Watchmen

I finally watched "Watchmen".

It was generally faithful to the graphic novel as I remember it, which will please the fans. Seeing these characters move on screen is what fanboys and girls often dream of when they read a comic book that they love.

The result of this verbatim adaption however was a rather long film which emphasized style over actual story telling. I felt that it lacked creativity. I think that a graphic novel tells a story in a different way than a film does, and some elements of the comic book do not translate well on film. The character narration for example was very confusing. Since I've read the graphic novel, I already know what is happening -- but for someone to be introduced to this story via the movie, it is very hard to follow. The director also literally followed the sequence of the comic book -- a work that was serialized over 12 issues. It was information overload for almost 3 hours. At some point, I felt like I would rather just read the comics since the film added nothing but so-what special effects we've all seen before. At least with the comic book, I can put it down and read it later if I get tired -- and more importantly think for myself instead of listening to a script that tells me what I'm supposed to be thinking. So -- I liked the film, but at same time, I feel that it would have benefited from a fresh re-visioning on screen instead of a literal translation.

And now for some bad stuff. The soundtrack utterly failed for me. The gratuitous music backgrounds raging from "99 Luftballons" to "Hallelujah" were quite distracting throughout. If this is how the director envisioned how to enhance the "Watchmen" experience for us, then he is simply a hack. There is a scene where the Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II are having sex that is unintentionally funny. Dr. Manhattan's blue penis is also a distraction. Again, another so-what. Seeing a naked blue guy on screen just elicited giggles from the audience and nothing else. Also: Not enough Bubastis!

Finally, I noticed that Alan Moore, the writer of the comic, was never mentioned in the credits. I just found out now researching why this is so, that he refused to attach his name to the film. He said: "There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can't." I will have to agree.