This isn't a review for people who want to see the movie. Spoilers will be involved.



After years of sitting on the side saying that a Watchmen film could never be compressed into a movie, Zack Snyder decided to prove me wrong. For his efforts he did indeed do that. In what felt like a Lord of the Rings style lengthy movie he really tried to make the Watchmen work.

I went to see the film with two other people. One had just read the book that day, the other had never read the book with myself not having read the thing in a few years. I have to say out of all three I'm the only one who seemed to enjoy the movie for what it tried to do. It tried to be Watchmen. It just wasn't any of our idea of Watchmen.

One of the biggest additions to the movie was Nixon's involvement in the story. From him we got the Doomsday clock or whatever they referred to it as in the movie. It's basically a clock (with a standard watch face) that counts down to midnight. At the stroke of midnight will signal nuclear holocaust. Its a vague metaphor that never really seems to make sense and is too on the nose for anybody who enjoyed the writing that Alan Moore does. It is a bad metaphor that stems from the role that the newspaper vendor played in the book. He was the one that brought us into the gravity of how the world was and the ultimate signal for when the Cold War was to come at its highest. His scenes were the obvious first choice to being removed, but what replaced him failed to show the gravity and tension of the Cold War.



My second gripe would have to be the audio. I actually think that Zack Snyder made some of the parts in the film quite enjoyable with some songs that he used. However he didn't succeed in every scene. In the weirdest scene I've ever had to sit through was hearing Hallelujah pumped through the speakers while Night Owl and Silk Specter II made love on Archie. It was either intentionally funny or unintentionally so, but it still was weird. It didn't help that the scene was arguably too long unecessarily.

Characterization throughout the movie fluctuated. Ozymandias wasn't any fun to watch until the big fight at the end. The Comedian did a fairly decent job. Every part where they expanded on him or showed some emotion with him felt awkward, he did however nail every scene he had to fight through. His fight with Ozymandias was fantastic and everything I had hoped. Dr. Manhattan was too soft spoken for me personally. Not that he shouldn't be, but that I would never believe Manhattan would allow himself to be so soft as to deal with other people to leaning in to hear him. I had to do that more than a few times and it didn't fit the character. Silk Specter I (the agent from Entourage that slept with Vince) was too young to be an old lady in make up and demeanor. She also was flirting with The Comedian way more than she should have before he raped her. Silk Specter II was also unnecessarily flirtatious. She never flirted with Night Owl II before the alley fight. She did however in the movie. Night Owl I was underused completely. His book had no meaning on the story where in the book it was the whole backdrop into the lives of the Watchmen. Night Owl II was amazingly awkward. I feel like he should be, but then I feel like maybe it was just bad casting. In other words he felt too awkward. Last but not least is Rorschach. I was a little over critical of Jackie Earle Haley before the film. He didn't impress me through 3/4 of the movie, but nearly everything from the moment of his capture felt like I had seen Rorschach come to life. That was the Rorschach I wanted to see on the big screen and that's what I got, but only really for that one scene. His alter ego Walter Kovacs was never fully flushed out and the ominous The End is Nigh scenes were fully overwhelming, because they focused way too much on this man that was basically a back drop with no pressence in the book, and every time he was showed on screen, we were made to stop and focus on him. The violence that Rorschach caused however was pretty on the nose.



This was a brutal movie for action scenes. Somewhat unnecessarily so. There are only four people that should have killed somebody in this movie. Rorschach in the name of Justice, The Comedian showing the Joke that is humanity, Dr. Manhattan to preserve humanity and Ozymandias in perverting justice. Silk Specter II killed a thug by jamming a knife in his throat. Night Owl broke a lot of people's bones in awkward positions. Dr. Manhattan just went around frying mobsters and Vietnamese. Rorschach killed a few people in manners that were obscenely violent. Splitting the pedophile's skull open with a meat cleaver numerous times just didn't seem like the Rorschach that I knew. It was pointed out to me later that the man was supposed to be burned alive in the same manner the girl was incinerated instead. While on that, it was a little on the nose to have her foot dangling from the bone that the dog's were fighting over. We all knew what the dog's fought over.

These were some of the main gripes:
The menage-a-trois wasn't done right with hand placements in weird positions and Dr. Manhattan saying I thought this is what you liked instead of I thought this is what would please you
Lack of Dr. Manhattan's devolution of costume showing his withdrawal from humanity
Night Owl had a cape when he said specifically he made his costume without the cape due to dollar bills death.
There was no progression of change in outfits for the heroes.
The reveal of Janey Slater was ridiculous and down played the feelings she truly had for Dr. Manhattan.
The revelation of The Comedian as Silk Specter II's father was so poorly done that it made it more obvious than interesting.
They showed Silk Specter I and her husband's fight multiple times. This didn't need to happen and it revealed the punch line too early in the story. So it just turned into a bad joke.
Night Owl I lives whereas that moment is what propels Night Owl II to break Rorschach out of jail as it brings to light the validity of the Mask Killer theory for Night Owl II.

All that aside the movie did bring some really cool parts:
Night Owl II in the Snow Owl outfit was really cool as opposed to his lame brown costume.
The violence with its extremities aside was still some of the best fight scene direction I've seen in a while.
Archie was really cool looking.
Dr Manhattan looked really cool crashing through the Antarctic reactor.

Also, there was no Squid and even though that would have been cool there was a fairly reasonable script change. Not brilliant but pretty good as far as script changes go.

Overall its a C grade movie that came from A grade material. Its not at all a bad movie. Its not a really good movie. Its better than what I thought Watchmen would be but worse than what I wanted it to be.