Dawn of the Superhero

Rating: 9/10 (11 March 2009)

This is an ironic story, once a brilliant scientist had his own sort of typical superhero story, certainly unexpected, certainly his life changed completely and then it was the dawn of the superhero, "God exist and is American". And yes Jon Osterman (Billy Crudup) was born in America and after his life changed completely he was known as Dr. Manhattan, of course his name help you to remember that he is an American. Now is 1985, a nuclear holocaust is right on the corner, really big tension between the US and the Soviet Union. At one point cities are completely destroyed, the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, will get a surprise: the attack was not caused by the Soviet Union, it was caused by Dr. Manhattan, yes the same who was the key for the US to win in Vietnam, the same who still was there working with the US Government. But after all he does saved the world from the nuclear war, now is a time of "peace and love", is all over, the destruction brought peace. So is sort of ironic that the "American God" Dr. Manhattan destroyed New York City (and other big cities of the world) and also that destruction brought the end to a conflict that was near to become a nuclear war but that Dr. Manhattan caused the destruction is only the official version, is certainly what almost all the people think is the truth, only few know that is not the truth.
In the first month of this year I saw another movie based on a recognized comic book, I saw Frank Miller's The Spirit in January and in my IMDb comment of it I wrote that even that even that I never read something from Will Eisner I was interested in seeing The Spirit, basically was the same thing with Zack Snyder's Watchmen certainly since I never read something from Alan Moore but still I was really interested in seeing Watchmen. Also in my IMDb comment of The Spirit I mentioned the Zack Snyder film 300 that, as you know, was based on the Fran Miller graphic novel. While Miller went to make his debut as director or better while Miller lost his mind and directed a big piece of s*** Snyder went to work on a project based on the work of an artist who, unlike Miller, will not even consider to watch the final product (Moore is not even credited as writer of the graphic novel). And unlike Miller and his The Spirit Snyder ended with a much superior work than the $uccessful 300.
Anyway, Watchmen begins in 1985 and, like I wrote, a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union is very near. Superheroes are outlawed so basically when the Comedian (great performance by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is killed there's only one of his old partners that is there still with a mask, one who certainly known that the Comedian couldn't die in a simple robbery. Rorschach (Jackie Earle Hurley is also great) is our man, he still wears his "face" and we trust him as the vigilante that knows that there's something behind the death of the Comedian. So soon after he found that the Comedian was killed he will go with his old pals, including Daniel Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson), who was Nite Owl II, and Laurie Jupiter (Malin Akerman), who was Silk Spectre II. Our story in 1985 is pretty much the great Rorschach trying to find more who is behind the death of the Comedian and Daniel having the worry and fear like many other people because of the times but certainly knowing that he can act (and also having an opportunity to become a dream in real, certainly I'm talking about the opportunity he has to be more than just friends with Laurie).