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Who watches the Watchmen?

Last post on Watchmen, until I change my mind and think there's something else to say.

I've heard plenty of complaints before with adapting books into movies. Without fail, there's always somebody who wants to complain that something was excised, minimized, or changed completely. Still, I'm rather puzzled at the sticklers who wanted Watchmen the movie to be a panel-by-panel recreation of the graphic novel (even though the "motion comic" produced a few years ago is now finally available on DVD).

Just a friendly reminder to those that wanted a panel-by-panel adaptation: this is a film based on a graphic novel. The fact that anything from the graphic novel is in the film is a great thing, because for so long, it didn't look like that was going to happen. Plus, this is a film meant to be watched in one sitting. With the graphic novel, you can read the whole thing in a few days. I challenge anyone to read Watchmen in two and a half hours, the same length of the film. I truly doubt anybody can really do that and soak up all the subtleties and nuances in the process.

I've met people who weren't too happy about certain tweaks done with the Lord of the Rings movies and Harry Potter movies. I've never met anyone who was upset that a lot of small details were left out of the film adaptation of Tom Clancy's Patriot Games. But for some odd reason, it seems like the level of frustration and angst about Watchmen's tweaks have been strangely loud to me. For me, being the non-fan I was of the graphic novel, I'm just thankful that Zack Snyder made a great film that helped me gain a better understanding of this thought-provoking and smart story.

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