WATCHMEN: The Complete Motion Comic

With the Watchmen comic book finally making its silver screen debut, DC and Warner Bros decided to release Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic for those who want to see a deeper side to the acclaimed series. The Motion Comic is just that, a shot by shot, frame by frame, Comic book with a narrator.

Look

The look of the movie is beautiful. Because its an animated version of the  comic all the images from the original pages have been digitally scanned into a computer and animated from that point on word, so what you get is exactly what you see in the comic book, just with motion. Some of the animation can be a little off at times and look silly, but in the end the movie still looked beautiful.

Sound

The only problem I had with this movie was the voice acting: there wasn’t much. The entire cast, both male and female, are narrated by one man. For the men, he did a great job and was able to change his voice and mannerisms for different characters, but for the women it just sounded weird. I personally would have preferred it if they used two people for the movies narration, one for men and one for women, but for what they did do it was done very well, even if at some points it was weird. The music served its purpose wonderfully and was mainly very subtle and gave the feature a distinct epic feel to it, and at times helped make scenes more dramatic.

Feel

Watchmen is dark and isn’t for everyone. With its characters and the questionable morals they have, Watchmen is not your happy go lucky Saturday morning superhero show. Its easy to believe that some can feel dirty after watching it, but for the few that get the point its trying to convey they will feel nothing but awe and a sense of enlightenment.

Story

Watchmen showed an alternate 1985 where superheroes exist, Nixon president for his third term, and tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union are getting close to causing another world war. The story opens with the murder of Edward Blake, a former hero known as the comedian, and its investigation by the vigilante Rorschach. Because its the comic, and not an adaptation, everything is intact.

Bottom line, the movie is not for everyone. Some people will find it cheesy and possibly lazy, while others will find the movie as a wonderful compliment to the already amazing story. With a length of over 5 hours it may seem a little long for some people, but because the movie is divided into the same chapter settings as the book  it makes watching it a little easier on the viewer.

A-

If you’re a fan of the book it’s worth owning, or if you’re just curious why it’s so popular you owe it to yourself to give it a watch.