Hurm… my thoughts on Watchmen

Confession time; I’ve never read Watchmen.

Of course I do own 3 copies of it. When I got back into comics in 2005, it was the first comic I bought but it fell to the wayside as I attempted to get caught up with the current stack of on-going comics. After Watchmen was announced as a movie, I had made a mental note to read it before 3/9/2009. As early reviews started coming in, I decided it was best to not read the book and wait until after the movie. As involved with comics as I am, I’ve managed to completely distance myself with knowing anything about the Watchmen as possible. Its something I’ve always wanted to read and have tried not to spoil it for myself. Up until seeing the movie 2 days ago, the only thing I knew about the Watchmen was that some people skip the pirate parts when reading it.

To get right to it, I loved Watchmen. The movie is smart, brutal, political and sexy. While it’s a long movie it never felt long and I attribute this to the brilliant story. The first hour of the movie I felt was the weakest part. Most of the setup falls victim to the task of bringing the comic book pages to life. I could tell the timeline was straight from a book, a comic book none the less, as things jumped around too much for a linear medium like cinema. Once the second hour started and scenes in the past started to feel more like flashbacks and storytelling devices, I got invested in the story and everything started to flow much smoother. I could also tell there a certain level of depth missing from the movie. I can’t really explain it and I guess I won’t really know for sure until I read it but it just felt like the movie was only scratching the surface. As far as the acting went, Rorschach’s performance is on par, if not better than Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. In the end, I think all the actors did a great job. I was a little cold to Dr Manhattan and Silk Specter when they were introduced but as their characters got fleshed out a little, they fell right into the part. Favorite part of the movie, “Hitler was a vegetarian.”

Watchmen as a movie was a complete success for me. In the end it made me want to go home and read the book which is the greatest thing the movie could have done. I just hope it will have the same effect on others. I plan on going to see the movie again once I’ve read the book to see if my thoughts has changed. My guess is I’m going to like the movie more as I’ll realize the movie is really just a companion piece.

I’m off the start reading the Watchmen.