DanySpike

I hadn't watched the movie or read anything about Watchmen before so I didn't know what to expect. The first chapters had me mildly interested, but it picked up by chapter 4, the one about Dr. Manhattan. I really enjoyed seeing things from Dr. Manhattan's point of view, with the complexities of understanding things the way he did after his accident. 

But then chapter VI came along, the one about Rorschach, and it blew my mind. I truly understood who he was, and why he was like that. At this point, I had to applaud the creators for being able to transmit to the reader the emotional aspect of this chapter, making you connect with the main character, and with what he's trying to do. Even if you don't necessarily agree with him, you get him.

Although for me that one was the best chapter, the rest of the chapters that followed it worked in an amazing crescendo until the grand finale. It was a great ending. Not necessarily the one I was hoping for, but a great one nonetheless. I felt so sad at some points. Obviously I'm not going to give away the ending, in case some of you haven't read it or watched the movie, so I'll just say that as much as I think about it, I can't say it should have ended any other way.

And that brings me to the last part of this review. Because for me, Watchmen didn't end when I finished reading it. I thought it did, and I rated it 4.5 stars and called it a day, on to the next book in my list... But then, I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I thought, "well, this was a heavy book, so maybe my mind needs a day or two to come back to the real world". Only that wasn't true. It's been almost a month and I keep coming back to certain things, I keep realizing things that I hadn't realized when I read it, and I go back to the pages to check if what I remembered was right. I keep going back to feel what I felt when I read certain parts, and I guess that's only one of the many reasons why this is considered a must in the comic book world.

Of course, I had to see the movie then, and boy was that SPOT ON! I had never watched a movie with such attention to detail, they reproduced so many scenes precisely as it was in the comic book. Sometimes, it was identical. And what great casting choices! Jeffrey Dean Morgan was the best Comedian you could ever hope for, and Jackie Earle Haley simply WAS Rorschach. He portrayed the character in a way I didn't think was possible. He made me cry at certain scenes because his performance was so powerful, I just felt all the emotions.

To summarize, I had to change my original rating, because this book still hasn't let me go and I keep finding new reasons why this is one of my favorite books now. FIVE STARS!!