I don’t read comic books or graphic novels so I’m not at all familiar with Watchmen. Last night I was flipping through the channels and found Watchmen playing on HBO. I’d only missed the first few minutes….credits mostly…of the movie so I decided we should watch this one. Most of my readers are probably familiar with the movie since it was a big hit last year.

I won’t say that I particularly liked the movie, I just found myself sticking with it to see what happened next. Also, once we saw the big blue penis, we had to stay to see what other things we might see. After a few more scenes, the boyfriend decided the movie was grossly violent and depressing. I wouldn’t go that far. Yes, it was very violent with lots of blood and death but I don’t think it was depressing exactly. What the boyfriend didn’t know was that it was supposed to be an alternate history where superheros help the government win wars and control crime.

I think what kept me watching, besides the blue penis, were all the references to history. Several scenes had the twin towers in the background. There was a Macintosh SE30 painted black on a desk in one scene. There was lots of music from the 60’s and lots of period clothing from different decades. I just kept watching without necessarily following the story. I did enjoy the imagery…the doom and gloom of the Nixon years, the wars, etc. I found it funny they let Nixon win a third term in the alternate history.

Mark over at Running With Blue Sponge has begun rating the movies he sees with sponges ranging from 1 to 5….5 being the best. I’m going to steal his idea and begin to rate the movies I see with A’s. I use the same scale he does. So knowing that, I’ve decided to rate this one three A’s.