Watchmen

Watchmen, as I'm sure you all know, is based on the comic series published in the mid 80's. I'm going to say from the start that I've never read the original comic series, although I will remedy that situation soon enough. Of course this means that I didn't come to the film with any preconceived notions of how the film was "supposed" to be, and am only judging it based on its merits as a piece of cinema. These merits are many as I found the film quite enjoyable. Watchmen paints a alternate history of the United States where Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as President and America was victorious in Vietnam, due to the efforts of the all powerful Dr. Manhattan, the only one of the Watchmen with super powers. The other Watchmen, although they're sometimes referred to as Super heroes are actually simply costumed and masked crimefighters, who posses superior fighting skills, and have a nifty flying machine at their disposal. At one point these people were admired but now they've been outlawed as vigilantes. At the beginning of the film an older Watchmen, The Comedian, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, is murdered and Rorschach is determined to find out why. Rorschach, played by Jackie Earle Haley is one of the highlights of the film as he plays his character as basically a sociopath with a conscience. He's also convinced that someone is targeting all of the Watchmen for death and he's determined to warn the rest. There's also a looming threat of Nuclear war between the Russians and the United States, so it's obvious that this Richard Nixon never heard of detente. This film has an engrossing story and a few excellent performances, as Patrick Wilson also shines as Nite Owl II. It also has a great soundtrack which helps drive the film. Too bad some of these guys weren't "watching" over our financial gods a few years ago.

Rating - 3 1/2 Stars