Watchmen (2009)

To be lost thoroughly in an intricately crafted new world is one of the greatest feats a film can hope to accomplish, and none in recent memory has accomplished this for me in so complete and satisfying a manner as has Watchmen. Based on the supposedly unfilmable graphic novel from the 80's, Watchmen is the War and Peace of comic books, a huge cast of characters, a scope spanning decades, and density of story and back story to boggle the mind. Worth the price of admission alone for the opening montage of forty plus years of history with costumed hero’s in it. The movie is mostly set in an alternate 1985, where Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as president and a nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union seems imminent. A group of forcibly retired costumed vigilantes are pressed into action again when one of there own is murdered, all part of a conspiracy complex and varied, and ultimately gray in its morality. But the plot furthering storyline is not even half of the worth of this movie, its true joy is to be found in the fascinating alternate history created, the complexities of its characters, and the revisionist rifts and philosophical takes on comic book conventions. I find myself wanting to go back to this world and poke around its side streets, as fascinating as its main road remains. A revolution in the comic book movie, on par with last years The Dark Knight. 4 ½ out of 5.

Watchmen Video Gallery:

Official Watchmen Trailer

Watchmen Featurette w/ Zack Snyder

From the Watchmen Universe:

NBS Nightly News with Ted Philips, March 11th 1970

Saturday Morning Watchmen