All Along - The Watchmen Tower Over Realities

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2009)

Any film which has two far less one song from Leonard Cohen is bound to be cool. "First We Take Manhattan" and "Hallelujah"... I only read the first six books of the Watchmen in my teens, so I knew enough that for my part Zack Snyder did a fair job of almost slavishly following the book except to the endgame as far as I know. Even so, he created a rightful alternate which should keep fans wanting more...
After all, what will happen with NiteOwl II and Miss Jupiter (Silk Spectre II)?? I didn't see any condoms and therefore is it that far off to imagine a next generation? I am sure even Leonard Cohen would have a great snicker as to how his "Hallelujah" would be used - as I am sure like Prince, both see God and sex as closely related or different millings along the edge of the same coin.
Dr Manhattan spoke of creating life in another galaxy what will this do to that Universe? Were there aliens already there or is that version like Asimov and Campbell's Universe? Stark and human-solo until Dr Manhattan's proposed project? In a weird and very real sense, Ozymandias brought sanity to a world long since bereft of it... The Comedian and Rorshach were fully aware of it and had different operating mechanisms for it. Rorshach did not cope, nor accept - he just had no illusions that the world and himself were insane, in fact insanity gave him lucidity.
Edward Blake, never denied his brutal nature and thrived on it and made it his tool to survive when metahumans were outlawed. It is intriguing how since this series in 1986 that everyone who's sought to conceptualise genuine ultra-normals in a present day situation have all chosen an entropic outcome with political overtones...
"Kingdom Come" also DC, the novels "Those Who Walk In Darkness" and "What Fire Cannot Burn" from John Ridley - even Pixar/Disney's "Incredibles" follows that trend as well as Michael Rappaport while his parking attendant character is on Experimental Meds and thinks he's super-powered.
By far, Rorshach was the most captivating character in this film and probably the most genuine hero. He refused to surrender his ideals even in the face of annihilation and thus proved the true definition of heroics. He also had the best line in the movie and it summed up his ethos too; "I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with ME!" Manhattan was not necessarily remote, his mechanism to handle the resultant ripples from his re-entry was to adopt stereotypy but was forced to snap out of it when confronted with another unexpected hero - Miss Jupiter, who rose above her semi-tragic childhood unlike Rorshach who embraced his dark young days and used it as fuel to drive him onwards.
Hollis Mason - the original NiteOwl and Miss Jupiter's mom the first Silk Spectre, the two surviving MinuteMen both tried coping with the New Wave in pretty much the same way - reliving the past and reinforced with booze.
The direction was great, Matt Frewer as a devolving ex-villain was sad yet humorous, Billy Crudup is a far cry from 2003's "Big Fish," and there was credible acting all around except maybe for Ozymandias who was a little too hammy yet maybe that was needed to expose his delusions? It will be remarkable if there's a sequel, and would lead to a next conundrum... Who watches out for those who watch the Watchmen?