A Great Movie -- Before Criticizing This Movie -- Please Read

Rating: 9/10 (8 July 2009)

I think to really appreciate this movie, you'd have to know the history of the United States, and the differences in the linear time lines between the movie and reality.
History and events that people would need to be educated to better help understand the movie: - V-J Day - Vietnam War - Cold War
The majority of movies made now-a-days, have no need for knowledge and an understanding of history. Most movies have no real story, and is just built to be an endless drool of nonsensical action. "Watchmen", like a complicated well written book, is filled with allusions and direct references to historical events.
The movie touches on all the real aspects of human nature, human fear, and human beliefs of morality and sacrifice.
For me personally, I had to watch the movie, and read historical references in Wikipedia, as well as research original imagery documented in history (such as the flower girl with the flower in the barrel of rifles scene).
The movie would be boring to anyone without any prior knowledge or poor knowledge and education towards the detail of topics touched in the movie. I personally wasn't that educated, but like a book I read, I look up references and allusions to further understand the underlaying elements in this movie. So before criticizing something you don't understand, because you lack the knowledge of American history which is the basic foundations to this movie, you should try reading a Time magazine every now and then.
** SPOILERS ** (DO NOT READ BELOW IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SPOIL THE MOVIE) ** SPOILERS **
The movie is a depiction of a "what-if" situation where there were people who dressed up like "Batman" figures in reality, and it depicts that these characters, unlike comic book characters, are and would be flawed, criticized by society, and that "it rains on the just and unjust alike."
Right off the bat, the movie starts with Eleanor Clift (an American political reporter) and Pat Buchanan (an American conservative political commentator) arguing about the politics behind the escalating situation between the Soviet Union and America. It also touches topics such as the conflict for Afghanistan between the Soviets and America (in case people don't know, this conflict for Afghanistan is the prelude to the present terrorists of today).
The movie involves such historical figures such as Richard Nixon (37th President of the United States), Henry Kissinger (Senator of State, Nobel Peace Prize), and how the advent of a super-being would have had an affect on society.
In the movie, it also depicts a world where, because of Dr. Manhattan, they did not lose the Vietnam War (in reality, the U.S. withdrew), and quote-on-quote from The Comedian/Blake, "If we lost here in 'nam, I think it might've driven us crazy."
I personally found the ending filled with irony, how it depicts that the world was saved by being tricked into thinking they were attacked as a whole, when it was made to look like Dr. Manhattan destroyed the major cities. In reality, without such an event, the Soviet Union and United States ended the war without ever firing a single missile, thus the coined term, "Cold War". Had Adrian's plan failed, ultimately, there might still never have been a nuclear holocaust.
"You are the smartest man on the planet." "It doesn't take a genius to see the world has problems." "Yea', but it takes a room full of morons to think they are small enough for you to handle."