Watchmen

Viewed: Theater

I saw this opening weekend, but I’m just now getting around to commenting on it — surely you don’t wait for my review/comments before going to see a movie. In a broad stroke: I loved it.

I even think the movie is better than the graphic novel. The movie cut out all the extraneous stuff, condensed the stories to their essences, and wrapped up the ending in a much more logical way. Nothing necessary is missing from the movie, and a lot of the unnecessary from the novel was wisely left out.

The actors were spot on, near perfect choices (although movie Dreiberg is in better physical shape than novel, retired hero Dreiberg), and their performances were damn good and accurate, too. I actually came to like The Comedian, even though he’s still a very bad man. I liked Rorschach a lot in the book, but I absolutely loved him in the movie.

Other than the cut out bits (thank goodness), the movie is pretty close to being a frame-by-frame duplicate of the graphic novel panels. What may look like something gratuitous or meaningless to a watcher who hasn’t read the novel, is a pretty cool and honorable image taken right from the pages.

I went back a week later and watched this movie a second time. The second time felt a little long in places, but I didn’t feel that the first time. I can’t think of anything bad in this movie. And the only things different from the book are better in the movie.

I’ll buy this on DVD when it comes out. And that’s saying something, because I only have about a dozen movies on DVD. I don’t buy movies unless they really strike a cord with me and I want to see them again and again.

Bullgrit