In an alternate 1985 America, costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the "Doomsday Clock" which charts the USA's tension with the Soviet Union is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion - a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity but who is watching the watchmen?

Watchmen is a movie that is being celebrated as the greatest graphic novel ever being brought to life. That truly is a very large bill to fill and puts a lot of expectations and pressure on Watchmen to deliver from its rabid fan base. I had not read the Watchmen comic book up until about two weeks ago when I picked up the graphic novel in anticipation of the film so although I had read the comic going into the movie I was clearly not apart of its fan base. That being said I think they did a fantastic job of bringing the movie to life, at times it was like the images had leapt right off the pages of the comic and transported itself to the screen in front of me. Sure like any adaptation they made changes, subtle and not so subtle and they left things out but that didn’t really hinder the film and they stayed pretty true to the comic. I am not sure how the rabid fan might take the film nor even the casual viewer because this film isn’t like any other comic book movie before it but the film was a fantastic action paced, drama filled, visually beautiful and gorgeously scored film.

I think Zack Snyder was perfect as the director of Watchmen because he understand the rabid fan base and also knows how to weave a fantastic and somewhat strange tale together evidenced by the fan boy loved 300. He brings the comic to life and he gives the film a beautiful but brutal and violent feel to it. I think some people should brush up on the comic first hand because just from the fan reaction at the filming I saw some people really didn’t know what they were getting into and the idea of a comic book movie based in an alternate 1985 threw them for a loop. Yes Richard Nixon is still president and yes men in tights are outlawed from fighting crime and yes the movie is quite an oddball tale at times. I think Snyder did a great job of balancing that line between being faithful to the source material but also at the same time making his movie broad enough that everyone could enjoy the film and not just the fan boys and girls.

The concept of the movie is an original twist on an very familiar and overused idea of costumed vigilantes fighting crime. Except for Doctor Manhattan almost all the heroes in the film are more like Batman than say your superheroes like Spiderman who has special powers. These are you ordinary every day citizens who decided to fight crime, dress in strange costumes and trained diligently to do so with the help of lots of gadgets. But that is where their similarities to the cape crusader end because these super heroes, these vigilantes don’t have Batman’s code of ethics and they are flawed, violent and sometimes overly drunk men. They kill without mercy they show evil doers no quarter and can be as vile and almost as evil as the men they are trying to punish. But they do have a morality, they are trying to right wrong they are just very human men who are not sure where the line is and have crossed it many times. It’s what gives the movie its punch, its originality, what makes it so good.

They have been trying to produce Watchmen for twenty years and they couldn’t have made this movie twenty years ago, I doubt they could have pulled it off ten years ago maybe not even five years ago. The advances in CGI and special effects over the last decade or so allowed them to bring the comic to life and make it visually stunning. It gave vibrancy to the world they were trying to create and made all the action sequences possible. This is probably the best they could have ever done at adapting one of the most beloved graphic novels ever.

My favorite character in the comics was Rorschach and Jackie Earle Haley brings him to life perfectly. He wasn’t exactly what I expected when he got unmasked and had to become Walter Kovacs for a while because in the comic Walter always seemed a little more nerdy and shorter but he pulls off the jail scenes amazingly well. Jackie Earle Haley clearly steals the movie as did Rorschach who stole the comics. I wish we could have seen more of Jeffrey Dean Morgan who plays the comedian also to perfection as he was so good in the movie I wish they could have just invented scenes for him to be in. The rest of the cast also did great from the Silk Spectre to the Nite Owl each adding depth and great performances to the movie. The film also had a unique and beautiful soundtrack and score that was a perfect match for the comic and the movie and added depth to all the little moments in between. The movie was absolutely perfect evidenced by the audience in my screening laughing at moments that weren’t meant to be funny but it was pretty damned close to being perfect.

Grade: A-