Cinematic adaptation of a beloved written work is a tricky act. Film artists have to both figure out a way to uniquely express themselves while simultaneously staying true to their original source material. And Watchmen especially is a slippery nut to crack because not only is Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel popular, but its reputation as the veritable holy grail of its genre means that fanboys were, are, and will continue to be wildly protective of it. Long story short - they don't want some jackass with a movie camera ruining Watchmen.

I saw Watchmen in theatres opening weekend with some die-hard Watchmen-lovers and my impression was that the film botched a few details and plot points, but for the most part it played pretty close to the bone of the original graphic novel's intent. I didn't hear wild acclaim from any of them - this wasn't a Lord of the Rings-style cinematic interpretation - but I got the impression that director Zack Snyder and his team of CGI-loving delivered in terms of not riling up fan hatred by straying too far from the source.

As a newcomer to the Watchmen world, though, this writer found the film to be a long, convoluted question mark of a movie, a film as ambitious as it is relatively incomprehensible to those not able to connect its narrative dots thanks to familiarity to the original story. I was happy to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan as superhero The Comedian, and I'm always glad when accomplished actors like Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach) and Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) get work, but while the film's dark vision of a splintered, corrupt alternate America was easy to get lost in, I never felt like the movie set root dramatically.

And if this Watchmen newbie moaned and bitched about the movie being long and convoluted in theatrical form, this Director's Cut Blu-ray Disc is even grander: At just a hair over three hours, this new incarnation of the film is an epic, bold mess  (I couldn't tell you exactly what's different here from the film's theatrical version, though the press release accompanying the disc states that it has 'more Rorschach and a scene of Hollis Mason's death'). But what's unavoiadble in the film is the manner in which Zack Snyder allows the movie to completely engulf his audience. This guy doesn't stop at Scorsese-ish whip-pans and slow motion music montages - his exploitation of CGI and effects allows every nook and cranny of the Watchmen world to open right up.

Yet where 300 was totally engaging thanks to this style, Watchmen ends up being a movie that's way more easy to admire than like. 300 was narratively simple where Watchmen is labyrinthine, and I couldn't really cannonball into the movie's universe because I kept having to poke my buddy in the theatre and ask him what the Hell was going on.

But Watchmen: Director's Cut isn't a Blu-ray for neophytes like myself - it's a disc for diehards. And I predict that fans of the film - or at least those fascinated with its adapation of the graphic novel - will be able to spend quite a few quality hours with it.