True to its origins

Rating: 7/10 (6 March 2009)

I don't think that Watchmen creator Alan Moore could find much to complain about in this rendition of his best-selling graphic novel. Neither will it disappoint moviegoers. It's packed with enough action, romance, and conspiracy to make sure of that.
Throughout the first half of the movie, it seems almost a frame-for-frame copy of the graphic novel that started it all (except for the pirate sub-plot, which will be available as a separate animated movie). While this is sure to please the purists, I found the inclusion and precise plotting of the film to be sometimes tedious and sometimes smacking of artistic cowardice. Movies need to respect the original books from which their inspired, but they also need to introduce something new--and that shouldn't just be graphics and special effects.
I guess I left the theater dissatisfied because I wanted a little more. I wanted the movie to answer some long-nagging questions, such as how does Rorsarch's mask work? I also wanted it to add narrative flashbacks to the characters instead of relying so heavily on character conversation. After all, aren't movies supposed to show and not tell?