Oops, a little late. Let’s hope I get my Star Trek review up a little faster.
People keep saying that this movie was twenty years in the making, but really it only started in 2006 when Zack Snyder officially signed onto the project. And in my eyes, Snyder is the main reason this movie was so good. Another reason being Alex Tse’s ability to alter the ending, possibly the most crucial part of the story, and turn it into something that still resonated powerfully with the audience. But I’ll get to that later…
Watchmen is a good three hour movie and you certainly get your moneys worth in those seemingly short three hours. Which is nothing for this movie, it could have been six hours and I’d still be happy as a pig in shit. However, for all its success and glory, no movie can cross my path without some criticism and Watchmen is certainly not immune to flaws. (Although its pretty damn close to perfect.)
(If this thing doesn’t win any awards I will cut someone.)
My biggest complaint is Malin Akerman. It’s not that she’s a bad actress, she’s pretty talented so this is no fault of hers (well, much of it, anyway.) Instead I’d like to point some angry fingers at the casting directors, even Snyder himself, for casting her in the role of Silk Spectre II. Akerman’s acting dilemma resembled that of Kirstin Dunst in Spiderman and Katie Holms in Batman Begins. Here’s why these girls will always do poorly in comic book movies: They are not nerds. They are not geeks. They don’t have boxes of comics still stashed in their parents’ basements, they don’t have figurines poised preciously next to their wedding albums and they wont dress their kids in ‘newb’ shirts.
These movies aren’t just standard silver screen adaptations, they are our childhoods on the big screen. Its not that comic to movie projects in the past weren’t good, the original Superman movies are sweet and the first two Batman movies were pretty cool (however the coolness ends there, my friends). But now us geeks who read all these comic books as kids are finally old enough to actually start making those movies.
So when you cast Jeffery Dean Morgan in a role like the Comedian there’s a damn fine chance that he read Watchmen and fell in love with it too. When you put Christian Bale into the Batman’s mask, you know he’s read or at least heard of the Batman series and is geeked to be behind that mask making any 14 year old geeks wet dream come true. But when you put someone who has said in interviews that she never read Watchmen (or Spiderman or Batman)… you are doing a disservice to all the hot female geeks who, even with no acting experience, could have mastered that role far better than Akerman.
Another complaint was the pacing. I know it was a three hour movie and there had to be sacrifices for this to come to reality at all, but if you hadn’t read Watchmen before seeing the movie it was probably pretty disjointed, jerky and strange. There’s a lot missing between Dr. Manhattan and Janey, there’s even stuff about Rorschach that got left out in the name of time limit. Having read the book I know what those missing pieces are so I could fill in the blanks myself. But someone coming to see it without that knowledge would undoubtedly be confused and maybe even a little irritated.
And this isn’t really a fault of the movie in my opinion. Watchmen would have had to be a two part saga in order to cram everything into a movie. Even with a three hour run time they still released a companion DVD of the Black Freighter (which makes no sense if you haven’t read it) that adds to the poignancy of the themes.
One more teeny thing… and as much as it pains me to say it, my fingers are jabbing Snyder for this one. Don’t get me wrong, I adored the fighting in this movie but did there have to be so much of it, Zack? We all know he can rock a fight sequence but is it possible that he maybe spent a little more time on it in Watchmen than was absolutely necessary? Yes. Probably.
But overall the movie was fantastic. There’s a slight chance my love for comic books is getting in the way of my ability to critique this movie much more, but can you blame me? Watchmen isn’t just a comic book, its the most intriguing and truthful social commentary out there. Coming out as a movie in this world could have been risky, but they did it with style and some grace.
One stray observation:
-The last shot of New York being reconstructed included the towers. You couldn’t fill an entire movie with three hours of political commentary and make the same powerful statement that that one shot makes.
I had a ton of linkspam for this post but it all seems to have disappeared. Since its going up a MONTH late I think you’ll live without it.
I knew I was going to love this book and its about my 2nd favorite character so I loved it even more. It has a different feel from Ink Exchange, but how could it not? FE takes me back to thr first story and expands the universe and character set (and abilities!) to ultimately expand the series. Normally I get a bad taste in my mouth when a book ends with a notable reference to the next one and with no real closing for the story within… but I can’t freaking wait for the next book!!
The book 
