As a fan of the graphic novel, I have to say the Watchmen movie is nothing short of excellent. At the extreme risk of sounding superior, I think only an idiot or major snob can seriously pan this film. It takes its sweet time and you don't get to just turn your brain off. Anyone who is unfamiliar with the comic, I can't stress enough not to think of Watchmen as a superhero film.

And, seriously? The squid is not important. The idea behind it is, and that was loud and clear in the film.

Well, I am immensely happy.

EDIT: I have more to say.



24 hours later, and I'm still thinking about this film. When I get obsessed like this, I spend a lot of time reading reviews and reactions. And now I have more specific points to mention.

As far as appealing to fans and the uninitiated, I think it did a great job walking the line. I first read Watchmen 4 years ago, because I had enjoyed V for Vendetta (both the film and graphic novel). My mother is unfamiliar with the comic, and seemed to expect just a superhero film. We both walked out of the theater immensely satisfied, carrying on a lengthy and rather insightful discussion about it initiated by my mother, and we both want to see it again. I thought it was interesting my mother had the same reaction to Watchmen as she did to The Matrix - she always told me she saw the film, thought about it for days, and went back again to see it in theaters.

On the length: it felt just right to me, maybe could have been a little longer (I await the extra 30 minutes of the Director's Cut). Mom was not turned off by the running time, and afterwards thought the length was fine - said, at most, ten minutes could be cut out, mainly in regards to the sex scene, the Nite Owl/Ozymandias/Rorschach fight, and the last scene on Mars. (To be clear: not to cut out the scenes, but trim them down.)

The sex scene: When it comes to sex scenes, the best a film can hope for is for me to be unfazed. Most tend to be gratuitous and awkward to watch. I didn't squirm or get bored or feel annoyed. It felt like it belonged in the film. Could they have faded to black/cut right to the Archie flame!jizz? Sure. But I think the sex scene, more than any other part of the film, emphasizes the importance of not taking Watchmen out of its cultural context. The comic had superheroes having sex, gasp! This is not so shocking in a movie. The film went: "We could fade to black, but we're going to show the entire sex scene. And we're not going to take it seriously!" I got a huge kick out of "Hallelujah" playing in the background with the crazy O faces. It was refreshing, in its greater context. It's only campy if you ignore it and take it at face value. (Gosh, this reminds me of the reactions to Dollhouse.)

By the way, I loved the nudity. Full-frontal, male and female, blue or otherwise =)

The violence: I was taken by surprise by the sheer brutality and gore of the fight scenes. I watch the Saw films religiously, and I was still flinching. Out of its cultural context, it's just gratuitous gore. Within context, it's shining a light on the violence encountered in superhero films. Seeing bone ripping through flesh and muscle? Makes you stop and think. And in that vein, the rape scene was handled very well.

New ending: At the very least, equally good as the original's. Arguably better. It doesn't come out of no where - though Bubastis does, because of the change. After some thought, my only complaint is that there isn't enough time spent on the mass destruction and death, to let it sink in; either there should have been blood, gore, and dead bodies as in the comic (those pages are burned into my mind), or we should have seen the other cities besides New York being destroyed. Considering the rest of the film put emphasis on the effects of violence, it rushes through this part and it's, uh, kind of important we get that punch in the gut.

Other changes: There were an assortment of small changes that showed that Snyder knew what the hell he was doing, as they only served to enhance the story. Starting with the Comedian's death, great. Silk Spectre getting a few good hits in rather than just scratching the Comedian made a lot more sense. The opening? Brilliant! My favorite changes occurred at the end - Dan and Laurie don't wander off and inexplicably have sex. Nite Owl seeing Rorschach's death, then beating up Veidt, who won't fight back, got across the emotion of the events much better than in the comic.

Acting: I have to praise the actors - they really show how film differs from comics. I was surprised to see complaints about Laurie's actor. Now, I don't remember anything particularly stand-out about her performance, but she never took me out of the story. Of course, Rorschach was pure perfection. Period. Dr. Manhattan, I had expected a different voice, but that soothing, distant, almost sad voice is, well...perfect. And his expressions matched; he got across a lot of subtlety despite being under layers of "blue pajamas" and special effects. I think I'll start calling myself a Jeffrey Dean Morgan fangirl now; not only did he go from Denny (aww, Denny ;_;) to murdering rapist, he got across his humanity when needed, and never played it too heavy-handed. And, finally, Dan/Nite Owl was a pleasant surprise. I liked him fine in the novel, but his consistently dorky/loser behavior really endeared him to me. Not a flashy part like the other three, but he embodied the character as well as the others.

So, once again: Loved it. Could we have gotten a better film? In theory, sure, even though this is like a 9.9/10. But in practice, this is as close to perfection as we can get.