Tremendous Film (but see also good, contrary comm. by arichmondfwc)

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2009)

I'll try to be brief:
1. Monstrous violence - formulaic part of the modern media.
2. Explicit sex - again, formulaic part of the modern media.
3. Duplicity of 'heroes', their less-than-heroic personal lives. Eg, the Comedian (a hero to the public) is like the Joker working in a sanctioned, law-&-order, pro-USA career.
4. All these people have become heroes primarily because they possess incredible talents for kicking ass; the other reasons are secondary - compulsions, abilities that can only be realized outside of society, or even to satisfy real or virtual parental expectations.
5. The film treats of a question: What is right? What is the right thing to do in a violent world? (In this, it parallels 'The Dark Knight' somewhat.) Dr. Manhattan, a kind of Silver Surfer without the empathy or pathos, sees things thru cosmic, material, quantum-mechanical lenses; Rorschak sees things thru an angry, angry, ANGRY code of honor comprised of the commandment, 'Never compromise'; Ozymandias, thru a web of cunning, manipulation and control of lesser beings; and so on.
6. Worth the watch: you feel for the 'heroes', you feel against the 'heroes', but the story's resolution is - like life, like our lives - not a 'proper' resolution at all.
7. Please read a good comment by 'arichmondfwc', for a different reaction.
8. This story, done in cinema, succeeds, whereas the actual graphic novel bored me every time I tried to read it. Somehow, the movie is less disjunctive - and as illusion, much more convincing and affecting.
9. One of my top five films, period.