anyone wanna give me a Watchmen primer before I lay down the green to see this movie? I mean it looks great and everything. I just want to make sure I understand the characters and who they are.

From what I have read, it is very faithful to the comic and should explain everybody in it. That is one of the big things about the story is that you become able to fully understand the characters.

Other than that, I suggest doing a websearch for watchmen characters, but, I really think that will ruin the experience for you as it is an integral part of the story. But, above all, make sure you go get the full novel. It is really worth it.

Yah. It's a self-contained story with original characters, so there's no need to learn anything about it before you see (or read) it.

I'm going to see it today, but, being a major fan of the graphic novel, I'm not so sure the movie will work for someone who hasn't read it in nearly the same way that it will work for someone who has. And if you aren't fairly well steeped in the entire history of superhero comics (going all the way back to '39), I'm not sure that it'll work at all.

one thing I really want to know is who's that guy with the white mask with the cow pattern on it that, at least in the previews, seems to morph?

and are the watchmen anti-heroes (eg, gritty, down-to-earth good guys like Hellboy)?

Rorschach was his name. His mask was supposed to be one of those materials that had the gel goo in it that changed color when you pressed against it. It was supposed to make different patterns in the material when his faced moved underneath. In the previews I have seen, it appears to be a cloth, but, in the comic it wasn't cloth.

In the graphic novel, Rorschach's mask was composed of two layers of latex with a viscous, heat-and-pressure sensitive liquid sandwiched between...hence the reason it was constantly shifting patterns.

a mood mask?

with a perpetually bad mood

...hurm...

anyone wanna give me a Watchmen primer before I lay down the green to see this movie? I mean it looks great and everything. I just want to make sure I understand the characters and who they are.The only thing you really need to know is that it takes place in an alternate timeline/universe version of America in 1985; otherwise you might be thrown by the facts that Nixon is still president and we're still in Vietnam. Everything else is explained in the film. I've never read the graphic novel and I understood the story and characters without any advance knowledge.

I liked the fact that the opening credits gave you a sense of history of the Watchmen's universe...