Dave Gibbons’s hardboiled superhero graphic novel is brought to stunning visual life by director Zach Snyder.
Here is a convoluted adult fantasy that provides an off-key political tone to its alternate reality of 1985 America where Richard Nixon is still President, and the Doomsday Clock forever sits at five minutes to the hour of imminent apocalypse thanks to a Soviet nuclear threat.
Put out of work by Nixon’s decree outlawing masked avengers, unless they work for the government, a group of former superheroes known as the Watchmen variously reconnect after the violent murder of their macho former member, the Comedian AKA Edward Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
The Comedian’s demise implies a similar fate for the rest of the group.
Rorschach (devilishly played by Jackie Earle Haley), in his ever-morphing inkblot mask and raspy voice, narrates the complex mystery that plays out with richly designed flashbacks that reveal the personal histories of the likes of Laurie Jupiter (Malin Akerman), and her atomically transmogrified yet anatomically correct love interest Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup).
Outrageous sexual elements and extreme violence give “Watchmen” its well-deserved hard R rating.
Opposed to its child-friendly poster, this is not your run-of-the-mill action/adventure movie for the kids.
At over two and a half hours, “Watchman” is a full-frontal adult sci-fi satire that’s as enjoyable as it is thematically confounding.
There’s something here to make every member of the audience squirm.
(Warner Brothers) Rated R. 160 mins.
