"In my opinion, the existence of life is a highly overrated phenomenon."

Watchmen, 2009. Three Stars.

I'm personally giving this movie Three Stars because I really liked it. But, it's not a very good movie!

I love the comic book, and it was so cool seeing the characters come to life and the story unfold on the big screen. There's so much that happens in the comic book, however, and it was a good move to not include every single thing in the movie, and instead focus on the larger overall themes. That being said... the pacing was so slow at some points and so fast in others, that the things that were supposed to have a big impact on the audience (like, Holy Shit The Comedian! and, Oh, THAT'S why Bubastis exists!) ended up coming up short.

The beginning of the movie was well-done: Totally dug the snapshot-ish narrative of the history of the Minutemen and what happened to the superheroes, it was fun and effective.

The ending has been changed, but it's just a different means to the same end. I thought it was pretty interesting and okay. Plus, the movie couldn't handle including the original ending.

I didn't like some of the casting. Matthew Goode was good as Veidt, but he lacked the "god-like" physique which added to his "superhuman-ness" in the comic. I GUESS Malin Akerman did a great job because Laurie Juspeczyk is a pretty vapid and one-dimensional character, but she sounded like Drew Barrymore and it was annoying.

Who's actually great in this? Patrick Wilson is perfect as Dan Dreiberg (and he's wicked cute!!). Jackie Earle Haley is everything I could have hoped for in a Rorschach. And I gotta say, it was SO COOL seeing Doc Manhattan! Way to go, Billy Crudup! The blue wang didn't freak me out as much as it did everyone else in the cinema. Everyone else in it was pretty decent too. Jeffrey Dean Morgan looked just like The Comedian.

So like I said, I liked it. If you're a fan of the comic book, you'll probably like it more than dislike it. If you're not familiar with anything about it, you'll most likely leave the cinema confused, dissatisfied, and tired.

**UPDATE 3/18/09**

There is something important that I forgot to mention. The soundtrack SUCKS. Cheesy, dumb, uninspired. The music during the awkward sex scene would've been HILARIOUS, only if the movie had that fun self-awareness to pull it off. But it didn't! Totally sucks!

(If memory serves correctly, I don't think I minded the song used in the opening credits though. Eh.)