I watched the Watchmen! I am proud to announce there is a God, and He is American!!!!

There are certain people for whom, no matter how good a film Watchmen is, it will not be good enough to meet their expectations. I am not one of those people. I was lucky enough to see Watchmen at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin on Feb 23 with a preview audience.

Going in, my expectations had to be met based on one standard: taming the beast. Other than epics like Anna Karenina or perhaps the Bible, Watchmen seemed perhaps the hardest piece of western literature to adapt to film because of its intricacies and layers. Could you tame the beast and make a film that was still Watchmen and only trim fat, not muscle, bone and sinew?

This film is Watchmen, the same comic book/graphic novel you fell in love with and which nearly every nerd and geek alike sees as a sort of password or shibboleth – “Oh, you’ve read Watchmen? You’re one of us.” Zach Snyder and his team of screenwriters tamed the beast and kicked ass in the process.

They left in every iconic moment, every scene you’ve wanted to see in full motion rather than as a pane of Dave Gibbons’ artwork, every phrase of dialogue you’ve wanted to hear. (There was a cheer when Kovacs proudly yells in the jailhouse mess hall, “I’m not locked up in here with you, YOU’RE IN HERE WITH ME!!!”) Every Alan Moore project that has been raped in the past is hereby redeemed. The adaptation is just that good.

So, this is an excellent adaptation of the source material, which is the first question every has asked me so far about it. The second question almost always is “Did they have the part where….”

Here is a quick answer to all of those that I have been asked so far:

(Read the rest of the review at Big Shiny Robot)

Final Judgement: *** 1/2 stars (out of 4)   GO SEE IT!!!