Watchmen - book/movie/game loved/liked/hated

The Watchmen graphic novel is a beautiful piece of American literature, loved universally for its dark, parallel reality of what could have been. The movie has scores ranging from 20 out of 100 to 100 out of 100 on MetaCritic. Critics loved the atmosphere, and the story wasn't completely butchered in the medium transition, but they didn't like that it was an action film with slow motion figth scenes and whatnot. The comic was not an action comic; it was a philosophy comic. The movie's praise was not nearly as universal as the comic, but at least it was still loved by some people. The Watchmen game on XBLA takes the lore and universe of Watchmen and simplifies it into a very beautiful (by Live Arcade standards) but shallow brawler. What's worse, it's episodic, so you don't even feel like you get a whole game. What's even worse, it's $20. The same price as the sublime GTA IV DLC, which is about 6 times the length and 10 times the value and fun.

Of course they were going to release a Watchmen game to go along with the movie. And I for one am glad that they made it a prequel instead of trying to craft something playable out of the ridiculously layered and complex narrative of the graphic novel. Still, what could they do with it instead of making it a pretty, graphic brawler? I don't know. Maybe tried to make it into a pretty, graphic, fun brawler? A hard concept to swallow, I know. But the Watchmen deserve some respect.