Watchmen

[Drunk Monk]

As mentioned earlier, ED turned me on to the Watchmen (along with Dark Knight and probably every other significant graphic novel of the day). I loved the comic. It was so dense in composition and thematic layers. Since the film was almost scene for scene from the comic, it was enjoyable on that geek literality level. But film moves faster that comics. I remember really sitting with that comic, going back and forth to see how previous panels mapped on to present panels graphically. That probably exists in the DVD, but I wasn't about to skip about it in the same way. I found the film very enjoyable, but despite its loyalty to the source material, it lacked the impact of the comic. It was a media issue. That story worked incredibly well as a comic because of the architecture of the media itself. Comics lend themselves to the kind of symbolic themes that were expressed in Watchmen. You can sit with each page at your own pace and turn back and forth with ease. A film moves along at its own rhythm, so all of those themes become a blur. That being said, I enjoyed the film the same way I enjoy Harry Potter films. There's no comparison to the original because the source media works best, but it's amusing nonetheless.