A big blue tallywhacker reigns supreme, but still a decent story

Rating: 8/10 (15 March 2009)

Watchmen has been one of the movies I've been waiting to see for quite some time now. As a fan of DC comics, I was very hopeful, and given the past history of DC movies I knew it would be either really great or absolutely horrific.
It wasn't bad.
Granted, there were a few things I had to get past. The graphic violence was tough to watch, frankly. Parents do need to know that this is NOT a kids' comic book movie.
I was also distracted initially by Dr. Manhattan's ever-present herculean dong. I'm no prude, by any means, and I have a healthy sex life, but it's just that natural reaction of "hey, wow, there's that guy's pecker" and not knowing whether you should look away or what. I get the point of it, but it sort of distracted me from the movie in general. (On a lighter note, it does give new meaning to the term "blue balls.") Rorshach has been and always will be my favorite character from the Watchmen universe, and he's portrayed here quite beautifully. Jackie Earle Hayley did a superb job of simultaneously making the character an ice-cold action hero and a supremely disturbed psychopath, all rolled up into one big anti-hero. I would've liked to see a movie or series that focused specifically on him.
There's a lot of social commentary in the movie. Frankly, you really should read the book first, because it can be confusing if you're not up to speed on when/where/what universe this takes place in.
As far as pacing, this movie does last three hours, but it's mostly non-stop the entire way. I didn't tire of the movie so much as I did the actual theater seat. Still, I wouldn't cut the movie any shorter or it would completely lose its punch.
All told, I give the movie about an 8, taking away one point for alterations made from the graphic novel, and another point for getting dick-slapped by Dr. Manhattan one too many times.