Dont Watch The Watchmen

Set in a dystopian 1980's New York- in which Nixon is still in power and nuclear war beckons- it appears that the last of the Watchmen (a group of outlawed ex-superheroes) are being murdered. This is discovered by masked misanthrope Rorchnach. As he attempts to warn/save the others, they discover a plot to destroy the world. Or something like that. I think. Because Watchmen is nothing if not confusing. Told in a barrage of flashbacks, subplots, weird (funny?) sex scenes and extreme violence, with no real driving storyline or interesting characters to hold it together, for the majority of the time I didn't have a clue what was going on. Who the heck are all of these people? Do they really have superpowers or can they just punch people really hard and have a spacecraft? And Mr Manhattan and Mars? Eh? Even, the alternate-history backdrop which could have been so interesting seems to be merely window dressing. And it's really long.

I appreciate that I haven't done the homework- there are loads of you who can answer all these questions and more- but surely a film adaptation shouldn't hinge on all the audience having read the book? And anyone who sees this film can (should) object to its miserable, nihilistic vision of the world. We know by now that our heroes can flawed and so can politicians, policemen, bankers- this is not a new idea. But everyone? There is not a shred of hope, humour or warmth in this film and, without that, the orgy of violence (and some of it is really horrible) becomes completely meaningless. I'm still not sure why it was made.

Suffice to say I (and even my Watchmen-loving friends) hated it, but I know this wont put the Watchman hardcore off and nor would I want it too. Go and make up your own mind. Walk out- I wish I had. Weirdly though, the film has become my unlikely way in to graphic novels. Well, I've got to find out how I spent my Sunday afternoon.