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Craig Hemenway: Experiment? One way or another, this was guaranteed studio money once the proper director was found and a script hewing to the source was produced. DVD sales on this will put it far over the top if nothing else. For an "unfilmable" project, Snyder did fairly well. We can argue whether the final product was too slavish or not - fine. But it was better than I had any right to expect.

It was, however, about three years too late. The impact of Watchmen was diluted by the two Nolan-directed Batman films, much as Dark Knight Returns anticipated the comic run of Watchmen by about six months. (Note to Alan Moore: Please don't issue a death threat against me. I know these are two different properties, but both had a similar influence on the terrifyingly bad 1990s comic scene. I'm sorry you came second.)

In sum, Watchmen doesn't help good comic movies get made or change the film landscape given what's come before. That doesn't change how I feel about the film; it's simply nowhere near as revolutionary as the bsae comic due to changing tastes and the intervening sensibility of movies.

Sean Collier: This is the way the Watchmen ends, not with a bang but a whimper. For a film with 20 years of hype, ten years of legal wrangling, one year of non-stop advertising, and three hours of runtime...it did okay. It was okay. No one was particularly disappointed, and it'll make a little money in the end. An acceptable result, but not one befitting the novel. But, my answers have devolved into disappointed fanboy love here, so let's call it a day.

David Mumpower: The answers come down to art and commerce. From an artistic perspective, it's a good enough film to satisfy the die-hard fans who had expected to have their hearts broken by it. Watchmen also would have won the commerce war if not for losing the Fox lawsuit. Since it did, that aspect becomes a draw. It will eventually make money, but that day has been put on hold for at least six months. In evaluating the project, the hardest solution to find is a place Warner Bros. went wrong and could have done better. Other than in the securing of the rights, there really isn't one. So, this is about as well as could be done, but it's still not a huge success.

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