Watchmen comparison

You know what, I was planning out a grand discussion on the comparitive differences between the Watchmen movie and comic, but it's just too hard to do that without ruining the story for people.

So I'll just summarise my thoughts thusly.

1. It is a GOOD MOVIE. It is not a perfect movie, there is alot I would have prefered to see done differently (both to bring it a little closer to the comic, drop things that were completely unnecessary, or just improve the quality of the movie generally).

2. It needed about a third of the songs taken out. Sometimes silence says more then an 80's soundtrack does. It feels to me like the Director paid for the rights to a mess of songs, then thought they wouldn't be getting their money's worth if they didn't use them all.

3. The ending has changed, yes Watchmen fans I know, it sounds like sacrilege. But I will risk your wrath by saying: I Prefer this ending. The one in the comic feels a bit "Hey dude, fuck the what?", whereas this does feel more like a dastardly scheme with the best of intentions.

4. Nite Owl, my previously mentioned favourite character, has more characterisation in this movie. It works well, I think. Plus the actor they got for him did an amazing job in my view. He went from powerless human to powerful masked crusader very smoothly.

5. They did an admirable job of covering all the backstory, I doubt they could have done it better without tacking an extra 30 minutes on an already enormous movie, but still I get the feeling someone who'd never read the Watchmen would be a bit out of their depth.

6. They kinda give away the Silk Specter twist a little early, in my view. Anyone with half a mind could work it out well in advance of it being worked out.

7. The actor playing Rorshach did an admirable job of seeming like a threatening bastard, despite being about 5 foot 6.

8. There are alot of little hints in the movie that they not only paid tribute to some of the miniplots (the news vender and comic reading kid), but probably filmed alot more then they showed with them. I'm looking forward to the extended edition DVD (which according to rumours is going to have the Black Ship plot in it, voiced by the dude who played Leonidas from 300).



Final thoughts? I'd like to see Zack Snyder try to direct something where the entire movie hasn't already been storyboarded for him in a comic. Just for some variety.