Director Zack Snyder provided visual dynamite in 300, though somewhat less so in Dawn of the Dead, so it is with uncertain expectations that followers of genre awaited Watchmen, the most eagerly anticipated fantasy movie of 2009 until James Cameron finally unveils Avatar. All of the main characters and special makeup effects were realized by Drac Studios, whose co-creative director Greg Cannom just won a makeup Oscar for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, so cineastes also expected fireworks from this film’s visuals.

The celebrated graphic novel of Watchmen first came out in 1986, the same year as Dark Knight, and we know how that film turned out; it is currently the second highest domestic box-office grosser of all time behind Cameron’s Titanic. Back then, DC Comics writer Alan Moore was asked to bring characters from the defunct Charlton comics company into a new DC fold. Moore wrote a multi-chapter epic starring those characters, but it wasn’t accepted because it would mean killing most of them off. Still, Dick Giordano, the main DC editor, liked the story so much that he commissioned Moore to go ahead and do it, just not with the Charlton characters. So Moore wrote the Watchmen, in which at least three of the central characters are modeled after Charlton heroes, but of course Moore’s version of these heroes was much more complicated and darker than anyone at Charlton ever imagined.

As conceived by Moore, Watchmen’s complex world is a universe parallel but somehow different to ours. In this universe, America decisively won the Vietnam War, which it did with the use of its superheroes – most particularly Dr. Manhattan. Since the US won that war, President Richard Nixon went on to multiple terms and is still president into the 1980s, the time of the story. In this alternate world, there have been two generations of superheroes: the first one a group of costumed adventurers and acrobats, some of them out for justice and some simply out for publicity. They came together as a team called the Minutemen in the 1950s. Only 16 when he started, the youngest member of the Minutemen was a brash young guy called the Comedian. As the Minutemen got older and retired, other heroes took their places, most of them after the Vietnam War (only the Comedian and Dr. Manhattan were involved at that point). These new heroes considered working together but never actually did. Only the Comedian continued to operate from the original Minutemen.

However, the mood of the times turned against this second wave of heroes – the Watchmen – as people became suspicious of them, and finally, the government passed a law that forced them to retire. When the story begins, Dr. Manhattan still works for the government, but The Comedian, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre and Ozymandias have retired. Only Rorschach, the most mysterious one of the group, who sometimes worked in partnership with Nite Owl, continues to operate as a superhero in violation of the law, and the police are constantly after him. On top of all that, the United States and Soviet Union are at each other’s throats over a political situation abroad. The entire world is slowly edging toward a sharper Cuban Missile-style crisis.

Such is the setting for Snyder’s film, long rumored to be made into a movie but deemed unfilmable by many in the know. The film’s familiar characters are cleverly realized with a combination of visual effects, makeup effects, careful casting, and measured direction. In fact, aside from Billy Crudup, who is mostly unrecognizable as Dr. Manhattan, and Patrick Wilson, who has starred in some lesser-known roles, most of Watchmen’s cast are relative unknowns. Jackie Earle Haley, the best of these character actors, is behind a mask for most of the film.

Ultimately, Watchmen the movie thoroughly engrosses the typical genre completist who feels little need for traditional storytelling through its lengthy running time in its dark brooding world. One recalls Alex Proyas’ films The Crow and Dark City more so than Tim Burton’s Batman in comparison. The visual pyrotechnics that Snyder displayed in 300 are sometimes in evidence in Watchmen’s several action scenes, often brought to life in super slow-motion, but these moments are not the driving engine of the story. In fact, this film is largely more concerned with character nuances than action.

Despite the intricacies and sporadic fantasy on display, Watchmen is probably going to be best enjoyed by fans of the original graphic novel. It is far from a confusing movie, but, like the recent adaptation of V for Vendetta, is not nearly the accessible material of, say, a Batman or X-Men movie. Fans and superfans will revel in its reported faithfulness to the source material, and Snyder ably brings it to the screen. Should a viewer be on the fence about whether to see this film, one might consider Vendetta and Dark City as precedents in one’s must-see viewing experience meter.

Special thanks to comics historian Carsten Dau for his providing historical context.