Manmachine and The Watchmen Some thoughts on the movie, which I am halfway through. The Watchmen resonates with its context. Does that make it a great film? Perhaps, Blade Runner shares this characteristic, as do another few SF films. And therein lies the question. Is this SF or superhero? I'm not sure it is great as a conventional comic. I wouldn't know. However, as SF concerned with the superhero metaphor, it is fun stuff. Opinions seem to vary on this film. My wife does not like it, but acknowledges the art design. I do have a problem with the fact that Alan Greenspan "learned to fly" as mentee of Ayn Rand. Because of this, bits of the comic and the movie have a pleasant zing that biases me toward them. Plus points for exploring the notion of tableau. On digital media, this is pretty hip, right? When a comic makes your heart stop beating between the frames, that is when you know that you are alive. And this is a digital thing, via Matrix and cool camera technology. Many reviewers focus on the issue of excitement, and its absence here. Is that a problem? Bladerunner and Tron caused similar reactions. And those were great films, right? Actually probably not. I say that because I know that SF to work has to be symptomatic. Comics are symptomatic, but in a different way. It seems possible that the superhero idiom translates a bit better to film. It lends itself to excitement and treats time continuously. The SF universe would seem to be more like Borges, or time as experienced by Dr. Manhattan. martinhekker