I enjoyed it.

Rating: 6/10 (8 March 2009)

Watchmen is another comic book movie. The book it is based on, published in the mid-80's, was one of the biggest reasons that comics became more mature and mainstream. Today, every comic character seems to be a hot property for film adaptations, and the movies being made from this genre are getting more and more sophisticated. Watchmen was directly responsible for the beginning of this trend.
The comic was written more for adults than kids, so this ends up being rated "R." Anyone trying to decide whether or not to watch--or let their kids watch it--should know it is what they call a "hard R," which means that there is a lot of stuff going all through the movie that contributes to that rating: language, violence, nudity, and mature situations. I took my wife, not really expecting her to like it much, especially since she doesn't really enjoy gory violence. Her comment, watching what she assumed was a superhero movie, was "I don't see any heroes."
I'm not usually big on gore either, but one of the things I enjoyed most was the savagery of the character Rorshach. Chopping heads, frying faces, taking on groups of cops alone--you just want to watch this guy go nuts. Maybe there should never be a sequel, but it's impossible not to want to see more of Rorshach.
I enjoyed most of the choices in this movie. The opening credits were especially rewarding with all the blink-and-you'll-miss-it cultural references. A couple things that did bother me: Carla Guigino (who I usually like) and Matt Frewer were TERRIBLE. Their acting belonged in a bad soap opera. And some of the makeup was poorly done. Carla, again, as an elderly woman worked about as well as the Wayans' in White Chicks. Matt Frewer looked more like something out of Narnia. And the guy playing Nixon was the most cartoonish.
Also, a lot of the pop songs chosen for this movie have been overused in other soundtracks. The one that worked best was "The Times They Are-A Changin." What they did with that song gave it a whole new meaning. But "Sounds of Silence" and "All Along The Watchtower" felt like clichés.
The other choice that will have fans divided is the ending. In the book, a giant monster destroys New York. In the movie, we are told that several cities were bombed. I would have rather seen the monster.
Watchmen might be one of the most faithful scripts in any movie ever adapted from a book. It went a little long, some of the casting was off, and some of the costumes weren't that good, but I liked it enough to watch it again.