Watchmen started as a comic book series in 1986.

This graphic story of costumed crusader crime fighters then turned into a pulp fiction-type novel.

Hollywood spent years trying to adapt this hard story to the big screen, but it looks like the wait was well worth the effort.

It delivers a visually stimulating super hero for dedicated fans, but viewers like me who knew little or nothing about the history or story should head right down to the bookstore and get educated.

But for going in cold turkey, I liked it a whole bunch.

It's revisionist history with a modern perspective: Costumed super heroes have been around for decades before being outlawed. Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as president. America won the war in Vietnam. And the USA is dangerously close to nuclear war with Russia.

Welcome to the year 1985, where seedy and corrupt super heroes are searching for a villain that killed one of their own.

It's a somber look at a world with no hope, filled with dazzling special effects based on the Hugo Award-winning graphic novel.

It runs a little too long, but is well worth viewing.

Watchmen is so faithful to its comic book source that it can't breathe and becomes bloated, in my view.

The film is too busy, with too much heavy narrative and is too awkwardly put together for it to achieve the level of understanding that one can get from reading the books.

If you haven't read the books, there's a good chance you'll be lost, confused, and bewildered in this very violent, complex vigilante movie.