I loved it. 🙂 I had read the original before, but I had found it to be a really really tough read. It’s detail level was typical Alan Moore and it could be quite overwhelming at times. However I do think that having read it made the film all that more enjoyable. It was missing a lot of the mythology from the comics and had quite a few changes. Some worked well, others not so well.
The film plays really well in that you can place all the clues together, more than any other whodunit I can think of (…I’m talking intelligent movies here) but it was not all that obvious. I did seem like it could have been two movies at some times. The mythology is far more tied in and used in the novel, whereas it gets a passing mention in the movie. But there is enough to lead you to some conclusions.
I thought the cast did a really good job, especially Ian Holm as Dr. Gull and Robbie Coltrane does really well in a large supporting role. Johnny Depp was younger than I expected the lead to be, but he carried the movie really well. I’ve never got Heather Graham as an actress, she’s always been missing that certain something. While she put in a solid performance in this movie…she was still missing it.
soundtrack: “Handbags and Gladrags” by The Stereophonics