Watchmen (2009) review: The perfect comic book movie from Zack Snyder who could be the Stanley Kubrick of our generation

Let me tell you something. Zack Snyder is the greatest superhero movie director ever!!! Some may disagree. Some of the reasons will be valid. Everyone has a style. They prefer some stuff over the other. That's cool. I have a MASSIVE crush on Cyberpunk and Science Fiction settings. I'm no fan of Romance movies. I can't digest the stuff about real people with real lives kind of stories. I don't watch movies to see pseudo-documentaries. I won't a challenge. I want to expand my mind. I want something unique and I'd prefer if it comes with entertainment value. I still like Oshii and the Wachowskis more. But Zack is getting too much of a bad rep. He's at a really bad place when it comes to perceptions. It's almost like Stanley Kubrick.

Yes, I'm dead serious. Kubrick or his movies were not received the way they are now received. Like Star Wars Episode V, His movies got some mixed/polarizing receptions when they came out. His movies were outperformed by many lesser or even completely forgotten movies. This BBC list from 2015 includes 5 of Kubrick's movies. That's a lot.

When Eyes Wide Shut came out a few months after Stanley Kubrick's death in 1999, it was severely misunderstood, which came as no surprise. If you go back and look at the contemporary reactions to any Kubrick picture (except the earliest ones), you'll see that all his films were initially misunderstood. Then, after five or ten years came the realization that 2001 or Barry Lyndon or The Shining was like nothing else before or since.
-Martin Scorsese

Watchmen (2009)
I watched the 3 hours and 35 minutes long "Ultimate Cut". I was always a big sucker for something complex but also massive and high budget. I saw a trailer as a kid And it really left me wanting to see the movie. I dug out the exact trailer I saw 9 years ago.

Unfortunately only one film theater close to me showed the movie and that was only for few weeks and it was rated R and theater wasn't that close to me either. So I missed it. I didn't know practically anything about the global politics at the time. I still can't stand "Politics". I didn't know who Snyder was and what 300 was. I just saw the trailer and I loved it. It was many years later (After Sucker Punch) I got to see Watchmen. __It's not just the greatest superhero movie I've seen; It's also perfect. There are very few things I'd call perfect. Ghost in the Shell was perfect. The Matrix was perfect. Blade Runner wasn't perfect and Watchmen was perfect.

I didn't know the technical terms. But having watched lots of complex and deep movies/anime I saw in Watchmen everything I wanted to see. Watchmen answered to all my needs. Watchmen had the kind of situations I've always wanted to see. Watchmen was a dream come true for me. Just watch this. (SPOILERS!!!)

That's just pure gold. It all makes PERFECT sense. It's flawless. __It's realistic even though it's a stylized alternative history. It's far more realistic than Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Stanley Kubrick's The Shining got no nominations at all from either the Oscars or Golden Globes, but was nominated for a pair of Razzie Awards, including Worst Director and Worst Actress (Duvall), in the first year that award was given. One review said "With everything to work with, ... Kubrick has teamed with jumpy Jack Nicholson to destroy all that was so terrifying about Stephen King's bestseller." The Shining got many more terrible reviews. People just thought it sucked. But at the end there was nothing like it.

Watchmen is the all encompassing comic book movie. Although it released too early, it's the endgame of comic book movies. When all is said and done 20 years later, people will see the value of watchmen.

Some of you may not love Watchmen or Zack Snyder. I for a one do not like Titanic and though Captain America: Civil War to be dull and inspiring. But both those movies have some form of value in them. It's just not my type. No criticism or complain can deny the depth of Watchmen. Here are few things that were told about 2001: A Space Odyssey

"a monumentally unimaginative movie"

"one of the grimmest films I have ever seen in my life ...2001 is a disaster because it is much too abstract to make its abstract points."

"morally pretentious, intellectually obscure and inordinately long ... a film out of control"

I think Watchmen is a severely misunderstood movie. It's not a blockbuster. It's not meant to be fun. It's not there to entertain you but fulfill you and enlighten you. It's the kind of thing I see from anime with much smaller budgets. Snyder blew $130 million USD on Watchmen (2009) and it was a complete 3.5 hour epic. It's the endgame of comic book entertainment. When the superhero franchises run and end their fad, you can point to Watchmen and show your children "The all encompassing comic book movie that nailed everything about the medium."

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