Who watches the Watchmen? Watchmen is an awesome movie!

Rating: 8/10 (17 September 2014)

Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Set in an alternate history in the year 1985 at the height of the Cold War, a group of mostly retired vigilantes, called the 'Watchmen', investigates an apparent conspiracy against them and uncovers something even more sinister, that come affect the outcome of the whole world. The movie is based off the Watchmen graphic novel by Alan Moore. It took a while, for a live-action film adaptation to come, due to being stranded in development hell, but I have to say, director Zack Snyder really pull it off. The film deem 'unfilmable', finally came out, with such amazing production value. The movie was just beautiful to watch. Everything pretty much work, the CGI, the visual effects, and the costumes. Glad for the fact that Snyder choice not to shoot all of the film using green screens and opted for real sets instead. You really get a sense of depth with real sets. The opening slow motion sequence to Bob Dylan "The Times They Are a-Changin'" was wonderful. The music choices were mostly great in the film. You really get the sense of the 1960s/1980s with the tone of the film. Even the trailer song, Smashing Pumpkins -The Beginning Is the End was delightful. Only song, I didn't like was Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'. It was a bit corny, during the love scene. The acting in the film is pretty good for the most part. Malin Åkerman as Laurie Juspeczyk AKA Silk Spectre II, Billy Crudup as Jon Osterman AKA Dr. Manhattan, Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt AKA Ozymandias, Jackie Earle Haley as Walter Kovacs AKA Rorschach, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Edward Blake AKA The Comedian and Patrick Wilson as Daniel Dreiberg AKA Nite Owl II were all great in their parts. Indeed, they did present six radically opposing ways to perceive the world, and to give the audience of the film, the privilege of determining which one was most morally comprehensible. It's really surprising, that this movie was even made, with a really hard R-rating, due to a lot of sex, language, and nudity. It was very faithful adaptation for the most part. Without spoiling too much, they did change one big thing toward the end, with the writers cutting out the alien invasion part and changing it to Dr. Manhattan. In my opinion, the whole Dr. Manhattan's plot works better. Glad, they didn't used the original draft by Sam Hamm features a vastly different vision than that depicted in the final film with all the assassination plots and time rifts. The pacing is a bit long, and drawn out. After all, it's came from a graphic novel with a Nonlinear narrative. So, there were a lot of flashbacks; that had little to do with the main plot, but was there for the comic fans. Alan Moore was influence by a lot of people to write, Watchmen. Alan Moore got the idea from Mighty Crusaders comic books. When he try to write for the comic book, they reject his storyline, and decide to write Watchmen, instead. William S. Burroughs as one of his main influences during the conception of Watchmen. This is where, he got the story written a story idea, and the use of symbolism. Like the book, Watchmen the film is full of them, like the stained happy face represent the Doomsday clock or the quote, 'Who watch the watchmen?" political representing warnings to those who trusted in 'heroes' and leaders to guard the world's fate. It's a great time, Easter egging all of them like looking for the Nostalgia logos. I also enjoy, looking at all the familiar famous people that have cameos throughout the film like Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, & Fidel Castro. I love the cultural references from history, slightly altered like Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photo, Andy Warhol's factory or Studio 54. Even the flag have 51 stars, because in the film's alternate history, Vietnam became the 51st state after America won the Vietnam. This movie has a lot of replay value. Still, much of the story couldn't be fit into one movie in the normal version. Tales of the Black Freighter within the story, had to be its separate film starring Gerard Butler, and the fictional biography, 'Under the Hood', detailing the older generation of superheroes from the film's back-story had to be a DVD extra. If you love this movie, try to find the director's cut with 24 minutes of additional footage or the ultimate cut that has the director's cut of the film re-edited to contain Tales of the Black Freighter into the story as it is featured in the graphic novel, bringing the run time of the film to 215 minutes. Overall: Some people might hate the movie for its slow and nihilism tone, but it's still action packed and have some humor. For me, it was very entertaining. Worth the watch.