Comic book movies are coming of age. In an era where it’s suddenly cool to be a comic book fan or a games player, studios have wisened up to the fact that there’s big money worthy of investment in these franchises. However, they’re not without considerable Hollywood input. Not only do they now have the screenplay’s that can demonstrate infinite CGI potential, but they know also that comic book story lines are original enough to pull in casual theatregoers.

What, however, can one say about Watchmen – perhaps the first ever comic book adaptation that has been made almost exclusively for the comic book fraternity. As a casual viewer, it’s easy to become confused as to the WTF element regarding many of the characters. Who the hell is Dr. Manhattan? How does he use his powers? Where did he get these gifts from? Who the hell is the old woman in the home? As a die hard fan of the book, I was delighted to be shown the respect and admiration for the original works that appeared so flawlessly on film.

Although this isn’t Snyder’s first comic book attempt, with his almost carbon copy replication of the book 300 into film, there was no doubt as to the mans ability to translate from ink to film. And boy has he succeeded.

Each and every character has been lovingly matured on screen, up to the point where the affinity between viewer and screen hero is rendered complete, as you realise apart from Dr. Manhattan, they are just flawed human beings with costumes.

I watched this movie on the Odeon Leicester Square digital screen and it looked absolutely gob smacking. The colour definition was so surreal, you could well have been turning the pages of a live comic book fresh off the press.

Even though Alan Moore, writer of the book, condemns hollywood for continually fucking up comic book adaptations, I suspect Watchmen has set a new precedent in this genre – it IS possible to create an adaptation without them muddying concepts with what they believe the viewing audience wants from a movie – romance, tragedy, action. It is entirely acceptable to make films based exactly on the comic books without introducing nauseating Hollywoodisms -dancing spidey? Eugh….