Wow! Your ticket price will buy you a whole lot of movie. Big smooth action, intense emotive acting, complicated plot, steamy romance. This is not a child's comic book flick. Watchmen opens with a brief, but attention engaging scene before rolling an absolutely gorgeous title sequence with back story in slow mo and Bob Dylan on the soundtrack. It's a big promise from director Zack Snyder upon which he delivers.

Many years ago, two friends of mine, both serious comic book lovers, handed me the graphic novel "Watchmen" and said, "this is a must read." Despite my initial disinterest, it proved the first piece in the genre that changed my stereotyped thoughts on comic books. Still, I don't recall anything from that book, save the blood drip on the iconic smiley face button. So in the theatre this weekend, I was just as confused as first timers will be watching this complex story. That said, I greatly appreciate the film respecting me enough to use my own brain. This is not a good guys in white, bad guys in black story. Watchmen loves the gray, loves to play in the shifty sandbox of human nature and societal morality.

But for as much as this is an intricate film, a picture that handles the difficulty of a plethora of superheroes successfully where other ensemble hero films (X-Men 2) have failed, Watchmen also excels cinematographically. It's a beautiful picture to look at. Each scene feels loved by the filmmakers, from the actors right on down to the editors. However, unfortunately, there is one scene that feels somewhat excepted. Strangely enough, it's the climactic scene. For more than one reason, the film sputters at this point. Fortunately, Watchmen is a locomotive, it's momentum pushes it through this hiccup and into some interesting resolution.

If you liked Fight CLub, you'll love "Watchmen."

SPOILER:
The climactic scene hosted the standard bad-guy-not-so-dead cliche. That trick here played way below the integrity of the rest of the picture. I also had a problem with the writing in this scene. Here's a small rewrite I would have wanted to insert:
Close on Adrian's hand, it opens to expose a bullet. Silk fires three quick rounds into Adrian's skull. Rorschach chuckles, "There you go Dan, you can now look directly into the mind of the smartest man in the world."
John, "Smartest man in who's world?"
News reels on TV sets.
Long silence.
Dan, "What do we do now?"
John, "Nothing."
Rorschach, "Screw that! Peace is not justice!"
(continue as written)

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --