Maybe there's something wrong with me.

I don't see Alan Moore's famous novel Watchmen as an absolute flawless form of storytelling through comics/graphic novels/whatever you call that large stack of printed material you have in the corner of your room. Perhaps novelty hasn't infected me yet when I see the pages of the most revered piece of geek literature around (next to Up Till Now: The Autobiography and the script of the unaired episode of Beast Wars, of course).

You've already read many other reviews of Watchmen by now, but if you haven't, let me give you a short summary: A exsuperhero is killed and the other members of the disbanded superhero association unravel the mystery behind his apparent murder. Zack Snyder's adaptation of Watchmen isn't without it's flaws, but let me assert, the positives far outweigh the negatives. Being a 163 minute adaptation automatically demands cuts to be made in order to keep the flow of the story. Many backstories and sub-plots are dropped in favor of focusing on the main (ex)superheroes.

I'm tired of one side saying that the movie diverted too much away from the comic book, while another says that it didn't divert enough. It would have been impossible in any form to please the fans who have read Watchmen. While it's too bad that many scenes had to be altered, there have also been a number of alterations that Snyder crafted into the story amazingly. I loved the new ending. You heard me. I thought it was a much more cohesive resolution than Moore's original story. Major props to Snyder for having the spine to make the changes he felt was necessary to carry on the film, and you know, they worked.

While there were copious amounts of action, the real meat and potatoes of the story are the characters and how their lives and intertwined with each other. All the information is given in a way that even the most stubborn of audience members can understand. All of the main characters stories are pretty much kept in tact from their original adaptation and none of them are shoved aside in order to quicken the pace of the movie. While Cyrus believes that this adaptation isn't even "in the same league" as the graphic novel, I believe that it is. While not as expansive, it maintained the all of the tone and symbolism that the graphic novel gave. Though there were a few instances when the dialogue was just corny, but then again all of the lines I had problems with were directly lifted from the novel.

There were complaints about the makeup for the 'older characters'. I refute this by saying I didn't see any problems with it. There were complaints about the 'slow-down'-'speed-up' action scenes. I didn't mind that at all; Snyder seems to have at least a watermark for original action scenes which is more than I can say for recent action flicks. There were complaints about the effects. I was left speechless at some of the amazing visuals that I saw, so I don't believe that that complaint was justified. And finally, there were complaints on the acting. Many claim that Malin Akerman was a horrible actress; while she wasn't amazing in her role, she did an acceptable job trying to bring that character to life. Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Billy Crudup all nailed their parts with Jackie as the clear cut of the acting talent deserving of praise. Matthew Goode and Patrick Wilson also did an excellent job at portraying their characters of Ozymandias and Nite Owl, respectively. There were only a two instances where I thought the music was a problem, but for the rest of the time, every song was right on the money in conveying the tone of that particular moment.

This was the first time in the history of my existence when I actually started to clap when the movie finished. Others in the audience had similar feelings. And you know what, I will not compromise in this, even in the face of hooting fanboys. I can't wait to see it again. Although there's no such thing as a perfect movie (except for Rush Hour 2), this is definitely a movie that will remain in my mind.

For Watchmen, I give a rare rating: Better than Sex

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