My, Very Personal, Watchmen Review

After watching the movie I decided I was not going to talk about it, but since everybody feels like they must weigh in, my silence seems disapproving... so here it is. I've read the novel about three times. I don't consider myself a 'fanboy' but I really enjoyed it and its themes and it is everything I want in a super hero story. How do these new powers affect your sense of humanity? If you don't have powers how do you justify your 'caped crusader' persona and once you've been doing it for a while, how do you deal with not being able to do it anymore? All this being said. The book has a lot of time to really show desperation. The book has a lot of time to develop the characters. The killing of Hollis Mason was very important in my view of showing who the Night Owl II is and then there's the glaring omission was Rorschach's monologue when he becomes Rorschach. These scenes made the book for me. I, however, read the book. I know and like many of these characters already. While having some conversations with some people that have not had this priviledge before it has come to my attention that it just doesn't translate well into any other medium. Something Alan Moore has been saying all along. You don't need to tell the origin story of any of these characters but you have to tell us enough so that we know what they are fighting for, this is the most important part when coming to the `twist` at  the end. I felt like none of this was there. The characters were presented, some backstory was given. They were each given a simple motivation and then they continued with the movie. All this being said, this is my review of Watchmen: Zack Snyder's Watchmen is the closest thing to Alan Moore's Watchmen you will ever get. I believe it gives you enough insight into the Watchmen universe that if you like the film and you see the book (which is like $20 on amazon right now) you can get it and be amazed all over with how complex these characters really are. It is also a piece that stand's on its own as a violent (perhaps too violent?), dirty, and morally ambiguous portrayal of super heroes. This is a trend that is developing and is something The Dark Knight started doing as well. Knowing Hollywood we were lucky it was Zack Snyder who ended up doing this. We could have ended up with a half-baked story that kept nothing from the original manuscript (Tonight He Comes -> Hancock , I'm looking at you). What we ended up with was so close to the source material most of the complaints are that all of the source material isn't there. I personally enjoyed the movie quite a lot. The people I went with that had not read the trade liked it even more than I did. I will be going back to see it in IMAX sometime this week, and if you are on the fence about the movie, just go see it. The reviews are mixed because it is such a loved source material, and sadly, everybody is right. It is not as great as some would want you to believe and it is not as bad as others would like you to believer. If you haven't read the source material, you should have no reservations on goign to see the film. If you have read it, only by seeing it can you formulate your own opinion. Final review 4/5, will see again, can't wait for the Blu-Ray with The Black Freighter in it. One final note: After talking to many people, the new ending was required. I don't disagree with it as much as I thought I would. I'd love for the original ending to have been filmed and added to the Blu-Ray, however. So if you're afraid of the new ending. It's really not that bad... it just isnt as 'shocking'.