At one point during the highly anticipated Watchmen, scientist Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan, laments how the U.S. military turned him into something "gaudy and lethal" following a laboratory mishap involving radiation. Those adjectives also pertain to the movie, but in a good way.

Lurid and violent like his 300, Zack Snyder's rendering of the watershed graphic novel lives up to, without exceeding, the hype. And since these qualities are endemic to the book by Alan Moore (who disassociated himself from the film) and illustrator Dave Gibbons, it should satisfy fanboys. They'll always quibble -- it's in their DNA -- yet most will deem it a faithful adaptation. More disinterested moviegoers, those with nothing invested in Watchmen other than a night out, will deem it a success as well.

What it doesn't do is reinvent the genre. Last summer's Iron Man won acclaim because people felt they were watching a well-rounded protagonist for once, a crime-fighter with a full personality embodied by Robert Downey Jr. Watchmen has multiple tortured figures and significantly more moral, existential, and psychological rumination. Considered in strictly cinematic terms (without weighing in on the merits of the graphic novel) however, this ensemble actioner qualifies as a different superhero movie in degree rather than kind. The important thing is that viewers are entertained for the better part of two-and-a-half hours. That goal is achieved thanks to an impressive technical clarity and competence.

Bursting with themes and characters, the source material was a lot to bite off and screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse do an admirable job of corralling and condensing. The multi-layered saga concerns a group of disgraced vigilantes who resurface after one of them is murdered in 1985. The pre-title demise of the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a thrilling fight sequence set to the strains of Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable." Through flashbacks, we become acquainted with the caped, cowled and cellophaned crusaders, who have been ostracized in an alternate version of late 20th-century history. The Cold War is boiling and the Soviet Union and America are poised to ignite a doomsday scenario using nuclear weapons.

Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) and his girlfriend Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) are aiding the U.S. Government, led by Richard Nixon in his third term. Adrian Velt/Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) is a respected business mogul who looks like a glam rocker, and the frumpy Dan Dreiberg has retired his studly persona Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson). The belligerent Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) is most exorcised by the Comedian's death and is determined to figure out who wants to kill them. Propelled by copious amounts of melodrama and ironic humor that incorporates real historical figures, the plot moves hither and yon toward Armageddon.

Despite a borderline kitschy tone and eruptions of violence, its intellectual ambition and loftier thematic concerns recall The Dark Knight and The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky's time-traveling, cosmic meditation on ultimate meaning. Visually, Watchmen is a combination of those two movies plus Sin City and 300 (both based on graphic novels by Frank Miller). It's celestial and gritty at the same time. The pulpy atmosphere and reactionary take on human nature are leavened by pop culture flourishes and the sense we're watching an uptown version of X-Men, or the Fantastic Four after they've gotten their Masters degrees in Philosophy.

The sense of moral degradation (not to mention its swollen running time) is enhanced by Snyder's propensity to linger over salacious elements. Much as King Leonidas had soft-porn relations with his Queen before going off to battle in 300, two pivotal characters do it hovering above the imperiled metropolis in what amounts to the cheesy centerpiece of Watchmen. And there are plenty of parallels to 300's graphic spearing of decadent Persians.

As for the full frontal nudity of the gigantic, blue-hued Dr. Manhattan, how could the male director of a superhero movie -- or author of a comic book -- not identify with a figure that is basically omniscient and omnipotent? Besides endowing him with anatomical splendor, Dr. Manhattan is bestowed with a serenity legitimized by the character's familiarity with bloodshed and human misery and accentuated by Crudup's voice of bemused authority.

There are plenty of weaknesses to be sure. At the two-hour mark you want them to get on with it, the performances are merely adequate, and the ending fizzles. But the spectacle does more than just hold your attention. Credit goes to the source material, to Snyder and to a production team with Hellboy on its resume.

Finally, for all its postmodern layering and attempt to be a metacommentary on superhero stories, Watchmen is just a comic book movie. Fans of illustrated literature and anyone seeking sure-handed, blustery moviemaking will appreciate it most of all. And there's no need to apologize. 

(Released by Warner Bros. Pictures and rated "R" for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language.)