Watchmen

Three hours and still no theatrical trailer for Harry Potter later...I return from my journey through an alternate history with Zack Snyder.

There were a couple of incredibly distracting aspects to this film. First of all, did you know that Billy Crudup is the "Priceless" guy from the MasterCard commercials? I cannot picture him when I hear that voice in those commercials so every time Dr. Manhattan spoke, because there was Billy Crudup without Billy Crudup's face, I tried to imagine him saying "priceless," and still couldn't do it.

Second, was Richard Nixon's (Robert Wisden) fake nose. It was so visibly formed out of costumer's putty that every time he came on screen a little voice in my head would scream, "It's not even a real nose! It's polystyrene!" Inappropriately placed Monty Python references are rarely helpful, especially when I'm the only one who can hear them.

Beyond the workings of my own slightly short-circuited mind, I enjoyed the show. It may have been subject matter, it may have been lack of action but I did not hold this one up to the same standard as Snyder's 300, but still enjoyable.

I was warned before going that it was violent and bloody and it was, indeed, violent and bloody. There were some instances when the violence did not seem to be such that would cause the amount of blood spill; that is to say there were a few scenes that seemed to be only for the sake of using up a surplus of Karo syrup, but, again, did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the film.

The premise of the film is fairly simple, given that it is set in the mid-1980's. Stop the Soviets from starting a Nuclear war while the government pretends you don't exist and while someone is picking off your ranks one by one. There is a standard and almost expected twist of comic book treachery in the end and in between is a story about superheroes who try to live normal lives but get dragged kicking and screaming (for about three seconds until they remember how much fun it was to be a superhero) back into the gig.

If you enjoyed 300 and enjoy comic book/superhero films and have the endurance to sit through 3 hours (including trailers), have fun. It's pretty much worth the price of admission. I'm not sure it would be as effective on a home television set.