I was 15 when Watchmen Issue 1 hit the stands, and I couldn't believe what I had bought. The issue had so much going on with it that I think I reread it 3 or 4 times, and got more out of it with each reading. And each issue was, to me, more amazing than the last.

I went into this movie KNOWING it couldn't be as good as the graphic novel, even so, my expectations were very high. I believed the hype, which is usually a bad idea. Most movies cannot live up to their hyper-distilled in-your-face trailer. The Watchmen is not a perfect movie, but I wasn't expecting a perfect movie, so I was glad to get a great one.

Zack Snyder found the right tone, the right actors, and the right FX guys. He was able to distill the plot down to a bare minimum, sometimes feeling a bit rushed, but without damaging it. Like any good movie based on a novel, the Watchmen managed to feel just like it's source, even though the bulk of it had to be cut out.

Except for Ozymandias. all the main actors were pitch perfect, dead ringers. But Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach just stole the movie. Rorschach gets the best lines in the graphic novel, and Haley plays them all to full effect. I do not have a single critique of his performance. This actor was born to play Rorschach.

The FX were all great. I was a little afraid, after the movie 300, that the greenscreen scenes would stand out as fake, but they they all looked real to me. Dr. Manhattan looked great too, although some of his animation was a little stiff.

At times the movie did feel a bit rushed to me, but maybe that's only because I know the source material so well. The movie was 2 hours and 40 minutes, and it felt like a 90 minute action movie. They say an extended version is planned for DVD. I could easily see the story feeling comfortable at 3 1/2 hours, and I usually don't like long movies.

Last night it felt a little too graphically violent, but when I flipped through the graphic novel today I remembered how violent the comic really was. It's funny how getting a little older can make me more sensitive to this stuff. Also the sex scene is probably a little too explicit, since it is definitely tamer in the comic. And while I really applaud the studios for not changing Dr. Manhattan's image, there is at times a distracting amount of blue dong. This is without a doubt an R-rated movie.

Last but not least, the ending. Going into the movie, I was bummed at the reports that the ending had been changed. The graphic novel's ending was definitely strange, but I think that's part of what makes it so good. I realize why they felt like they had to change it for the movie. It makes sense, especially since they didn't have the time to properly set up the original ending. Actually, the new ending isn't that different, and surprisingly, may make a little more sense than the original. I didn't feel let down.

Anyway, the two people who came with me who hadn't read the graphic novel, loved the movie. My freidn Jason, who is as much a crazed fan of the original comic as I am, enjoyed the movie too. There was a lot that could have gone wrong with the adaptation. But Snyder pulled it off, in his own style.

I give this 4 1/2 out of 5 stars, and will go see it again soon!