I watch the watchmen.

So, this post relates to the Watchmen movie,  I really enjoyed it.  Having just finished reading the graphic novel less than 48 hours before seeing the film, I was in a good position to directly compare the film to the graphic novel.  I felt it was an accurate enough adaptation of the source material, but at the same time took enough liberties to make it work as a movie in 2009.  I find it amazing that these classic graphic novel adaptions of late, such as Sin City, 300, V for Vendetta and now Watchmen, are able to take the text from these books and make it work in a movie... for the most part.  Some of the dialogue is obviously a little awkward when it makes the transfer from the page to the screen, but it kinda works as a style choice.

One thing that I find interesting is that everyone I know who has read the book, LOVES the movie.  But, I've heard a few people who have not read the book who simply don't understand what it is... which makes a lot of sense, because its not as much of a movie, as it is a direct interpretation of the literature, making it sort of irrelevant to anyone not familiar with the source material.  Its pretty interesting that whoever financed this movie... actually financed this movie. Because its so clearly for such a small niche of people who have read the book.  It seems that anyone who has not read it and enjoys the movie, has to be viewed as a bonus and not a calculable factor in the decisions that took place in order to have this movie made.  

I will now discuss the ending.

***SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER*****

There's not a huge space squid from another dimension at the end of the movie.  This is sort of a big deal to me.  While the film's ending makes sense, and definitely fits the film thematically... it is pretty dramatically different than the ending of the graphic novel.  I guess, it could be said that the film's ending makes too much sense.  What I mean by that is that it doesn't have the pure shock value that the ending of the book has.  In the book the graphic destruction of new york city sprawled across the huge splash pages at the beginning of chapter 12 was only half of the shock.  The other half was that there was a huge fucking squid that you were unable to see all of in one frame.  While I understand this would have been incredibly difficult to do with any degree of accuracy in a film, at least while maintaining any degree of realism.  It would have been nearly an impossible task to keep the audience on board and expect them to keep their suspension of disbelief, with a giant squid on screen.  Perhaps Alan Moore was right, the material is "unfilmable".  Maybe the movie should not have been made.  

But at the same time, Im glad it was.  

What a ride. 

5/5 stars