Watchmen: Chapter I

It's okay.

If you've read the Comic or watched Snyder's adaptation, the story is pretty much the same thing, bit by bit. You could completely skip it and not lose much. But unlike the film (which has some good acting in some parts that might feel dull in this one), it does include the "Tales of the Black Freighter" section that Snyder didn't have space for. And well, the dialogue is always good to hear, and Rorschach a treat.. good enough to deserve a refresh every now and then!

As a note, this first film (of two) completes issue 5 of 12 from the comic.. which is almost half the story, and it lasts around 1 hour and 20 minutes. Second chapter is expected in 2025? For newcomers, waiting that long and needing to rewatch this sounds like a bad idea. Just wait and enjoy them together. Or read the comic, which was already great. The visuals are okay, I guess.. with 3D models and brush-stroke textures. It serves enough as a vehicle for what is the draw (story), anyway. And works well as an introductory way to consume Watchmen.

You know if you want to watch this or not.

I know we're only one episode in and I know it's based on the comics but it's word for word, scene for scene an animated version of the Snyder film. They're obviously some artistic additions and perhaps more comic accurate scenes but I'm just curious as to why they blatantly copied Zack Snyder's version. Maybe it's a way to expand on what he had in mind? We all know what the executives at Warner bros are and aren't capable of. I like the animation and the voice actors, over all I don't have any complaints, I'm just sincerely confused as to why it's so similar to the live action theatrical version.

So, Watchmen is one of the most famous, one of the best and one of the highest valued graphic novels in the world.

So, why would we get another adaptation of it with a relatively cheap animation? It basically gets no advertising push and with little information about it (it doesn't even have a wikipedia page at time of writing this!).

Just seems like they are devaluing the IP by releasing it this way!

But that's the why, now we move on to the what - the actual product!

And dammit, I thought it was pretty darn good. Clearly a straight adaptation, but they did it well. It engaged me, I thought the animation style captured the feel of the book well, and the voice acting was pretty good.

So why I don't think this should exist, given it does - I have to admit it could have been way worse.

This is an excellent adaptation of the original comics & quite different from the various cuts of the film.

The reviews saying this is boring must be by very boring & bored viewers, because the basic story is intact & as exciting and enthralling as ever.

Various changes have been made , otherwise the length of this film would be several hours long as the older 'animated comic' version proved.

I've seen all the various versions so far & this is a more faithful variation on the original comics (which I read as they were being released & before collected into graphic novel format) .

I love ALL the versions, except the 'theatrical cut' of Snyder's film- I love the Directors cut even tho some serious liberties were made with the story later in the film.

I really enjoyed the several hour animated comic version , tho even that missed several moments from the comics, it was 97% there.

This version begins with a superb recreation of the actual comics pages (altered in Snyder's film versions) , tho starts changing the original flow of the comics by issue 2 (the funeral) , however it does it in an imaginative & creative way that doesn't spoil the overall story. Some of the intercutting works brilliantly & some not so, but it still works & manages to move the story on in a concise manner without disrespecting the source material.

The artwork/animation is fabulous, combining the superb original style with a more sleek & sometimes airbrushed glow, very like Dave Gibbons promotional art for the Graphic Novel Collection. I'm surprised others have criticised it, it really is well designed, devised & implemented. For several scenes I totally forgot I was viewing an animation & thought I was watching a well made CgI moment.

So why not 10/10 then you may wonder?

Well, the soundtrack, which is also excellent can be a bit too high in the mix & obscure some great lines of dialogue... and that is about it with my quibbles !

AND ONE BIG ISSUE- at the end of the credits after the film- a PREVIEW of Part2 is shown that in should really be avoided & never included, as it spoils some key moments later in the story.

Some may whinge that Laurie looks slightly different to the comic, but that is a minor issue. Others may complain that Ozymandias role is more explicit, but I imagine everyone watching this version is already familiar with the source material or Synders film.

Some may wonder what is the BEST version of Watchmen & that depends on the viewer..... but for me the COMICS were the best version (obviously!) .

The animated comic is the closest 'filmatic' version, while the Synder DIRECTORS CUT (with the Black Freighter parts included) is very well done but not as faithful to the source material as this version,.... ALL of them are are superb 'thoughtful entertainment ' that puts most modern writing to shame.

All the various versions are so different that they are all worth seeing if you love the original comics.

Note - I did not mention the HBO sequel series because I thought it was painfully bad & an insult to the original series (the comics).

I read the novel back in the day. And after that I watched Zack Snyder's version. I loved the message of the novel and I always thought Zack did a great job with his vision ahead of time.

Now we have the animation. It is very faithful to the resource. Story, characters and even their costumes and such. The story goes how it is happening in the novel. I can say the animation is more faithful from Zack's version up until now. However, I found that Zack was able to give better emotion and message. With Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach voice acting and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Edward Blake voice acting the story was darker. In this adaptation it is more brutal. I am not saying one is better than the other but just different naturally.

Back in the day, because of the mindless MCU movies people treated Watchmen pretty hard. People created a hatewagon against Zack. Of course the ending of the Watchmen movie had to be different from the novel version because of the budget and technology limitations at that time, and some people had a reason to hate. But now with the different heroes versions such as The Boys and Invincible people can judge and watch with a wider perspective of an R rated adaptation.

I believe animation did a faithful adaptation for the 1st Chapter.