Review of Watchmen (2009) by Timn. — 07 Mar 2009
VERY underwhelming compared to the book.
On its own, it's solid. But compared to the book...ech. Nearly all of the themes and messages were either diluted or totally wiped out, too many important scenes cut out, too rushed (I'd probably be somewhat confused midway without reading the book beforehand), parts of the narrative changed for no reason , too much emphasis on slo-mo Hollywood action which WASN'T the book's emphasis, too much gratuitous gore and sex compared to the book (its isolated moments of emphasis in the book made it stand out when it needed to), etc.
Of course, I shouldn't be surprised. The amount of content in the book is way too much for 2h40m (still pretty lengthy for contemporary films), and its narrative structure is much too complex to translate to the screen...it's true, though: Watchmen is unfilmable, both in the amount of content to show and the way in which the narrative is constructed. Unless you make it 6 hours long, you will NOT end up with Watchmen. Actually, scratch that--you'll never equal the original, no matter what.
Oh well. Snyder made a good effort.
This review of Watchmen (2009) was written by Timn. on 07 Mar 2009.
Watchmen has generally received positive reviews.
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