Watchmen: Hero Worship

Yet this is a real movie, vigorously visualized from Gibbons' template, and screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse have brought coherence to a plot that often lurches into flashbacks within flashbacks. The section showing the mutation of mild-mannered scientist Jon Osterman (Billy Crudup) into Dr. Manhattan is a gem of lucid storytelling. Shuffling the sequence of tenses, the film shows Jon as a young man in love, a fellow scarred by a nuclear accident, a boy watching his watchmaker dad, a superhero who can change size and location at will, a middle-aged stud letting his old love slip away as he finds someone younger, and finally, a sad sack of blue mourning the ordinary life he lost. Again, all is conveyed in a few minutes--a few quick, deft strokes. (See pictures of animated movies.)

The movie also has more than its share of long, clumsy scrawls. The budding romance between Dan and Laurie is tepidly drawn and wanly performed; those who've seen 300 know Snyder is in no way an actor's director. (The two self-starters are Haley, who does right by his grizzled role, and Morgan, a Robert Downey Jr. knockoff who chews the scenery and his stogie with equal aplomb.) And while the climax is unusual in a comic-book movie--bad guy does very bad thing, then escapes his comeuppance by persuading folks that what he's done is really kind of a good thing--it lacks the kick of apocalyptic retribution the mass audience expects and deserves.

Maybe Watchmen is one of those cult films that don't expand beyond the true believers. It probably won't make even alternative-movie history. Containing its own popcorn breaks--hit the concession stand whenever Dan and Laurie start their mooning--this ambitious picture is a thing of bits and pieces. But oh, those beautiful bits. And wow, those magnificent pieces.

Should a real Watchmen fan see the movie? TIME has the answer

See pictures of Watchmen.