Watchmen

(USA, 2009, 161 minutes)

In an alternative America where Richard Nixon has gone on to win a third term as President and the Cold War rages on, an outlawed band of super-heroes comes together to find out why one of them has been murdered. Dense, bleak, adult horror comic that is so faithful to its dense, bleak, adult comic-book original to the point of having little identity of its own other than as an adaptation; there is, however, much to admire in the universe created and in the earnest performances.

Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures present, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd Levin production. Starring Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson. Directed by Zack Snyder; produced by Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Deborah Snyder; screenplay by David Hayter and Alex Tse, based on the graphic novel Watchmen written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons; music by Tyler Bates; director of photography (Technicolor, Panavision), Larry Fong; production designer, Alex McDowell; costume designer, Michael Wilkinson; film editor, William Hoy; visual effects supervisor, John "DJ" DesJardins.