*stamps joelf's forehead*

I've read the book half a dozen times, eaten the cereal, watched the Saturday morning cartoon. Well 2 of those are lies. But I did read the book.

I thought it was a fantastic realization of the comic.

I'm wondering what you all had to say about it? Is there anyone here who saw it, and hasn't read it?

I"m seeing it on Sunday, I'll post back then.
I'm almost done reading the book!

I have to disagree. You didn't enjoy it at all.

I'm seeing it the thirteenth (da-daDUM!) and I CAN'T WAIT! Got another mefite coming over from Denmark too because the premiere is earlier here than in Copenhagen! WhooHooO!

I am seeing it noon on Saturday, haven't read the book. I tried, but I always have difficulty reading graphic novels. This saddens my boyfriend.

SPOILERS: Darth Vader is Luke's father.

It was total fan service. If you liked the book, i think you will like the movie. At leas me and my friends all did. I'm really curious to see how it will hold up without the rich background of the book.

I'm going to have to see it again.

Also Dr. Manhattan is Keyser Söze

I liked the comic.

Bad news: I'm not seeing it till the 28th of the month.

Good news: IMAX baby, IMAX!!!

Seeing it in IMAX tonight. Look forward to it with equal amounts of excitement and trepidation. We'll see....

I just saw it earlier today. On the whole, I'm happy with it. It's flawed, in places pretty gratuitous, but overall I think very well done.

I can't believe they left out Tom Bombadil!

I can't believe how accurate it was.

I liked it. I went with a couple of peeps who had not read the comic. For them, it wasn't as good. They didn't like the ending either. Go figure.

The casting was nigh on perfect too. Except for the girl who can't act.

I haven't read the graphic novel, but I read at least one Metafilter thread.

Ro & I saw it 2 days ago, and we both thought it was pretty damn good. Ro knew nothing about it other than what I mumbled from memory of what I've read on the intermanet. I thought it had some flaws, but it was still full of awesomeness and awesomosity. LOVELOVELOVE.

and yeah, the girly was a bit wooden and I didn't like her outfit much, especially the colour.

Alright, I'm going to try to do this without any spoilers...

I wanted it to be good. I really did. It looked good. Hell, it looked beautiful. The production design was perfect. The shots were wonderfully composed. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they used the book as their storyboard in a lot of places. (Except for the one major change, of course, which I'm not going to give away). And the effects were masterful.

But overall, I thought it was a pretty terrible movie

For one thing, it was TOO faithful to the book. The story needed to be updated. Sure, those of us who were around at the time can remember the existential dread that comes from feeling like you're constantly living on the brink of nuclear war, but that fear just no longer resonates. We have new things to fear now and there's no reason not to update that aspect of the story. I mean, sure, it might have irritated the hard-core fan-boys, but it would have made it a better movie.

And as for the script, someone needs to tell Zak Snyder and the screenwriters that just because dialogue works really well on the page of a book doesn't mean it works on camera. At all. Some of the more over-the-top dialogue (and narration) from the book, which I loved and still love in its rightful place, comes across as overblown and overwrought when spoken out loud.

Other than Kelly Leak as Rorschach, the acting was terrible and the casting deeply misguided. Billy Crudup's voice is all wrong for Dr. Manhattan. Nite Owl wasn't pudgy enough. Ozymandias was just a fop rather than a foppish mastermind. And don't get me started on Silk Specter II. In the words of the New Yorker's Anthony Lane, "[her] line readings suggest that she is slightly defeated by the pressure of pretending to be one person, let alone two."

And the soundtrack. Jesus fuck are you kidding me with the soundtrack? The music supervisor should be keelhauled. Every time a song started playing, the audience started to snicker. The choices were so hackneyed, so cliched, that I would almost believe they did it on purpose, except the movie clearly took itself far too seriously to poke fun at itself. The song choices were so preposterous that it completely took me out of the moment every time one started.

Damn, I went in with such an open mind, and the first 20 minutes or so made it feel like it was going to be pretty damn good.

But.

Yuck.

Note to future directors of superhero movies: If you are going to lift the dialog from the comic book virtually verbatim, you need an A-list cast.