First of all, I didn’t read the graphic novels.  I really don’t think reading them is relevant to watching the movie because they are actually two separate entities.  I am about to respectfully criticize the MOVIE not the graphic novel, so whatever temptation you have to rip me to shreds for my naivety, restrain it.  (Unless it has to do with the movie).

Now with the petty disclaimer out of the way.

‘Watchmen’ falls under the category of ’300′ for me.  Not because they were both graphic novels turned into movies or that they have the same director, Zach Snyder.  ’Watchmen’ is more style than substance.  The first half hour seems to be in slow motion.  A lot of it is literally in slow motion.  The story is ultimately stretched and weak.  What’s worse than the story is how poorly it is paced.

The first half of the movie is about the death of The Comedian.  As more of the ‘Watchmen’ learn about his death, there are flashbacks to how they and The Comedian used to fight crime in the good ‘ole days.  Along with this you get a sense of who the Watchmen were (sort of).  All in all cheap story telling but acceptable.  However, this stretches forever.  In the end The Comedian is NOT an important character.  His biggest contribution to the plot was that it triggered the others to remember the days of being crime fighters.  Then about half way through the movie, the focus shifts to Dr. Manhattan’s (glowing blue guy) genitals (lol to the whole sentence).  Deception, sacrifice, nuclear threats, humans versus mutants, and other semi-interesting topics pushed until the end of the movie.  This movie goes almost an hour without a plot.  Which is not good for a superhero movie.

Throw in an extended sex scene.

This movie might be bad as this review.  Ok, maybe not that bad but I was severely disappointed.  I was expecting an epic story/plot but it mostly an EPIC FAIL.  Surprisingly, the most interesting aspect of the movie was that Nixon gets re-elected for a third term and the cold war was always reaching for a climax.  This fictionalization of the past would’ve worked great as a standalone political thriller but the blue guy’s genitals takes over the rest of the movie.

IMHO.