???As the Doomsday Clock ticks down and last of the blood trickles from the grimy New York City streets, all that will remain is the slightly hollowed-out Alan Moore opus Watchmen and the ravaged pages from one of history's greatest graphic novels.
???Director Zack Snyder (300) took upon himself the immense pressure of bringing the prized graphic novel from the tattered page to the silver screen.
???Set during the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and during Nixon's third term as president, Watchmen follows a group of masked vigilantes as their heroics are called into question.
???Moore, the author of the graphic novel, has been praised for throwing away the pristine shine on heroes who proved to be anything but super since the comic was first published in 1986. Snyder's adaptation humbly followed in his footsteps.
???And with legions of fanboys holding their spears ready to throw at the first scent of dissent, Snyder makes sure to stay as true as he possibly can to the source material; avid readers will be able to recognize frame-by-frame recreations during many of the film's scenes.
???In fact, he stays so true to the book that many audience members with no knowledge of the book will be left scratching their heads wondering what just happened. Some of the plot points simply didn't translate well to film or were cut in order to make the near three-hour runtime just a little bit shorter.
???In one of the most controversial changes from the book, Snyder decided to alter the epic closing section of the film, but the change prove to be not too significant and fits well with the rest of the movie.
???Throughout the movie, it is obvious that the film is a one-man highlight reel as the demented, ruthless Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, Winged Creatures) steals each and every scene he is in. Whether he's murdering crazed kidnappers or locked up in prison, it's hard not to root for the madman.
???For readers of the graphic novel who might be concerned with Rorschach's classic "Do it" line: it is powerful enough to give everyone in the theater chills.
???Using radiating colors to showcase the big blue atomic Dr. Manhattan, actor Billy Crudup (Pretty Bird) does his best to carry the burden of the emotionless beast.
???Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Days of Wrath) plays the slimy Comedian with enough charm to evoke a little sympathy no matter how vile he proves to be alongside Patrick Wilson (Lakeview Terrace), whose peevish incarnation of good-doer Nite Owl rounds out some of the stronger performances in the film.
???But Silk Spectre II, played by Malin Akerman, just doesn't cut it. Many of her lines come off very forced, and she fails to deliver on anything that requires more than wearing a latex superhero costume.
???Audiences familiar with Snyder's previous work on 300 should recognize two of his loves: slow motion and visuals.
???As for the slow motion, it does frequent itself in the movie quite a bit. Something Snyder does particularly well is use the slow motion to capture the splash pages from the graphic novel, providing a turn-the-page feeling on screen.
???However, during most of the fighting scenes Snyder's slow motion brings things down a bit, making it hard to feel attached in any way to the action going on.
???His second love though proves to be one of the strongest points of the film.
???Watchmen presents a bold, vibrant world, beautifully rendering the horrors of inner-city turmoil and turbulence. From the scenes that take place on Mars to Ozymandias' fortress of solitude remake and Rorschach's pulsating mask, the entire film is extremely appealing visually.
Creating a film based on a comic of such a large magnitude is a task in itself, but Snyder's recreation is a fast-paced blast through a world of antiheroes. Despite its pitfalls, Watchmen is an entertaining way to spend three hours.
