Watchmen - the Movie

No matter what the date says on this post, it's March 8th and I just went to see the Watchmen movie yesterday. I was actually really excited about this. I haven't been this excited about a movie since Batman: the Dark Knight came out. I was buying books when the original Watchmen series first came out . . 1982, I think. Anyways, at the time it was one of the most original pieces of work that anyone had seen in quite a while. Dave Gibbons did a tremendous job on the artwork, but really it was Alan Moore's story that sold the book. However, being freshly out of High School, newly married, kid on the way and working my ass off to pay for it all . . at the time I didn't really appreciate the context and implications of it all. To me it just seemed like another George Orwell type story . . Nineteen Eighty-Four. I knew it was different, and I knew that I liked it, but it didn't all sink in. Anyways, years later . . I'm not sure when . . I decided I needed to reread it. But since it was so wildly successful I didn't want to pull out the original comics so for the first time I bought myself a TPB. This time I appreciated the story a lot more and really understood it and what it was suggesting a lot better. Now, in my telling you about the movie I can honestly say that there's really no need for a spoiler alert. If you read the book, you know exactly what happened. It was practically panel for panel. However, since it had been so long since I perused it, there were some scenes that surprised me. First of all, I'm surprised that they had Dr. Manhattan's big blue dick swinging around on the screen the whole movie. I mean, it wasn't always there, but . . you saw it a lot. Secondly, I had completely forgot about the rape scene. I'm glad they didn't go to far with that one. I thought for sure my wife was going to make us get up and leave at that point. It was bad enough seeing Silk Stalking beaten up as bad as she was. And finally the movie was a lot grittier and gorier than I thought it would be. I know that's how the book was, but . . I just didn't think that the movie would be that graphic. At least now I know why it was rated R. I was wondering about that ahead of time. None of that took away from my enjoyment of the movie, but . . it was just some things that I noticed. I was also concerned that my wife, not being a huge comic-fan, would feel that the movie was dragging. Even in my eyes, it did drag a bit. But, all of those stories and flashbacks were necessary to inform the viewer about these characters. I was kind of surprised also at the relevance of the story-line in today's world. As I was watching the movie I found myself wondering whether or not Alan Moore would've liked his dream coming to life. Well, actually . . whether or not he'll enjoy this adaptation of it. I know he wasn't happy with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or V for Vendetta, but . . this one was actually very close to the original version. My only concern is that what Alan was trying to accomplish here doesn't seem as cutting edge as it did when it first came out, and . . the story-line was a bit dated. But that could be just because I saw the original. Overall I enjoyed the movie tremendously. I thought it was a great achievement. It's one of those movies, and stories, that makes you think. I'm glad they stuck to the original ending, rather than trying to 'sugar-coat' it. Even my wife, whom I was unsure whether she would actually like it or not, talked about it the rest of the night and even today. This is one I'll definitely be picking up on Blu-ray when it comes out.