Movie Review: Watchmen

My boyfriend is, for lack of a better word, a fan boy. He has a massive comic book collection, has read numerous graphic novels- appreciating them for both their literary as well as artistic aspects, and he has a copy of Spiderman #1. So over the years he has spoken frequently about Watchmen. And over that time I've garnered the basics of the plot - a collection of superheros who are sociopaths and lunatics band together one final time to confront the apocalypse of nuclear devastation threatened by the Cold War Russians in 1985.

Now my approach to the movie, which I assumed we did have to see, was a little different once I discovered Jeffrey Dean Morgan was in the movie. Yes, I am a Grey's Anatomy fan and I was a fan of his character Denny, who died way back in season 2, but yet has recurred frequently in various ghostly forms. Then I discovered that the first scene in the movie was the death of his character, The Comedian, and I was crushed. But he lived on in flashbacks.

So I approached the move somewhat concerned, though being a long time fan of Lost I know I can handle flashbacks. As we settled in for a long movie - 167 minutes according to the paper, I felt as prepared as I could be without having actually read the book.

I found the movie to be engrossing, confusing, visually dark with some real dazzling moments and starring a very large naked blue man. I enjoyed the movie a lot -more for the fact that it was unexpected at every turn, that the story did not follow any plot I'd seen before, and that the characters were intriguing.

I can't really explain the movie without giving too much away - it really does need to be seen and experienced. I will say that it had some moments of extreme violence - especially with the character Rorshach that had me covering my eyes and cringing. It is also most definitely deserving of its R rating. And if you are a superhero fan it may make you give a few second thoughts to some of the behaviors of your favorite superheros - think X-men run amok. And for Jeffrey Dean Morgan fans - he's in the movie quite a bit - even though he dies in the first five minutes. My only hope is that at some point I get to see him in a movie where he actually survives the whole movie.