With the Dark Knight winning Oscars and having multiple active franchises, it’s tempting to say that we’re experiencing a heyday for comic book and superhero movies.

Truthfully, comic book movies have been around for a long time with mixed success, but the current trends can probably be traced back to the ’90s. Whether it’s source material or just the genre growing up, Zack Snyder’s Watchmen certainly stands out.

Set in an alternate 1985 America where costumed superheroes won us the Vietnam War, Cold War ideologies and period tensions flood the film. And while much of the audience for Watchmen may be too young to directly understand those feelings, that does not in any way make it inaccessible.

On one hand, this film is now topical as superheroes enjoy a resurgence in popular culture. The face value of Watchmen is a deconstruction of the superhero archetype. But more than that, it is a commentary, politically, socially and ideologically.Like any good subversive text, Moore’s Watchmen has aged well with time. Between the War on Terror, the Iraq war, Afghanistan, the Gaza strip, North Korea and Iran, the image of America as a super power is no less relevant now than it was in the ’80s. The once topical plot becomes allegorical, signifying its true purity and relevance to the human condition.

With so much hype, Watchmen is beginning to experience a bit of a backlash. First of all, this film is not for everyone. It is extremely violent and explores some rough issues; and it might also shatter your dreams. There is a reason why this graphic novel is heralded above all other superhero fiction as high art: It destroys the superhero and does a good bit of poking holes in anyone’s favorite philosophy, as well.

The best mindset when viewing this material is probably that of one of its characters, The Comedian. Played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, The Comedian, aka Eddie Blake, is a hyper-conservative, all-American jerk. He was the youngest member of the first superhero collective back in the ’40s before getting kicked off the team for attempted rape. He spent many years working for the government, performing assassinations and aiding in coupes in South America.

Morgan is extremely compelling on screen forcing audiences to grapple with the tough questions his character raises. A lot of viewers are having fun talking about Malin Akerman, who plays Laurie Jupiter. While she certainly isn’t the best actress around, her criticisms range from emotionless and wooden to melodramatic valley girl. That inconsistency says something about our desire to demolish a leading lady in a film such as this.

In reality, the entire cast does a stellar job, with Jackie Earle Haley, who plays Rorschach, really standing out. His bitter cynicism expressed through voice-over readings from “Rorschach’s Journal” set the tone for the film and novel as he traverses the dark cityscape.

The only really poor performance was that of Carla Gugino, who portrays Laurie’s mom. With hundreds of pages of source material, each character gets some good one-liners to throw around, but she can’t seem to pull them off.

Admittedly this makes her seem pathetic, which is the point of her character, but it might also have to do with the fact that the actress is playing someone 50 years older than she really is.

Critics and fanboys alike have cautioned that only appreciators of the graphic novel will enjoy or even understand Watchmen, but it simply is not true. For 163 minutes, Watchmen is always either extremely awesome or intricately dense, and sometimes both.

Snyder found a way to present the philosophy while embracing the story.  If humans are inherently corrupt, then we should revel in that corruption while we try and understand it.

The film works immediately for anyone going to see it (who can stand the violence). And while it doesn’t replace the graphic novel, it’s more than just a cheap copy. The montage opening perfectly sets the stage and is quintessentially cinematic. Watchmen is the superhero movie we’ve all been waiting for, and it does not disappoint.