by Ginger Voight

Created on: March 15, 2009   Last Updated: May 03, 2010

My Totally Non-Geek/Fanboy Review of "Watchmen"

I went to see this movie for a couple of reasons.

One, to see how an oft declared "un-filmable" movie would look once filmed. I had never read the source material, even though the graphic novel has been so revered it finds itself among other great works of literature as one of the 100 books you must read in your lifetime.

Frankly, I don't want to read in terms of comic book/graphic novel panels because my brain is not wired for such.

To see the corresponding pictures with the story actually takes me out of the story and, maybe on a subconscious level, I get a little miffed my own creative interpretation of the story is being manipulated by a bunch of someone else's visuals. Fine for a movie (even though if I feel the direct intrusion of the director more on that later it too rips me right out of the story), but with my beloved books, it's sacrilege.

And I'm perfectly okay with that. So I don't do comic books or graphic novels, perhaps to my own detriment as a screenwriter.

That made the "Watchmen" must-see viewing strictly from a career standpoint.

The second reason I saw it was because of my husband. He loved the source material yet still could not explain to me a.) what the story was truly about and b.) why it was, indeed, so un-filmable. He just shoved the graphic novel in my direction, which only made me want to hit him with it.

To make matters worse, the trailers did not give me any real heads up to either question either.

So, despite my non-geek boy ties and the disinterest the uninformative trailers wrought... I had to go see it even though it was an agonizing three hours long.

I figured we must suffer for our art as well as for our relationships. To say I was prepared not to like it and rip it to shreds is an understatement.

The good news is I didn't hate it.

The bad news is I didn't love it, for reasons I will disclose in a non-fan review complete with spoilers, following this disclaimer for those who have not seen the movie:

"Watchmen" is probably the most adult oriented movie based on a graphic novel or comic book, save "Sin City". There is full frontal nudity, graphic violence and a pretty explicit sex scene.

Leave the kiddos at home. It's rated R for a reason.

Now to the review.

Remember when I said that I didn't like it when I felt the intrusion of the director? I sensed this would be a big problem with Zack Snyder from what I'd seen of his earlier work in "300". Action aborted with indulgent slow

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