Watchmen

Watchmen, for all the hype the past few months, is simply a good movie but not great, dragged down as it is by an all-too faithful rendering on screen of the infamous graphic novel of the same name and the hard-to-please expectations of comic book fans worldwide.

And it is by far way too long.

Director Zach Snyder wanted to make a movie that gives tribute to the many-layered graphic novel it is based upon. He wanted to create the ultimate superhero movie, a disturbing meditation on what superheroes would look like and be like in the real world. What kind of impact would they have on history and would we be better off because they were here and real? Or are superheroes just like us, just as messed up as we are?

Well, the answer is maybe and maybe not.

Between 1986 and 1987, Watchmen came out in 12 issues, each one telling a complex story of a world in which Richard Nixon is serving his fifth term and the United States is in a nuclear standoff with Russia. Dr. Manhattan, a physicist turned naked blue Superman via some freak accident, singlehandedly wins the Vietnam War but is now increasingly detached from humanity.

And The Comedian, a right-wing sociopathic mercenary, is murdered.

The story begins with The Comedian's death, and Rorschach, a paranoid masked avenger who has no remorse for killing the scum of the earth, wants to find out who's knocking off costumed heroes. He recruits other Watchmen, long retired after a 1977 federal law banned superheroes, to find the answers.

The movie flashes back and forth in time, revealing the origins of first the Minutemen and then years later the Watchmen. In addition to The Comedian, Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, there's also Nite Owl, a Batman-like character who's now a middle-aged man longing for the glory days, and Silk Spectre, who relunctantly dons the costume her mother wore back in the day and who is in a strangely distant relationship with Dr. Manhattan.

The upshot: A grand conspiracy is uncovered, and a surprising villain reveals himself.

The movie picks up steam in the second half. The action is well shot and the performances aren't half-bad.

But for all of Zach Snyder's efforts, the movie doesn't wow. The plot drags in places, and you really wonder what all the hype was about.

The Dark Knight was better, with incredible action set pieces, a truly frightening villain, and a superhero faced with impossible choices. It was a dark ride that stayed with you months after you saw it.

In Watchmen, we have an absurdly dysfunctional family of superheroes, some good, some sick but kind of lovable in a weird way, some just lost souls trying to find their way in a corrupt world. And in the end, you wonder what the message was, what the meaning behind it all was. Then you discover it was just a lot of silly ballyhoo, well filmed but forgettable nonetheless.