By Marcus Rodriguez
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

By now most people have already seen, or at least heard of the movie “The Watchmen;” the dark, murky, two-and-a-half-hour anti-hero epic, adapted for film by Director Zack Snyder from the graphic novel written by Alan Moore.

For me, I remember first reading the graphic novel in my late teens, when my body carried the right combination of hormones, antipathy and paranoia for the story to make sense.

The film takes place in an alternate United States, on the eve of a nuclear escalation with Russia. After being successful in the Vietnam War thanks to deploying superheroes, Richard M. Nixon, played by Robert Wisden, is being elected to his fifth consecutive term as President of the United States.

The two-term presidential limit has been pushed aside in the face of a mob-like popularity for a man who, in this universe, is responsible for a victory in the ongoing Cold War. Angry riots flood the streets as news of his re-election hits television sets, during which two passersby say:

“To think I voted for him five times.”
“Better than the commies, right?”

If you’ve seen Snyder’s other film “300,” or are familiar with the graphic novel, then you know this is not Sunday afternoon fare for the whole family.

The film also has enough over-saturated sex and violence to satiate loyal fans of the book.

The movie works as a deconstruction of the superhero myth. The heroes in “the Watchmen’s” world are not the archetypes of humanity and decency that they are in other stories.

Billy Crudup gives a haunting and psychologically complex performance as Dr. Manhattan; a superhero so smart and powerful that he grows disconnected from humanity and his girlfriend Laurie Jupiter, played by Malin Akerman.

Also excellent is Rorschach, the brutal mad dog hero who exacts justice at any cost, played with rabid anger and vulnerability by Jackie Earle Haley.

In this film the heroes are vicious guns for hire, lost souls searching for redemption, pawns in global crimes, raving lunatics and ruthless CEO’s of international corporations. The innocent die, good guys don’t always do the right thing and … well let’s not spoil it.

Over all Snyder’s work has moments of power and bruising satire, but the story still feels more at home in its original form on the comic book page. My advice is if you’re in a pessimistic or chemically altered mood, go for it. But don’t expect to come out feeling like the film’s ubiquitous image of the smiley face.