Not being tremendously familiar with The Watchmen as a print product – or graphic novels in a general sense – might allow for the following to resound hollowly. Maybe not, though, considering comics are comics and their attendant story lines all sport roughly the same features. Good versus evil’s an obvious one, but the inclusion of a flimsy love story as side plot’s been revealed in just about any book one can summon. That doesn’t make comics, or their film adaptations, less than artful. Each is still a reflection of contemporary society in the saw manner literature and high minded visual art are. Most importantly here, The Watchmen looked cool. And that trumps just about any sort of criticism possible.

Beginning with a murder isn’t a bad way to go and might account for Ms. Marple being a fixture Sunday nights on public broadcast stations across the country. In the Watchmen’s universe, however, it’s a good guy who gets nixed almost forcing the rest of his former cohort to take up arms and figure out the mess.

Set in some weird alternate reality, clearly the past, but not too distant, the Watchmen still all have cool gear atop of their fighting strengths. Of course, some are more powerful than others. If that weren’t the case, then there’d be no mounting tension and certainly no final show down, which comes part and parcel with stories like these.

Of course, it wouldn’t be beyond the pale to figure the Watchmen as an extension of the X-Men, pun not intended. No one flies, as such. And the comparison might simply stem from the fact that all super hero stories work with the same tropes. But even visually, the Watchmen borrow a good deal from the world Marvel created.

The actual plot, here? Well, there’s some lady trading, revenge and a heap of technology being bandied about.  With Zack Snyder attached as director, who’s currently working on revamping Superman, bombastic might be too weak a word for the conflagration of action and ridiculous premise. Of course, that’s tied into the love story, to a certain extent. But the wealth of special efx masked by the film being set in the pretend past mitigates some of the more outlandish moments. But whatever. This thing isn’t meant for grand examination, unless you’re a sociologist. And if I was, there’d probably be some ridiculously grandiose proclamation about how this all ties into society. Whatever, super heroes are cool, even the lame ones.