Watchmen

Watchmen is a Comic Book created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, originally published as a twelve-month series from 1986 to 1987 and was later republished in graphic novel format.

As a stand alone story, not an ongoing plot such as the likes of Superman, Batman and Spiderman, it is arguably the most famous graphic novel of all time.

It was therefore pretty much guaranteed at least some success. But is it any good?

That depends on what you really like to see in a film. Which of the following is your cup of tea?

a) Comic book films
b) Unnessary gruesome violence
c) Softcore nudity
d) Dark humour
e) Unusual plot
f) All of the above
g) Other.

If you picked option g, give this one a miss. If, however, you chose option f, then by George you might just be in luck.

The comic book is about a bunch of guys who decide to dress up and fight bad-guys. Mostly they have no real super powers, they're just ordinary folk with a few screws lose trying to make the world a better place. Its the kind of thing that makes you pause for a moment and wonder why no one has ever REALLY tried that kind of thing. Oh sure, you're not going to, the idea is nuts and will end in almost certain death, but with all the billions of people in the world, why hasn't anyone?

Back to the book, there is one guy who does has some actual super powers due to the typical experiment one wrong senerio. Dr Manhattan. And boy does he have some powers. He can basically do ANYTHING. He does have some limitations, but these are few and far between. Teleport, blow stuff up, see through time, copy himself, alter matter... the list is a VERY long one.

The story is set in 1985. The world is on the brink of all out nuclear war. All the heroes, other than Dr Manhattan, have been outlawed. Dr Manhattan is legal because a) he has the ability to basically catch any missiles, chew them up and spit them out and is thus used by America as a deterant and b) how the hell u gonna outlaw a guy who can spit out nuclear missiles?

Out of the normal heroes, only one guy is really refusing the ban and staying active. Mr Hard-as-effin-nails-take-no-sh*t-seriously-damn-cool-messed-up-in-the-head Rorschach. So when a former hero ends up dead, its up to Rorschach to figure out why. And he aint gonna let nothing stand in his way.

Thats the book. How about the film?

It's more or less exactly the same. Sure there are parts missing, it was a pretty long comic, and the ending was altered, it was originally pretty weird, but don't worry it still is. But if your looking for a film of the book, you've come to the right place.

Rumours have it that it could have been very different. Apparently the original director wanted to bring the story up to date, replacing nuclear war with the "war on terror". Their are also rumours that Simon Pegg was due to be Rorschach.

Nothing wrong with Simon Pegg, funny guy, but Rorshcach?

No.

Thankfully that didn't happen. If you liked the book go watch it. If you didn't read the book, perhaps have a gander at it first, the film may be a little odd to a newbie.