Having accidentally persuaded Anna that she didn’t want to see Watchmen — I think just by describing it — I saw it with Martin instead, at the South Bank IMAX. My thoughts, for what they’re worth, are as follows:

1. I’d give it 7-8/10 for the most part, so not nearly as bad as many critics suggested. And I certainly didn’t sense any of the long periods of boredom which I had been led to expect. But…
2. 6-7/10 for the way they ended it. I thought the book told the end of the story much more powerfully, whereas the film rushed it somewhat. I do wonder what someone unfamiliar with the story would have made of the film’s end.
3. I thought the plot got in the way of the story. Which is to say that I loved the telling of the backstories, and the  “someone’s killing masked vigilantes” thread seemed rather uninteresting in comparison.
4. Oddly, it really didn’t work particularly as an IMAX film. There was one scene in which I felt a wonderful, sudden sense of vertigo flying over a cityscape, and far too many scenes in which the screen consisted entirely of one or two people’s faces talking. On IMAX a giant talking head is the wrong use of the medium.

And I took some photos of our trip to the South Bank. Here’s one of them. The rest, as usual, are on Flickr.

Tags: photos, imax, watchmen