If you’re anywhere near the fan I am of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons 12-part comic book series that changed the genre as we knew it, I know nothing here is going to stop you from seeing the film.  And if you haven’t experienced this story, I doubt you’ll see anything here to influence your decision either way to rush out to Warner Bros.’ latest release.

 

I had no idea what I was in store for when I picked up issue #1 of the Watchmen in 1986.  But after 20-plus years of reading comic books, I quickly knew it would be something special.  As the months went by and the lives of Rorschach, The Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, Silk Spectre II, The Nite Owl II and Ozymandias unfolded issue by issue, I wasn’t disappointed.  As anyone who’s read the Watchmen knows, it went to depths and probed ideas that had never been seen in comic books before.  And after absorbing every panel for over a year, I went through a kind of withdrawal when it ended.  Comic books were never the same afterward.  Superman’s face-offs with Lex Luthor seemed tame.  I stopped buying comics shortly after and haven’t read many since.  But, every few years I return to these twelve, crack them open again, and rediscover why this series struck such a chord.

 

For years, I believed there never would be a Watchmen movie.  The story was just too densely layered to transform into a film.  So, of course, when I learned that Zack Snyder had decided to take on the task, I couldn’t wait to see the results.  This finally happened on Tuesday.  Judging by the fact that there wasn’t an empty seat in the theatre -- I wasn’t alone in my anticipation.

 

Over the course of the next two-and-a-half hours, at times I was amazed... and, at times, I was disappointed.  

 

I was amazed by the number of times I felt I was seeing the book up on the screen.  The look of the film is incredible, starting with the cast. Rorschach tops the list.  Jackie Earle Haley really evokes the eeriness of the character both in and out of “his face.”  And it’s especially fun to see his ever-changing mask brought to life.  

 

Achieving Dr. Manhattan’s look is almost a given, thanks to today’s special effects.  But Billy Crudup poignantly conveys the detached omnipotence of the character.  And it’s uncanny how often Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan reminded me of the Dan Dreiberg, Laurie Jupiter and Edward Blake I stared at on the pages.  The only one I didn’t feel this with was Ozymandias.  It doesn't have anything to do with Matthew Goode’s performance.  The connection just wasn’t there.

 

Credit is also due to screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse.  They were smart enough to use all the best lines in the book.  And every time one of them came out of someone’s mouth, a smiled formed on mine.  I’m pleased to say it happened often.

 

I’m sure many fans will be disappointed by plot point changes.  With so many instances so like the book, it’s always a jolt when we’re taken out of it.

 

But, the thing that disappointed me so much about the movie was the way it treated the elements that made the book so special --  deconstructing time with Dr. Manhattan -- peeling away the sociopathic layers of Rorschach  -- realizing just how miraculous life is through Laurie Jupiter.   Sure, they are all in the movie.  But each of these scenes seemed hurried.  None resonates the way it does with luxurious texture on the page.

 

All in all, this fanboy gives Zack Snyder credit.  He took on the impossible and put it up on the screen.  Bumps aside, I was along for every step of the ride, just as I was when I encountered Watchmen the first time around.  

 

And these days, when so many movies have you looking at your watch, waiting for the end credits, isn’t that saying a lot?