20 minutes of "Watchmen" footage screened for reporters

It's one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed graphic novels in history. And now after two decades of wrangling, Watchmen is coming to the big screen from director Zack Snyder, who adapted Frank Miller's bloody 300 into a box-office smash. But for fans of the book who have read the dark and complex book over and over -- and I include myself in that category -- the job of condensing the sprawling epic into a two-hour movie seemed to be impossible.

I was invited on Wednesday to a screening of over twenty minutes of footage from "Watchmen," and I have to say that it looks like Snyder has done the impossible. The scenes had some unfinished visual effects and temporary music, but already I was able to get a sense of the energy and uncompromising dedication to the original text that Snyder is bringing to the film.

We were first shown the opening twelve minutes of the movie, which begins with the attack on the Comedian (Jeffery Dean Morgan). In the comics, this scene is only ever presented in flashbacks, but here it is a brutal fistfight that leads up to a breathtaking shot following the Comedian as he's tossed out the window of his high-rise. The action here is reminiscent of the slow-to-fast motion of the fight scenes in "300," but the setting feels more tangible, since it was shot on sets and not entirely in front of green screens.

This leads into the opening credits sequence that retells the history of the book's alternate universe from the '30s through the '70s, set to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'." Avid fans will spot countless references to images and events from the book, but newcomers will quickly get a sense of the world where superheroes not only exist but directly impact major historical events.

We saw two more scenes from later in the film. First they showed the origin of Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), a physicist transformed in an accident into a blue-skinned superman who manipulates matter with a wave of his hand. Then we saw the prison break scene where costumed heroes Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) and Silk Spectre (Malin Ackerman) bust out their comrade Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). It's obvious from the footage we saw that the filmmakers are delivering an R-rated, adult movie that is not going to soften the novel's violent, sexual, or political content.

I asked Snyder after the screening what reactions he has received from people who haven't read the book. He said he has shown the film to people who don't know the novel and they have been able to follow the story and get a feel for the movie's twisted reality. He also said that for the first time as a filmmaker he wishes he could forget his whole history with the project and watch the movie with fresh eyes.

Snyder said that currently the film's running time is at two hours and forty-five minutes, but a later DVD edition will expand it with the addition of an animated story-within-the-story.