Tonight I attended the 9pm showing of Watchmen. I had finished a long day at work and the auditorium was very warm so at times I almost dropped off. The reason I am telling you this first is that the conditions were not right for me to fully enjoy the movie. Whilst watching I was distracted by the heat and my tiredness. Although the movie does have some genuine self indulgent scenes that drag on for an eternity, as a whole this is a movie like no other. I think after another viewing under better conditions it will border on greatness. There is so much meaning hidden within Watchmen that upon first seeing it you dont have time in your mind to process all of it. Many of the visions of our world and others such as Mars are so beautiful that you get sidetracked from the story taking place. This is no bad thing, it makes Watchmen a movie you could watch many times and get more from it each time. The Watchmen exist in a distorted version of our world, a world where Richard Nixon serves 5 terms and basks in the glory of winning the Vietnam war (using questionable means), a world where superheroes are more corrupt than the criminals to a certain degree. One of the superheroes is a rapist and child murderer whilst another is much much worse. This is our world turned on it's head BUT at the same time if you dig deeper it's our world as it really is.

Apart from one the other superheroes do not have any real other worldy powers other than great fighting skills and this makes everything much more believable. The aforementioned superhero who does have unique powers is the one who brings to question how we perceive the world around us. For instance if humans end up wiping themselves out with nuclear war then would the universe miss us or would it just continue to exist forever just as it has always done. A line from this character sends home this fact when questioned on people he is accused of killing, he responds "A human who is living contains exactly the same number of molecules as the same being when dead, so what is the difference?". Of course the answer is quite complex, from the view of the universe there is no difference but a life is more than just the molecules that it is made from. What is the difference though, what makes the death of life more than what it is. To question this is to question the existence of a soul, the invisible entity we all believe in but cannot explain. This is just one of the many moments in Watchmen where you can truly get lost in the possible connotations. The main questions the film raises are quite visible. Who ARE the good guys and who watches the watchmen. Who decides what is right and wrong.

Visually Watchmen is stunningly beautiful, even the gritty depictions of the city are breathtaking and you get fully transported into this dreamlike vision of New York. The graphic novel style is there but not distracting, the dialog is inspired at times and at others tends to over indulge itself but this may prove to be a good thing when watching it back in the comfort of your own home where you can take a toilet break or make a coffee to break up the 2 hours 40 minutes. Also this is most definitely an adult movie with scenes of violence and bloodshed that easily match the gruesome Saw series and sex scenes that are not afraid to keep the camera on the action. You won't want your kids to see this superhero movie.

By the end I have to admit I was clock watching but that is more down as I said earlier to the conditions in the cinema. I had booked deluxe seats and they were recliners, with all the heat and the comfort of the chair I was being lulled slowly into half sleep. Id recommend you go see Watchmen whilst fully awake and ready to spend nearly 3 hours in another world. Then buy the Blu-Ray and watch it again a few more times so that you take in all that Watchmen has to offer. I get the feeling that once it has been out for a few weeks there will be two camps - those that hate it and those that love it. I have never read the graphic novel so I can't say how well it executes it's source material but as a stand alone movie it manages to be a blockbuster spectacle and contain a lot more than just good looks in the same package. Quite a rare feat in this day of remakes.

Go watch it and show Hollywood we like some meat on our bones. You never know we might just get some more original films in the future... or maybe they will just churn out sequel after sequel hahaha. At least we will always have the original.