Watch the Watchmen

This is very late, I know, but I had to write something about the Watchmen.  I saw it 3 weeks ago on opening night and saw it two more times the same weekend (one being in imax).  That should be an indicator of not only how much I enjoyed the film, but how it's something I could not get out of my head and had to watch it multiple times.  It stays very true to the graphic novel and where it strays it delivers.  Most notably is the amazing title sequence, that brilliantly and stylistically throws you into the alternate universe that the Watchmen inhabit in about 2 minutes, perfectly reflected in and enhanced by Bob Dylan's "They Times are Changing".  Also, the ending (which should no longer be a spoiler), works better cinematically than Alan Moore's original.  

The film, like the comic, is enjoyable on many levels.  First, it looks amazing.  From Rorschach's scenes that alternate between a dark noir-ish feel and an even darker horror/slasher type scene to the science fiction world of Dr. Manhattan and the little world he creates on Mars.  The action is brutal and unforgiving and I would also like to point out that Nite Owl II's flying owl-ship "Archie" looked awesome coming to life as well.  While Patrick Wilson and Malin Ackerman give sub-standard performances, Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan capture their characters perfectly and give us great performances.  

It also works as a great mystery story, super hero movie, and character study.  Watchmen engagingly explores the effects superheroes would have on the real world and vice versa.  The government might use a god-like freak of science- product of nuclear arms building, to bring Vietnam to brutal end and secure a victory for U.S. imperialism.  They might also keep a highly trained and ruthless operative like the Comedian to further accelerate the Cold War by toppling leftist regimes all over the world.  Hell, the CIA were already training an army of Comedians with the likes of the Contras, Cuban emigres etc.  Also, how would the public react?  Superheroes would displace police and firemen, but would that be for the better? Where's their accountability?  The absurd plan of Ozymandias to blow up 15 million people and scapegoat Dr. Manhattan (or a giant squid) in order to stop the arms race and achieve world peace, was not only a comment on the genre, but reflected the desperation and bleakness of the Reagan/Thatcher era eighties, that Alan Moore was operating in and was captured beautifully by Zack Snyder in this film.  

With the current economic crisis and two seemingly endless unnecessary wars abroad, the audience can definitely relate to that desperation for a solution (hopefully channeling Dr. Manhattan's atomic power to blow up the major cities in the world doesn't cross their minds).  Anyway you look at it, Watchmen is a great movie on many levels, be it visually, plot-wise, its depth or for adjusting an adapting a great work of graphic storytelling to the big screen and capturing it as well as possible.  I  don't know what else to say, stop hating and go see it!