Watchmen review
Watchmen too slavishly follows Alan Moore’s original, brilliant comic book mini-series. Any audacious complaints that the film didn’t include this bit or that bit (already heard ‘em) are completely unreasonable; the film is long enough as it is. The one very significant difference is not only necessary but clever, even ingenious. Purists should be more than happy, but film adaptations, so frequently criticised, are just that; adaptations for a different medium, not books in visual form.
Although it would have benefited from a firmer eye on the craft of filmmaking (the copious amounts of narration in the first half of the film is cheating), this is a quality film. With the helping hand of a budget the size of Dr. Manhattan’s intellect, the world of the Watchmen, down to the smallest of details, is fantastically realised.
Criticisms aside (there are more; wooden acting, OTT sound design), director Zack Snyder should be commended and it is hard to imagine that anyone else could have done a significantly better job.
7th Mar 2009
