Who will watch the Watchman?

Well, I did last night. The film opened at the Jax Jr over the weekend, so the real fans had already seen it. For Monday night, there was still a good crowd, mostly teenagers. As a registered member of the old fogy club, I haven't read the comic book upon which the flick was directly based. It's a superhero comic set in an alternate United States in the year 1986. The Cold War is still on. Nixon won a third term. The twin towers are still standing. The characters are all superheros, some active, some retired. For reasons of copyright none of them bear names like Batman or Superman, but you kinda catch on. I mean who else could a guy who wears a black costume and a hood with ears be? The settings are all gritty, rainy, New York urban, bad side of town. Frank Miller's "Sin City" sets the tone. Grimy interiors with old fashioned appliances. Neato old cars, gadgets, guns, and hairstyles, something of a nostalgia trip for us old fogies, I wondered how the teenagers were relating to all the old fashioned stuff.
For characters we have Dr. Manhatten, tall, glows blue, disdains clothing, full frontal nudity with anatomic correctness. Can teleport, swell up to become 50 feet tall, levitate heavy machinery, most powerful. Rorschach, a tough as nails city detective type, snap brim hat, leather trench coat, and a curious white mask covering eyes, nose, mouth and all with black rorschach patterns that crawl across it. Rorschach doesn't do Miranda warnings, and his interrogation methods would make Osama bin Laden sing like a canary. There is the Batman stand in, and a really cute lady superhero with a slick costume. And Comedian, wears body armor, carries a pump action 12 gauge, mustache, and really crude manners.
The movie is all confrontations, verbal, or violent, or sexual. Nobody likes anybody else much, even after intense sexual relations. All characters have character flaws on display, front and center. The overall plot is indescribable.
While the superheroes are confronting each other, there are period piece clips, Kennedy's fatal motorcade in Dallas, Richard Nixon, complete with ski jump nose, setting up nuclear war with the Soviets in a warroom right out of Dr. Strangelove. Another amusing shot of "The McLaughlin Group". I'll never be able to take them seriously again.
It runs forever, 160 minutes. The scenes are so intense you keep watching, but when the movie finally ends, it's not clear what has happened or who has won or lost. It is unclear which superhero is the protagonist and which is the bad guy. It's like the first Indiana Jones movie, non stop action, even if it doesn't make much sense. Only the action is faster and more violent.
According to my internet review sources, it raked in $50 million over the weekend.