page, as Zack Snyder did here.
I do think Watchmen deserved to be put on the big screen but I also think it deserved something more than a close copy. The comic is wordy, heavily rooted in its own philosophy, with frequent divergences to various characters' backstories. It is, quite simply, a novel, and copying that into a film without jumbling the structure up a little or inventing new scenes for the screen is a risky business, even if it is 3 hours long.
I'm not sure that anyone who hasn't read the story is going to know what the hell is going on for large stretches of time, as there is a ton of world building to do and no time to do it. There's no time for the audience to just sit with the page and take in all the details of the images, as you can with the comic. Things come and they go, as movies do, and this one feels a little overstuffed with detail.
It felt like the film was talking at me for 3 hours instead of easing me into the world, even as a book reader. I just think that could have been cleaned up.
When the performances are decent, the movie can settle into a good rhythm. But Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan is too weak to convey his power and disaffection with humanity. Similarly, Matthew Goode, neither in his appearance nor his performance sells Ozymandias as his physically perfect, frustratingly intelligent comic likeness.
There is a major change in the story's climax that strikes me as wholly unnecessary, but it keeps in line with the themes so it isn't outright sacrilege, but it's pretty lame.
I'm glad this exists. The original story is truly a masterwork and no amount of Zack Snyder can keep that brilliance from shining through. The film is just a bit tiring on the brain is all, and for that I am thankful I didn't decide to go with the Ultimate Cut on this viewing.