Deep beneath the caverns of Minotaur in an age of seemingly longing eons, fanboys rejoice as Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel morphs from geeky inked paper to the gaudy silver screen of Hollywood. Bam! Zap! Biff! Pow! What a metamorphosis! For years, a film adaptation of Watchmen was placed in the "too hard" basket but for director Zack Snyder, this was the perfect encore to 300.
If you're not familiar with the source material, it is a whodunnit of anti-superhero proportions set in an alternate reality where Nixon reigns, nuclear war is imminent and the world is striving for peace for all humankind.
Snyder's take is extremely graphic, even for a graphic novel, perhaps a nod to his 2004 Dawn of the Dead (empathised cringes for the father who had to continually shield his son in this review). A higher classification than MA would put it in the realm of a R-classed film meaning a very difficult task to recoup the $US200 million plus budget (such a rating was not economically viable for WB).
Back stories aplenty, the flick ticks in at over 160 Minutemen which may leave some World of Watchmen virgins confused, entertained and contemplative. The coin-side of that is the film is almost scene for scene an exact replica of the nine by nine panels found in the graphical tome bar the climax which deviates from the comiclusion for a more believable finale.
It changed Margaret's life - a blue penis can do that to a person - and the adult-oriented Watchmen is unequivocally a triumph. FTW.