DVD review: Watchmen – The Complete Motion Comic

If watching the “Watchmen” movie has left you eager to find out more about the world of the characters, there’s now a DVD option to discover the original comics.

“Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic” animates each chapter of the original series, taking the original art by Dave Gibbons and using most of the original script by Alan Moore (even though Moore isn’t credited on the DVD, as he wants no part of adaptations of his work). Like the graphic novel, and for that matter the film, it follows the masked adventurer Rorschach as he attempts to find out who is killing costumed adventurers. It is set in an alternate 1985 where Richard Nixon is still president, and a superman named Dr. Manhattan changed the course of history.

The DVD works somewhat like an audio book, with Tom Stechschulte providing the voices for all the characters. He’s pretty good at varying up his tone, but it becomes distracting when the female characters are obviously a male talking with a higher voice.

It’s not as complete as the graphic novel – the text excerpts are missing, as are some parts of the dialogue. It’s an innovative way for DC to find another way to capitalize on the success of “Watchmen” in another format, but it’s not a superior experience to reading the book.

- Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman