MOVIES: Is Watchmen a bust?

Apparently, the Watchmen movie is considered to have bombed. It is #2 at the box office now in its second week, having made 140.7M worldwide--most of it's budget (boxofficemojo.com). Compared to recent comic book movie box office successes, this comic book movie has flopped. Though Watchmen has a relatively long box office life left, as well as the undoubted success it will claim on DVD, most movie afficionados compare it to movies like Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, the X-Men movies, and Batman: The Dark Knight and it obviously hasn't made the numbers it "should" be making.

Watchmen is rated R, has gratuitous violence, nudity--namely ample flacid penises, and steamy super hero sex. It's in a category all it's own--I suspect many aren't quite sure how to classify it. It's not as kid friendly as the above mentioned movies, and it goes further than the Punisher, Blade, Hell Boy or even Spawn movies. There's no super hero movie that has ventured into the territory that Watchmen has. It's a deep movie, with socio-political and philosophical tones--it's not just eye candy. It has a shelf life, there's more to it than just watching explosions, special effects and sappy acting.

I'll be honest in saying that there were moments where watching exploding bodies and super hero sex was a little over the top for me. But this film is definitely deserving of a re-watch, and my eventual monetary support of the DVD.