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The tale of the Watchmen is like a railroad track that is built with the best of aims yet leads to nowhere but perdition. What will our elites do, or what are they above or not above doing to improve the human condition? Who in power can we trust? In the movie, we see Nixon, Kissinger, and other real-life malefactors who did what they did for personal gain. What of Ozymandias? What did he stand to gain? Did he really love humankind or have nothing but detached contempt for it? We see this with Billy Crudup’s Dr. Manhattan as well, although Manhattan suffers from disappointment and heartbroken selfishness, whereas Ozymandias has this sense of birthright to save the world from itself by way of genocide.

I may need to dig out my copy of Watchmen the graphic novel as it has admittedly been a few years since I last perused it, but as a comics fan of 30 years, as someone who holds comics in the highest regard as an artform and recognizes the Moore/Gibbons masterwork as deserving of its status, I will state that Watchmen was more than worth the wait. One could even make a case that it’s a better movie because it took so long to happen, that development hell aided in making it what it is.

And it bears repeating, Watchmen, with some minor and essential tweaking, is reverent of the comic book, and that reverence is another component that makes the movie so engrossing.

There was a time when I didn’t think that a Watchmen film should be made. However, upon seeing the final product, I am left with some questions.

Why isn’t Alan Moore rejoicing?

And why isn’t comics fandom rejoicing along with him?

Even if you’ve never read a comic book in your life, I strongly recommend Watchmen. If it doesn’t make you a fan of the comic book or of comics in general, then you didn’t enjoy the film, and if you didn’t enjoy the film, I have nothing left to say to you. If you think that your unfamiliarity with the characters, the fact that they aren’t icons like Batman and Spider-Man, will hinder your enjoyment, remind yourself of the Hellboy phenomenon. Hellboy was a mid-level character that has never had an ongoing series and was published by a company that was not Marvel or DC. He has since been the subject of a pair of moviehouse blockbusters. Also be mindful of the the popular Men In Black franchise and its origin as an obscure independent comic book. From the looks of it, the heroes/villians (are they one and the same?) of Watchmen are about to join that club.
If you are a comics fan and haven’t seen it yet, leave the nitpicker in you at home, allow yourself to be surprised in the best way possible, and go ahead and be a little smug as the closing credits roll. You deserve it for being so far ahead of the curve.