Around the CyberHorn: Watchmen

As part of a brand new feature that I just thought up 11 seconds ago, we're here to squeeze every last CLICK out of the Watchmen phenomenon. Since it's the first BIG release of the year, all the blogs and movie sites are all aTwitter on the flick. And then there's the well-admired source material, the fact that it's a big, flashy "event" movie, and it's the only flick out right now that has glowing blue penis in it. So it's the story of the week.

Obviously we've been covering the snot out of Watchmen for quite a while now, and while our coverage will be dying down now that one of our critics has reviewed the flick (it was Pete, and it's right here), this seemed like a fun idea. Time will tell.

"A fast, mean gut-punch intensity, turning decades of bright-colored action and excitement into a funhouse mirror to make us reflect on the real 20th century's shades of gray." -- James Rocchi, MSN Movies

"The plot is compelling enough, the acting serviceable (and in certain cases excellent), the special effects suitably astonishing -- it just doesn't add up to much, that's all. It's a movie to see once, more or less enjoy, and then shrug off." -- Eric D. Snider, ericdsnider.com

"A glorious, epic, exciting, mind blowing piece of art." -- Devin Faraci, CHUD.com

"Maybe the promised four-hour director's cut will deliver the goods on DVD. This version maddeningly skims the surface." -- Eugene Novikov, AMC's SciFi Scanner

"It is not for children, or for anyone who sees the world in black-and-white. And everyone else will be left unsettled by it. Isn't that great?" -- MaryAnn Johansson, The Flick Filosopher

"About as good a theatrical adaptation as fans of the graphic novel could hope for, and engaging enough that folks drawn into it by the "superhero film" angle of the marketing shouldn't be disappointed, either." -- Kim Voynar, Movie City News

"A reverential photocopy of a superior original, it's often close to perfect, if also, to some extent, perfectly pointless." -- Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

"A flawed adaptation that falters by trying too hard to cater solely to its fans." -- Edward Douglas, ComingSoon.net

"It pushes the genre further than it's ever been pushed before. It demands more of viewers than any superhero movie previously released. It sets up a moral question at the end of the film that can't be easily answered, and it doesn't even try. It expects you to have your own reaction, and it treats viewers like adults." -- Drew McWeeny, HitFix.com

"Watchmen is a benchmark achievement, a high water mark for adaptations, and an imperfect entry in the canon of comic-based cinema all at the same time." -- Todd Gilchrist, H Monthly

"An inevitably compromised translation of some inherently uncompromising ideas that still stands as a work more faithful, engaging and ambitious than most this season." -- William Goss, eFilmCritic.com

Oh, and Roger Ebert gave it four stars.