Watchmen

I caught "Watchmen" last night. I'm a fan of the graphic novel, although I haven't read it in years. I really thought the film was quite good. I somewhat agree with Kenneth Turan that it's a risky film to make; people who don't know the novel will probably be lost, despite the lengthy exposition, and people who do know the novel will likely be annoyed at the compromises that must be made in translating such a dense story into a watchable film.

The one thing I found troublesome was one of the performances. Matthew Goode, who played Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, just didn't sell the part. I just dismissed it as bad acting at the time. But Dana at Edge of the American West has me thinking that this bit of casting was a particularly damaging problem for the film. Veidt is supposed to be a golden boy. He's supposed to be the optimistic American ideal superhero, not the humorless, egotistical capitalist who gets into pissing matches with Lee Iacoca. As the book depicted him, the events at the end of the story become tragic and revelatory. In the movie, it's just not all that interesting.

And while I'm complaining about casting, Robert Downey Jr. should have played the Comedian.