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Watchmen Our rating: Your rating:   Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: R (for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity, and language) Genre: Action, Drama, Superhero Theater release: March 06, 2009 Directed by: Zack Snyder Runtime: 2 hours 42 minutes Cast: Jackie Earle Haley (Walter Kovacs/Rorschach), Patrick Wilson (Dan Dreiberg/Nite-Owl), Malin Akerman (Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre), Matthew Goode (Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias), Billy Crudup (Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Edward Blake/The Comedian) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Legions of fans who have read Watchmen over the years already know they want to see this long awaited film adaptation. But for the sake of the uninitiated, let's make something perfectly clear: this is not your average, straightforward, family-friendly superhero movie.

For sure, it's got plenty of caped crusader action, but not the tame "Biff! Bam! Boom!" variety common to Saturday morning fare. The graphic violence is surrounded by a labyrinthian plot packed with satire and social commentary that oftentimes blurs good and evil into a complicated mixture of gray. Those who felt last year's The Dark Knight was too intense for its PG-13 rating may want to stay away from this one; Watchmen relishes in its R rating because there's no way to tone down its adult content while remaining true to the source material.

In other words, this film represents yet another example of the contrast between a comic book and a graphic novel. The difference should now be clear after Sin City, 300, V for Vendetta, Wanted, and Chris Nolan's Batman films, all adaptations of popular graphic novels incorporating complex stories, heady concepts, adult themes, and stunning visuals. These are indeed visual novels with mature content, giving equal weight to printed word and images—for that reason, it's a wonder that movies have only recently turned to graphic novels for ideas.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian, Carla Gugino as the original Silk Spectre

Ask any comic geek for their pick of the greatest graphic novel of all time, and most of them will tell you it's Watchmen. Written nearly 25 years ago, the groundbreaking story would later earn writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons a Hugo Award (the highest honor in sci-fi literature). Name your favorite literary classic—Watchmen is considered the equivalent among graphic novels, a masterpiece influencing everything from Pixar's The Incredibles to television's Lost.

It's also long been considered un-filmable—too dense and complicated by layers of flashbacks and interludes to shoehorn into two hours. There's also the matter of its unusual setting: an alternate reality version of 1985's New York City in which Richard Nixon is serving his third term as President (after removing term limits) and the world is on the brink of annihilation during the height of the Cold War. Can all this really work together into a comprehensive film still relevant to today's general audiences?

Surprisingly, yes. Watchmen holds together rather well, thanks to careful handling by director Zack Snyder. He's come up with a remarkably faithful adaptation that retains the story's core while trimming the elements that would have made a movie adaptation impossible—all contained within a long yet certainly watchable 2 hour and 45 minute running time.

Watchmen is a superhero film at heart, though an unconventional one at that, centering on a masked avenger team that's been integral to twentieth century American history. A brilliant opening montage (set to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a Changing") shows us how superheroes helped us win not only World War II, but also the Vietnam War. But years later, the superheroes lose favor with the public, who believe costumed avengers shouldn't have free reign over American democracy. A Congressional act is passed in 1977, outlawing heroes from their activities and forcing them into either government sponsorship or retirement.

Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach

Watchmen is also a murder mystery. As the movie opens, The Comedian, one of the original team members, is hurled out of his high-rise apartment to his death. Who knew his identity and what does this mean for the other superheroes in hiding? Is it a covert government operation meant to eliminate the hidden threat of masked avengers? Some vigilante movement among the populace? Perhaps a supervillain seeking vengeance? Or is it something greater that threatens not only superheroes, but all of humanity?

In addition to the action and mystery, Watchmen is chock full of ideas starting with the question, as the Roman poet Juvenal put it, "Who watches the watchmen?" If absolute power corrupts, who safeguards that power? And then who oversees that safeguard? Watchmen explores this uneasy tension between powers both political and super, and measures their influence against the backdrop of Cold War tension between superpower nations in the 1980s.

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