Watchmen (2009) film review

This film adaption of Alan Moore's 1987 comic is grittier, darker and gorier than typical comic book films, and is as good an adaption as there ever will be. Complete with plenty of sex, murder, conspiracies, rape and infanticide thrown in, and seems to be a deconstruction of the genre in the same way the book was. There are no clear cut heroes of villains, every character seems to have a secret or a mean streak; black and white fuse, heroes are not necessarily good and life and death are cogs in a march larger machine.
Set in an alternate 1985 where superheroes exist; Richard Nixon is still the US president, America has won the Vietnam war, and the threat of nuclear war between the West and the Soviets is all but inevitable. A retired vigilante and former government black-op named "The Comedian" is brutally attacked in his home and murdered, setting off the plot of this three hour long character-driven piece. And it is character-driven, rather than a popcorn spectacle. These heroes, Rorschach, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, The Comedian, Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias, are what drive the plot.
The violence is lot more explicit than it is in the book; limbs are broken and cut off, women are beaten brutally; nothing is left to the imagination. It also looks very stylish, the scenery is practically pornographic and the characters are all beautiful in their own way. However, the characters and story come first. These heroes are tragic characters caught up in reality. They are all faithful adaptions of the comic counterparts and translate well to screen, something I wasn't sure would be possible given the many layers the story has. This story was described by Alan Moore as a graphic novel, not a film, but Zack Snyder makes a go of it, and the result is an entertaining deconstruction of the Superhero genre. The actors play their parts well, particularly those who played Nite Owl, Rorschach and The Comedian, all looking the part. The actor playing Adrian Veidt hams it up a lot, though for good reason. It should be worth pointing out how bleak this film is. Besides some funny moments from Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl and Rorschach, the film's humour mostly relies on irony and melodrama. It's almost always raining, there's a monotone humanoid who doesn't value humanity willing to explode people by will, and there are nihilist sociopaths running around this crapsack world talking about hookers and death.
In some cases, the film improves on the novel, including the ending. I was worried that the film would opt for an audience friendly ending, but as I saw the death, violence and unromantic view of the world, it was clear what kind of film this was, and that I wasn't going to be disappointed. There are also scenes in the book that work better on screen, though I won't say which ones, though they involve characters dying. There's an interesting soundtrack in this film, such as Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" playing during a graphic sex scene seconds after the characters in said scene rescue a family from a burning building. This isn't your typical popcorn flick, so if you don't already know about its mature content, beware. Otherwise, enjoy.