Watchmen delivers

Another leading man in the movie, Patrick Wilson, opened the Broadway production of "The Full Monty" in 2001 and continued his nudist tendencies in Angels in America and Little Children, all the way up to Watchmen. He strips down naked once for an existential crisis should-I-still-be-a-hero scene, then again to get busy with Silk Spectre in his owl ship to the tune of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Seriously. The movie budget had some powerful line-item expenses to purchase the rights to that song, as well as Bob Dylan's "Times Are A-Changing" and Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower."

Given its length, it's helpful to think of this movie as more of a mini-series, a whole alternative universe created for and ending in the theater. This isn't a franchise-starter, there won't be a Watchmen 2 (or at least it shouldn't be, and director Zac Snyder agrees.) Some of the heros of Watchmen make Wolverine and the Dark Knight look like wholesome girl scouts. In fact, you probably won't even like most of the characters and their choices when the credits finally roll. The complicated anti-heros and mixed political messages might perplex some moviegoers, expecting an Iron Man or X-Men like experience, but for those who appreciate the darker, seedier side of human desires paired with the power of dramatically designed costumes (i.e. most drag shows), Watchmen delivers.

-- A. RAYMOND JOHNSON

Previously > Our queer American forefather?