As Dr. Manhattan floats on the surface of Mars, pondering his exile and disconnect with humanity; as Rorshach recalls the first night he took a life because of moral retribution by slicing a meat cleaver into a man’s skull; I was in awe watching Zack Snyder meticulously rip the pages of the graphic novel and plaster them on the silver screen to create the “unfilmable film.” Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is another genre-defying and cinematic milestone like its Dark Knight brother.

Watchmen is a film that fan boys who have read the graphic novel will accept with open arms and sustains enough wide-spread appeal (bizarre/awesomely choreographed fight sequences, bone-crunching bloodshed, hot & steamy sex scenes, and enough relieving humor) to accommodate the novice audience member. The source material is very dark and complex in written form, which might make the movie plot hard for some to follow, but for those who can, it CAN BE an engrossing movie experience.

The Watchmen are superheroes (with no powers except Doc) living in an alternate reality of 1985 New York, where Nixon is on his fifth term and the U.S. is on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The womanizing, narcissistic, nihilist, ex-soldier Comedian is murdered and his fellow Watchmen Rorshach, investigates the murder only to discover a vast and disturbing conspiracy that only he and his fellow Watchmen can prevent. While some people’s grievance with the film will be that it’s “too faithful to the source material,” my response is “well what the hell else would it be?”

Snyder is unrelentingly loyal to Alan Moore’s famous graphic novel, with a few exceptions of course to ease its cinematic transition. At the beginning there is a beautiful montage that recaps the origin of “The Minutemen” (the original Watchmen) and follows the sub-plot events that occur through several decades in the book; with out which, the film would be 400 minutes instead of 160. This montage is perfectly accompanied by Bob Dylan’s “The times they are a-changing” which is breath-taking to watch. A significant majority of the script is taken word-for-word from book and the pace of the film may seem awkward at times, and this is some of the reasoning for people’s complaints about Snyder’s fidelity to the source material, but if anything had been changed in a significant way (i.e. make it shorter or add cheesier lines to accommodate the masses) the film’s philosophical and psychological themes would severely suffer, thus reducing Watchmen’s POTENTIAL impact on audiences.

Zack Snyder has a brilliant eye for how to film people fighting each other. Like in 300, Watchmen is saturated with intricately choreographed fight sequences, with Snyder’s off-beat/slow-motion pacing that makes you feel like you’re inside a comic book. Accompanying these brutal fights is bone-crunching bloodshed; I’m talking Sin City+Saw. I mean it is really bloody, which might immediately turn people off (even though it’s rated R for “strong graphic violence” duh), but it supplement’s the tortured and ruthless nature of the story and the characters with grace.

The performances are spot-on (say for the exception of Malin Akerman who is, to no fault of her own, not strong enough for the role). Patrick Wilson is an up-and-comer giving a pitch-perfect, reserved “every day” superhero approach to Night Owl. Jeffery Dean Morgan is as twisted and sick as The Comedian was in the book. Billy Crudup brings an unusual, but brilliant docile approach to Dr. Manhattan. And Jack Earl Haley is brilliant as Rorshach. This movie is going to split audiences. It’s going to cause arguments, feuds, rifts, etc. You’re going to either absolutely love it or absolutely hate it. Obviously I’m on the LOVE side, but don’t let people’s opinions influence you seeing it. Go see it and decide for yourself.

What should you do? SEE IT NOW!

4 out of 4 STARZ