Watchmen is a powerful and deeply intellectual film.

Rating: 9/10 (11 March 2009)

"Who watches the Watchmen?" More importantly, who are the Watchmen? Never before has a comic book movie reached this kind of hype featuring characters only revered by its hardcore fan base. The formula for a blockbuster superhero movie is usually concocted with well-known actors playing iconic characters that surpass through different cultural barriers and jolt their popularity beyond the borders of ink and paper from their perspective comic books. With Watchmen, the producers and director are banking on the compelling and intense story from what many consider to be the greatest graphic novel of all time.
It's 1985, but not the 1985 most of us love and remember. Watchmen's 1985 looks like a result of Biff stealing Doc Brown's Delorean time machine, only a hundred times worse. The cold war is stronger than ever between the USA and USSR. President Richard Nixon is on his 5th term. And superheroes have been outlawed. The only deterrent to thermonuclear war is a former Watchman who goes by the name Dr. Manhattan. Due to an accident during a physics experiment, Dr. Jon Osterman is now a being of pure energy, capable of manipulating matter to his will. However as both the US and Soviet's stockpile of weapons grows, faith wanes even in Dr. Manhattan's ability to save the world.
Although superheroes have been outlawed, another former Watchman named Rorschach plays by his own set of rules. He's investigating the murder of one of his former Watchman partners, and what he uncovers will affect the entire world.
Even though many people have never heard of the graphic novel Watchmen, which the movie is based on, it does have a strong and loyal fan base. Unlike films such as The Dark Knight, Superman, and Iron Man, the general public has little to no identity with the Watchmen heroes. The excitement and anticipation levels to see a familiar character come to life are strongly diminished due to the fact that this film is the first time a large percentage of the audience will be exposed to them. Fortunately for Watchmen, it does not rely on the nostalgia of Saturday morning cartoons, lunchboxes, toys or video games. Watchmen's source material is more than enough to elevate it to one of the greatest comic book movies ever made.
The Watchmen comic book is more commonly referred to as a graphic novel. The film takes the word "graphic" very seriously. The characters may still be running around in costumes, but for most of them, that's where the similarities with the more revered superheroes end. This skewed reality of 1985 does not have any room for sympathetic heroes. Enter Rorschach.
Watchmen does a phenomenal job giving depth and development to a large cast of characters, but if you had to pick one to be the center of the story, Rorschach would be it. If it were fictionally possible, Rorschach would be the illegitimate love child of Batman and Danny Bonaduce. And for those of you who are fans of the website IMDb, you'll be in for a shock to see that the actor playing this role, Jackie Earle Haley, is no stranger to playing a "bad ass" even when he was twelve years old.
Director Zack Snyder, (300), definitely puts his stamp on the film with his intense "bullet time" action sequences, and at the same time keeps everything moving at a steady pace so as not to lose the depth of the characters. Far too often with comic book films, the audience is just waiting until the next scene where the hero once again dons his costume. Snyder does a great job keeping all of the non-conflict and background content just as compelling as the high-energy, costume-clad scenes. A prime example of Snyder's detailed storytelling abilities is culminated in one of the most entertaining and useful opening credit sequences in movie history. Not to mention, the film's transitional scenes are paired up with an unorthodox, yet custom fitted soundtrack.
The most notable difference between Watchmen and its past competition is that it just feels "bigger" than most other comic book films. Not because more money was spent or the special effects were better, but because the threat the heroes are trying to prevent was at one time, very, very real. This film doesn't take place in a fictional city like Gotham or Metropolis. The story of these heroes transcend through multiple countries and decades of world history, all in a faux reality that walks a thin line between fantastic imagination and our worst fears.