Extraordinary Gentlemen '' -RRB- and who has declined all reimbursement to protest the entertainment industry 's fundamental lack of respect for intellectual property , counts as a bona fide visionary . His 1986 comic book is a landmark in the history of the form , a masterpiece of pop cultural angst , filtering Cold War nihilism and disillusionment through the inspired pulp idiom of mundane masked crimefighters and one genuine , possibly radioactive , superhero . In Moore 's alternative 1985 , Nixon is still president , the U.S. having won in Vietnam . The Soviets are effectively neutered by America 's not-so-secret weapon , Dr. Manhattan , a kind of quantum ghost in the machine capable of reconstituting matter -LRB- and nuclear warheads -RRB- at will . Watch the stars at the premiere '' Moore 's meta-comic switched back and forth in time with the same facility as Dr. Manhattan morphed between New Jersey and Mars , cutting between a doomsday conspiracy threatening to engulf the Earth and flashbacks relating the biographies of half-a-dozen `` watchmen , '' a generation of intrepid masked avengers forced to hang up their capes and Spandex when public opinion turned on them in
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Do n't believe the hype . Billy Crudup plays Dr. Manhattan in `` Watchmen , '' the film version of the popular graphic novel . `` Visionary '' director Zack Snyder , as the marketing would have it , has filmed Alan Moore 's `` unfilmable '' graphic novel by treating the comic book panels as his storyboard and his Bible . Does n't it bother anyone that this is about as far from the definition of `` visionary '' as it 's possible to get ? The visionary sees what others do not see . Snyder -- whose previous films were a remake -LRB- `` Dawn of the Dead '' -RRB- and another scrupulously faithful comic book adaptation -LRB- `` 300 '' -RRB- -- is more in the line of a fancy photocopier , duplicating other artists ' imagery with a forger 's intensity . A visionary transforms the world . Snyder slavishly transcribes what 's set down 5 inches in front of his face . Alan Moore , who has refused to have his name on the movie -LRB- ditto its Moore-based predecessors , `` V for Vendetta '' and `` The League of