An adaptation from one of the most prestigious graphic novels of all time, Watchmen was finally released after multiple abandoned attempts by major motion picture studios.
The film is able to walk a fine line between giving away too much information and being too confusing. The film has multiple flashbacks as the plot unravels. Aided by a montage early in the film, the movie accurately and concisely describes the setting and a lot of the history the viewer needs to know.
The dark film has a reoccurring theme of desperation. While some people may complain that the film is too raunchy, the film is a commentary on the darkness of humankind and the world. With maybe only one specific exception, the raw nature of the film, as seen in some very violent and explicit scenes, is not only appropriate but almost necessary to capture the desperation and darkness in humankind that the film is about. The one exception is a sex scene that was unnecessary and painfully dragged out. For those who think that the film was too raunchy, look at another story by Alan Moore – the author of the graphic novel Watchmen – that made it to the big screen. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a darker story that was cleaned up for film and consequently bombed.
The film triumphed at recreating the graphic novel, but one of its most noticeable flaws is something the graphic novel did not spell out for the filmmakers. The music is terrible – it simply did not work. On a regular basis it failed to match what was going on in the story. When I watched it in theaters the crowd began to chuckle as, “99 Red Balloons” began to play at a totally inappropriate time.
Watchmen had its shortcomings, but they were outweighed by its accomplishments. The film was rewarded for its gamble on a non-star studded cast. In the end the filmmakers recognized the strengths and weaknesses enough to rely on the cardinal component. The film leaned on its strongest aspect, the award-winning story.
Mikaela Brown 
Sophia Hunter 
Jayme Fisher