Alan Moore was right...

Rating: 5/10 (8 March 2009)

One way reading (books or graphic novels) differ from movies is that they don't rely on motion. Continuous motion. With books you can digest the words and pictures and absorb their meaning at a pace that permits you to develop your own understanding at your OWN pace. Its how really complicated stories get told very well. Watchmen as a graphic novel is second to none and both in its original monthly format and in its compiled form, lets you go back, re-read, examine the art, embrace the connections and the meaning. Movies can achieve a similar feeling but because they are slave to time (unlike Dr. Manhattan) the information is ALWAYS coming at you, never giving you any time to really appreciate the gravity of any particular scene. I have to agree with the folk who couldn't stand it, even though I think it was very well made, sadly it fails completely in providing the gravitas that the graphic novel does because its creators fail to realize that you cannot just translate these things shot for shot. It just doesn't work. Neither does this movie. (and the violence was just pointless and groan inducing, way too much and it totally detracted from the high-brow story.) Bleh.