Watchmen (2009)

  I can't believe I haven't done this one already.  I could have sworn I had reviewed it when it first came out, but no.

I own this movie.  I know it polarized a lot of people, fans of the graphic novel and otherwise, when it came out but I have to say I was a fan.  For all of Zac Snyder's faults, he was a fanatic about sticking to the source material (as much as he could, but we'll get to that later) and every scene looks ripped right from the pages of the book.

I came to Watchmen relatively late in the game.  It was already nearly twenty years old when I read it.  By the end of it, I was horribly depressed, sickened even, by the massive dose of cynicism.  But it stuck with me and that in itself would be worthy of acclaim.  When I heard they were making it into a movie, the anticipation and fear were palpable.

It's an alternate 1985, where masked superheroes have been banned under legislation aimed at protecting the world against vigilantism.  The Cold War is raging, both the US and the USSR a hair's-breadth from nuclear Armageddon.  A loner named Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), discovers that the recent death of Edward Blake, aka The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is a deliberate attack against former masked crusaders and takes his findings to his old friend, Dan (Patrick Wilson), formerly known as the Nite Owl.  Dan doesn't want to go back to the old life, having grown disillusioned, but he cannot ignore Rorschach's warning, especially if it brings him back into contact with the lovely Laurie (Malin Ackerman).  Laurie is a second-generation superhero, following in her mother's (Carla Gugino) footsteps as Silk Spectre.  She is also the girlfriend of godlike ubermensch Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup).  Lately, however, Laurie has started to feel like an insect next to the increasingly removed being.  Rorschach, being a psychopath, doesn't give a shit about any of this.  He just wants to track down the person responsible for the death of the Comedian and the attempted assassination of Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode), the smartest man in the world.

Visually, the movie is stunning and in many places looks as though the comic book came to life.  The ending is different, however, and a lot of people got really pissed about that.  I get it.  The original ending would have been way too difficult to pull off, given the time restraints, and the new one keeps the exact same outcome via a different medium.  Personally, I enjoyed it and I have enjoyed it on subsequent viewings.  Every actor in it is great, but Jackie Earle Haley is amazing.  This movie turned me into a fan of his singlehandedly.