By Ryan Broderick

If the cartoon on the left confuses you, you’re probably not the only one. It’s based on the comic version of Alan Moore’s “Watchmen.” If that name sounds familiar it’s because it is also the name of a movie coming out Friday that a lot of people are excited for. The comic by Alan Moore and the movie by Zach Snyder are based on the same plot.

So what the f**k is “Watchmen” and what are these watchmen watching? “Watchmen” is a monumental comic book written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons that was meant to achieve the most out a comic book. Every panel builds on the last and by the end of the book everything wraps together in such a way that every detail is almost unchangeable.

And that’s what Alan Moore always said whenever he was asked about optioning it into a movie. Of course, Zach Snyder thought otherwise, and now it’s a “blockbuster event” and Alan Moore is probably going to kill himself at the idea of what he made becoming a movie like “Independence Day.”

Early reviews started out generally positive, but movie review aggressor “Rottentomatoes.com,” that averages all the movie reviews on the Internet into one score, has been making the small crawl from A- rating to something in the C- range, which can’t bode well.

Aside from what the movie might end up like, Warner Bros is taking this opportunity to make the strangest promotional merchandising campaign probably in recent history. Warner Bros is making T-shirts, key chains, coffee mugs, and action figures featuring the sociopaths and deviants that make up the world of “Watchmen.” It’s also a funny statement on how little Warner Bros seems to care about the innards of their “blockbuster movie event.”

On Friday when general audiences are given a glimpse into the movie-version of the “Watchmen” America can decide how far they’re willing to entertain the idea of comic book movies. As a fan of the “Watchmen” my highest hopes for Friday’s premiere is a movie version of “Watchmen” that makes every ask “The Dark Knight who?” Of course, if it were that good it would already be public knowledge. So instead, I’ll wait in line as Thursday night’s 11:59 blends into Friday morning’s 12:00 hoping to sit and remember what I liked about the original. That, and hoping a few people leave the theater with enough curiosity to pick up the book.