DC Comics has transformed another of their graphic novel creations in to a movie of epic proportions.

Watchmen is set in an alternative, violent past. Superheroes assist in winning the Vietnam War swiftly, leading to Richard Nixon becoming President for a couple more terms of office. Heroes or “masks” as they are referred to, begin to work for the governments of the world and go in to retirement. A Cold War looms over the U.S. and Russia hundreds of times worse than in our lifetime.

Then the Comedian, a veteran hero, is murdered in his home. Paranoia seeps in the minds of some of the former heroes and leads a small group of them, known as the Watchmen, deeper and deeper in to a plot of deceit, sabotage, and death. With an ending you will never see coming, Watchmen is an absolute thrill ride from start to finish.

Overall, the story was great, with good use of characters, being true to the comic storyline, and the grit and dark nature for which the graphic novel is known. Cinematography and camera angles, both in the story itself and in select flashbacks, provide a unique angle to the story that leaps out at the viewer. With an R rating, unusual for a superhero movie, Watchmen lives up to the “graphic” in graphic novel. This movie is not for the squeamish, with very gory and violent scenes and nudity that you won’t expect. Awkward things like that aside, the almost three-hour movie flies by and never leaves you bored.

Special effects are the icing on the cake for this flick, complete with one hero, Rorschach, who has a mask that changes to various Rorschach test blots! It was amazing just to watch that!

I won’t ruin any more, but Watchmen is a dark treat for the movie lover as well as any fan of this particular franchise. Plus, it has an amazing new trailer for the new Star Trek movie (squeel!) before it.

Go see Watchmen…you won’t regret it.