Entertainment, Movies - Army Times

Complex crusaders

The fragile nature of friendship. The eternal search for love. Loss of innocence. Our need for heroes in dark times, and our disdain for same in less-dark times. Nuclear annihilation. The banality of death. The meaning of life.

Oh, and five-term President Dick Nixon.

Yes, the eagerly awaited film version of “Watchmen,” mad-genius Englishman Alan Moore’s bleakly existential masterwork about humanity’s unshakable yen for self-destruction, has more layers than the fattest onion.

Bringing this densely plotted story, which first appeared as a 12-issue comic book in 1986 and later became a graphic novel, to the big screen was no small feat.

Moore, also the creator of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “V for Vendetta,” has no love for Hollywood and had nothing to do with the “Watchmen” film. But it’s hard to imagine him finding too much fault with writers David Hayter and Alex Tse, who stay remarkably true to Moore’s story, and director Zack Snyder, who hones the gorgeous visual style he unveiled in “300” to make many scenes leap off the screen.

The story, set in an alternate-reality 1985 with Nixon still in power and the U.S. and Soviet Union on the brink of nuclear war, starts on a deceptively small note — the murder of Eddie Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), once known as “The Comedian,” a roguish member of a post-World War II costumed crime-fighting team called the Minutemen.

Blake’s murder reunites several of the acquaintances with whom he served in a subsequent team, the Watchmen — all driven underground in 1977 when Nixon outlawed costumed vigilantes.

Most alarmed by Blake’s murder is the only one among them still fighting bad guys — Walter “Rorschach” Kovacs (Jackie Earle Haley, bad boy Kelly Leak in the “Bad News Bears” about 100 years ago), who wears a mask with a constantly shifting inkblot pattern.

The others include Dan “Nite Owl” Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson), a nerdy genius who can’t shake the old days from his mind; Adrian “Ozymandias” Veidt (Matthew Goode), who has gotten rich licensing his former Watchman persona as the “smartest man in the world”; and sexy Laurie “Silk Spectre” Jupiter (Malin Akerman), who followed in the costumed footsteps of her mom Sally (Carla Gugino), a former Minuteman.

The most fantastic character is Jon Osterman (Billy Crudup), a physicist transformed by a freak mishap into “Dr. Manhattan,” a blue-hued, white-eyed, buck-naked demigod who can bend time, space and matter to his will and is still employed as a blunt instrument of U.S. foreign policy (he won the Vietnam War all by himself, among other feats.)

The story slowly unfolds to link Blake’s murder to the threat of nuclear Armageddon via many side trips, including a visit to Mars and some riveting origin stories, with those of Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan the clear standouts.

But the film has two problems that may limit its appeal beyond the fanboy legions. First, like all superhero ensemble vehicles, the multitude of characters makes it tough to become emotionally invested in anyone, though the sentimental Dan and the lonely, damaged Laurie have the most appeal.

Second, in sticking so faithfully to Moore’s complex story, the film ends up clocking in at a cheek-numbing 2 hours and 45 minutes, a length at which even the most wondrous visuals begin to lose luster. When that happens, the lack of emotional resonance in the characters becomes even starker.

No question, those most likely to warm to the film will be fans of its source comic book. But anyone who has ever picked up any comic and gotten lost in amazing worlds of colorful adventure will get a kick out of the sleek look and timeless pulp themes woven into the rich fabric of “Watchmen.”

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Rated R for sexuality, graphic violence and adult themes. Got a rant or rave about the movies? E-mail cvinch@atpco.com.