Without condemning or condoning, I understand

I just returned from my second viewing of Watchmen and there's only one word on my mind.

Wow.

Maybe that response doesn't mean what you think.  Yes, this is a movie that made me think "wow" more than a few times.  This is a fantastic adaptation of my favorite book (comic or otherwise) ever written.  And according to the two people who I've seen it with who haven't read the comic, it works really well as just a film.

However, this is a film that I'm not sure I understand how it exists.  In my conversations with friends after the movie, I believe I've decided that this is one of the riskiest films ever released.  I also believe it is safe to say that it is THE riskiest blockbuster ever made.  To release a film this grimy, dark, gritty, graphic, bleak, depressing, demanding, and stimulating with no stars and no recognizable heroes in the wake of the biggest comic book movie ever made borders on insanity.  The fact that there is a Watchmen movie where Rorschach kills dogs, where Dr. Manhattan walks around naked, that never once sacrifices the mature storyline of the comic, I just have to say Wow.

Wow.

This is a film that demands more of its audience than possibly any I have ever seen.  For the uninitiated, we're asked to believe in an alternate 1985, one in which a god on earth has won the Vietnam War, resulting in five presidential terms for Richard Nixon.  We're asked to accept an alternate 20th century in which masked superheroes are commonplace, until made illegal in 1977.  The plot is fantastic, and weaves an intricate yarn that requires constant attention.  It is incredibly violent, the sex borders on explicit, and the characters are complicated, to say the very least.

Not your typical Saturday afternoon at the movies.

No, this is the Watchmen movie I never anticipated to see.  When I first heard about a film adaptation, I grabbed my copy and reread it to try and find the things that would certainly be cut.  I thought Dr. Manhattan's nudity would have to go.  Rorschach's entire backstory would have to be altered, as well as a great deal of what happens to him in prison.  Well all that's here, and other things I thought for sure would go.  In a way, this is the Watchmen movie I dreamed about.

That being said, this is certainly a flawed masterpiece.  It is a movie so full of good ideas and so ready to bring us into the world crafted by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and yet I'm not 100% convinced that it achieves that.  Yes, it is a fantastic film, a glorious adaptation, and a movie that absolutely begs to be discussed and dissected, even by its detractors.  

But why am I not fully sold on the thing?  Honestly, I'm not exactly sure.  The (small, almost insignificant) changes don't bother me at all.  They work better within the context of the film.  Maybe I'm still coming to terms with the mere fact that this film even exists.  The production of this movie mirrors Dr. Manhattan's speech about thermodynamic miracles almost exactly.  First, Zach Snyder directs 300, an unapologetically faithful adaptation of Frank Miller's brutal comic.  Despite the insane amount of violence, the movie is a massive hit.  Snyder now has a bit of clout in Hollywood, and pulls just the right strings to get a Watchmen movie, which had been in development hell for over 20 years, off the ground.  Despite setbacks up until a matter of weeks before the release of the film, there it is.  In theaters.  The damage is done.  There is a damned fine Watchmen movie in theaters, and for that I could not be happier.

And its very lucky, too.  Any other time, any other director, and I don't think this film gets made.  People may hate it, the box office take may plummet after its opening weekend, but the film is done and will be available forever.  The film works so well as a companion piece to the comic, and if it draws just 10 more readers to the book, well I'd call that a success.  I will be proud to add this to my DVD collection someday (probably many times over, as a director's cut is inevitable), and will watch it over and over again.  This will be a movie that I'll be able to watch and absorb myself in like I can the Lord of the Rings films.  I'm not sure its as good as those movies, but it certainly tries.

This review is very vague, and I'm sure that someday very soon I'll get in-depth with what exactly I loved, what I felt, and what could have been left out.  For now, this will have to do.