Entertaining enough, but a little disappointing.

Rating: 6/10 (25 July 2009)

I was very excited for this movie, as I had read the graphic novel it was based on, and loved it. I went in realizing that it would be different from the book of course, but this movie made some serious mistakes in casting that really took away from how great the story was.
They paid a lot of attention to the camera-work and effects, which were excellent, and kind of reminiscent of Sin City. They also followed the storyline really well for the most part, and did a great job portraying the journal entries and flashbacks featured in the book to explain more about the story and the background behind the characters and the setting. The worst part about this movie was the casting. Decent enough actors, but a lot of them, especially Night Owl and the Silk Spectre just didn't connect very well to their characters, which really took away from the whole movie and made it hard to enjoy. Some of them just seemed like they were reading lines, without any real emotion or understanding of what they were about. The book is a very complex, emotional tale, that really intertwines with the development of the different characters' lives, backgrounds, and psychology, which just wasn't captured the way it should have been by these actors. I've seen some of them in other films which were really good, so I don't necessarily think it was a lack of talent... just a major disconnect with the meaning and feeling of the storyline.
It's still an entertaining movie, and I'd probably watch it again, but overall, I was pretty disappointed that it wasn't as good as it really should have been.