Billy Crudup

The acting was very good by everyone in the top roles. The violence in the movie isn't sickening, although there is a lot of shooting (I expected). It isn't the best movie ever, but worth seeing.

I disagree. I think that Snyder is in a no-win situation here. As mentioned, to make a film replicating the entire Watchmen series would be 4 hours ? at least. The alternative was to ?interpret? the series and make it more watchable for people who have never read the book. Of course, had he done this, fans would be enraged that he had prostituted Alan Moore?s masterpiece just to make it ?Hollywood?. Instead, he stuck as closely to the story as he could, crammed as much as possible in under 3 hours and produced what I?m sure most fans would agree, is a pretty great homage to one of the best graphic novels written. Seeing almost exact images from the book translated to the big screen was a thrill and I thought they did a great job. I thought the cast portrayed the ?feel? of the book very well. While the sex scene may have been a bit overdone I thought the overall relationship was just as believable in the movie as it was in the book. Haley played Rorchach to perfection and Patrick Wilson made a good Dan Dreiberg. Having said that, I?m curious to see how people who have never read the book will take this movie. Personally, I think that without the benefit of reading the book and having the entire back story, the movie wouldn?t be nearly as enjoyable. I don?t think this works well as just a standalone movie the way other comic book movies do ? you don?t need to read a Batman comic to enjoy ?The Dark Knight?. As a big fan of the book and of Alan Moore?s work I thought this was a great movie and I can?t wait to see the longer director?s cut.

http://braidedthreads.blogspot.com/2008/10/sheepish-shepherd.html It struck me how little the main character (played by Matt Damon) actually does in this movie. He never makes any active choices - when he is directing things for the CIA, he announces, and others carry out his decisions. He is pretty blank as a character. He does make a couple of choices with regard to his son, though. But he also doesn't choose to deter his son beyond his vague suggestions about life in the CIA. Most other decisions are made for him and he follows orders when he is not giving orders. He does make the choice to turn around in the hallway and go back to the Skull and Bones innitiation. He chooses that life. He does what is expected of him. He has sex when he is dragged into it, he gets married when the girl getspregnant, he goes overseas when asked.