The Watchmen comic involves a wide array of characters dealing with complex emotional issues. Director Zack Snyder was the man chosen to bring the book to life. Snyder directed the box office hit 300, which was also a comic book adaptation.
No Children's Funny Book
Despite its comic book origins and the presence of a major character named the Comedian, Watchmen deals with very dark and disturbing material. One of the major themes of the series was the paradox between the polite facade of human behavior and our true nature, the sort of cruel and selfish acts we're capable of when pushed to our limits by desperation. The comic addresses adult issues such as rape and the American culture's prejudice against homosexuality, and word is that the movie does not intend to water things down.
Interesting Alternate Earth Setting
Watchmen takes place on the planet Earth, but one with a history not quite like our own. In the comic, people became fed up with the lawlessness of the American streets in the late 1930s and took matters into their own hands as practitioners of vigilante justice. Eventually, some of these men and women took to wearing flamboyant outfits and the costumed crime fighter was born. The heroes drew strong public support and they quickly became a fad with the media.
As these first heroes grew old and retired, they were surprised to find that they had inspired a second generation of costumed crusaders. However, by then the world had changed and the there was a growing sense of anti-vigilante sentiment. By 1977, following riots by the striking police force, Congress passed a law making being a hero illegal, unless you were directly employed by the government..
The movie takes place in the mid-1980s, a time period that seems not entirely unlike our own- though American heroes helped the United States to victory in Vietnam and as a result, Richard Nixon is still president. But the bigger picture hasn't changed, America still finds itself involved in a quickly escalating Cold War with Russia.
Mystery and Danger
The story opens with Rorschach, an outlawed hero, investigating the apparent murder of a man named Edward Blake. Blake turns out to be the Comedian, one of the few heroes remaining in the employ of the U.S. Government.
Soon after Blake's death, the Comedian's former partner Dr, Manhattan is denounced as a threat to those around him during a TV press conference and goes into seclusion. Manhattan was the world's one true fully powered superhero and without him to act as a deterrent, Russia immediately begins to act more aggressively in world affairs and a major nuclear conflict with the U.S. seems imminent and unavoidable.
Rorschach and other aging crime fighters find themselves struggling against the horrors of the present and the ghosts of their pasts as they try to uncover who is behind this apparent plot to eliminate the country's heroes and plunge the world into war.
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