The first well-made film of 2009

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2009)

One of the few films I admire. I really admire. And that take you away already in the first few minutes, when the highly cartoonish and stylized front credits pass. Wow, what sort of film is following that crazy introduction? Are they going to keep that promise? The film never let me down, not during one single minute. The scenes featuring Philip Glass' "Prophecy" and "Pruit Igoe" were eerie, Dr. Manhattan was a believable character, the romance between Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl something I really liked because they were so true characters.
I loved the stylized violence in the fight scenes because they showed what imaginative movie makers are capable of, similar to "A Clockwork Orange" which would not be discussed and praised that much without its foundation  the depicted violence.
It's difficult finding anything negative about "Watchmen". I do not know the underlying graphic novel, and so I found Veidt's/Ozymandias' lair in the Antarctica something weird. Why something so far away? Why something so elaborate when he could have built his dungeon somewhere in a rain forest which would have been much nearer to his New York? But I agree Veidt is very egoistic and lone figure, and that he wants to be as far away from populated areas as possible.
Something else I have to attest is the high self-confidence and maturity with which "Watchmen" referenced the 9/11 attacks, without having been intended so by the novelist (the comics came out in 1986 and 1987). But because I felt that the film weaves in the course of history so well  especially when the plot touched the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the ongoing tenure of Richard M. Nixon  I was very, very willing to forgive the "pun" made on the 9/11 attacks. The same city devastated, and the same city having a gaping hole which is being filled again by erecting a new structure. These images were a little scary, yes.
In sum, let me thank the movie makers for delivering the first *good* film of the year 2009!