Watchmen Movie: Too Literal a Translation

OK I just saw Watchmen last night. Hmmmm. Well, there are some things that just don’t translate well to the big screen and Watchmen, I have to say, is one of them. It's a shame as it was a really good read originally. I do have an opinion though as to why the movie didn’t do it for me. Watchmen, the graphic novel, is quite heavy in exposition and back stories, see? The movie pretty much translated the book in sequential order. The film makers did not condense that many parts (the movie runs for almost 3 hours!) and it really bogged down the pace of the film. I watched it with my female cousin who does not read comic books but loved the X-Men and Batman movies and she thought Watchmen was a very boring movie.

I think what makes the comic book ‘better’ is that with comics or any printed literature for that matter, if you sort of miss a bit of the plot, all you have to do is turn back a few pages and re-read. While watching the movie, I was always thinking, “Man, if I hadn’t read the book I’d be totally lost right now.”

So yes, the Watchmen movie is not great and is just ok. In fact I would say it's a disappointment.  It’s stylish, violent, with some very good performances but do yourself a favour and read the book instead :)