For some reason, a few people who were in the theater with me to see Watchmen today thought it was cool to bring little children to the "superhero show." They, however, were wrong. This R-rated movie is not for children—but that isn't the only demographic that's not part of its intended audience. In my opinion, it also isn't for people who haven't read or wouldn't dig reading the graphic novel on which it's based. The guy behind us who slept (and annoyingly snored) through much of the film's two-and-a-half-plus-hours, I think, fits into this second demographic.

All that being said, Watchmen *definitely* is for: fans of the original book and/or people who are willing to contemplate an almost panel-for-panel rendering of a serious, Hugo Award-winning, comic-book story—and one which takes the kind of gritty, brooding, moral-dilemma/do-the-ends-justify-the-means? tone of a movie like the excellent Dark Knight to the nth degree.

Of course, the story of Watchmen, given its pedigree, has already been endlessly dissected, discussed, written about, and blogged on, especially lately during the lead-up to and now the release of this movie. So I'm going to try not adding to that noise. For those wanting a recap of Watchmen's intricate plot, lengthy backstories of its myriad characters, or even fanboy arguments on whether the movie did the book (which I've read twice) justice, whether the (spoiler alert!) slightly altered ending was cool or not, whether the Black Freighter subplot should've stayed, et cetera... please look elsewhere.

Instead I'm going to present, as briefly as possible, my immediate thoughts after seeing the movie on the subject I now believe is at the heart of Watchmen: human nature. Specifically, I want to ponder: what does this story say to us about human beings? And yes, I did use the word "now" a couple of sentences ago on purpose. In the past, I would've tried to allegorize this story. You know, Dr. Manhattan is God... Rorschach/Ozymandias/whoever is a Christ figure, etc. I would have, in other words, assumed God at the beginning. But while there's something to be said for that approach to this story, knowing a little about the author, and taking the story at its word, I'm going to instead assume that humans in the world of Watchmen are basically on their own—an assumption which, we'll find shortly, leads to a perhaps unexpected/unintended outcome.

So, character by character, what does Watchmen say about human beings?

The Comedian: Edward Blake is a nasty guy. He's cold, a murderer, an attempted rapist, a person who revels in the dark comedy of existence. But before he meets his end, he breaks a bit. He cries, he regrets, he shows a glimmer of concern about the character who turns out to be his illegitimate daughter. And what does this say about people? That despite our inherent evil and the seeming laughable meaninglessness of that, we're always complex mixtures of evil and good. We're always capable of relenting, of redemption.

Nite Owl: Dan Dreiberg, with his recurring impotence motif, is as unlikely a hero as any in this story. But he is a hero. He's at the center of the Watchmen plot and, let's face it, he's the one who "gets the girl." This tells me that human beings—no matter how conflicted, how down-and-out—are resilient. We can come back from whatever has put us down and end up being significant and happy.

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