As the resident comic book geek I suppose I should spill a few words over Zach Snyder’s (of Frank Miller’s 300 fame) adaptation of Alan Moore’s seminal novel, Watchmen.
First, I’d like to tell you that when I say few, I mean it. You see, I’ve never read Watchmen. I got the book, be sure of that, but I could only get a few pages into it. Honestly, it bored the heck out of me. That said, I recognize the impact it had on comics and was an enormous first step in getting comics respected as a storytelling medium. It just wasn’t for me.
So, I went into Snyder’s film largely virginal. I knew a few things here and there but hardly anything at all resembling even the most basic understanding of the story. Like many, I’m sure, that saw the film, I saw it because I’m a fan of comic book movies. And what did I think?
A long time ago I listened to the audio lecture Rings, Swords, and Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature. Near the end of the lecture, the professor touched on the His Dark Materials trilogy primarily because it, like a few other works, successfully diverged from the shadow Tolkien casts over the fantasy literature genre. Of the work he said, and I paraphrase, “You’ll be glad you read it, but you’ll never want to read it again.”
I’m glad I saw Watchmen. But I’ll probably never see it again.
I didn’t find the story very engaging. I found I didn’t really care about any of the characters. And I only really started enjoying the film when the protagonists started doing the superhero thing again. I suppose a deconstruction of the superhero archetype, which is very much what Watchmen is about, just isn’t for me.
And I can’t really gauge how Watchmen fans feel about it. My roommate loved the film. My best friend, who calls the novel his “holy grail,” felt let down.
All that said, I want to encourage fans and non-fans of the novel to see the film if for no other reason than to show Hollywood that we want to see more mature comic book films. Films that treat the source material with respect and aren’t afraid to push past the flash and get into more substance. This is an opportunity for people to put their money where their mouths are. Hollywood is watching. Are you going to vote with your wallet or continue to whine?
David Hayter, co-writer of Watchmen (and whose script Moore approved of) has some very solid words about this. That he’s also the voice of Solid Snake is simply the cherry on top in my opinion!
If you like comic books you should see Watchmen. If you like comic book films you should see Watchmen. And if you’ve already seen it, take Hayter’s advice and see it again. I think I will simply because I want Hollywood to produce comic books films with more meat on the bones and if this is how I need to do it, so be it.
My apologies about the word count. I didn’t expect to go on so long.
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We live in the era of tongue-in-cheek, ironic, self-aware deconstruction of the superhero genre. From Mystery Men to Space Ghost Coast to Coast to The Venture Bros to Blankman and Orgazmo, we’re awash in satire. Oh, sure, there are a lot of great new superhero movies that play it straight—the Batman and Spider-Man franchises, Superman Returns, and (marginally, thanks to the Juggernaut) X-Men. But the concept of a parody superhero movie is pretty well tapped-out by now, and I think it all traces back to the Watchmen book. That was about the first time when the genre was treated as something both more and less than its parts: just a bunch of humans trying to deal with human crap, under extraordinary circumstances.
With that in mind, I think the Watchmen movie would have done a lot better if it had come out right in the book’s heyday, before we were subject to postmodern things like Aqua Teen Hunger Force and comics like Preacher that took Moore’s “play to an adult sensibility” ball and ran with it far beyond where he ever did. These days, I’m afraid people are going to watch the movie and, like watchers of the ill-conceived Hitch Hiker’s Guide movie from a few years ago, go, “Uh, that’s it? That’s what all the fuss was about?”
i haven’t seen the movie, plan on checking it out once it hits the second run theater in my area. i liked the comic. not my holy grail, but i did like it. but it seems to me, that of any comic book that could be adapted to the screen, watchmen is about the worst one to adapt. the entire book is so meta, everything in it screams “comic about comics.” making that into “movie about comics” just seems pointless. especially since, according to what i hear, anyway, the movie stays so faithful to the source material. if you’re going to make a literal translation from book to screen, what is the freaking point? just read the book. but, of course, i’ll see it, and hopefully it will blow my mind despite my griping.
I was impressed by The Watchmen when it first came out. I even pressed it on a friend of mine of an older generation who mocked me for still reading comic books in my 20s. He hated it, thought it shocking, lewd, and shallow, and that’s all.
In my own case, I read it once and liked it much but didn’t love it. Read it a second time, then never cared much about it since. It had its proper place in that time and moment, an era when comics (especially the superhero genre) needed to be deconstructed, ripped apart, and reinvented. Moore (the author) accomplished that fairly well. This was also the same era which spawned a host of parodies of superhero comics. (People don’t even remember this, but that’s actually how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got started–as a parody of superhero comics). The only real difference with this book was that it wasn’t a parody, it was a deliberate, unfunny, dramatic savaging of the industry at the time.
In retrospect I really do not think that the story holds up–and I really, seriously, cannot possibly imagine why anyone would make a movie out of it today. I honestly don’t know what the heck it would have to say of relevance to moviegoers in 2009. I just don’t.
I have no real interest in it and as such will probably not even see it until it’s available for cheap rental.
Actually, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was more a parody of Frank Miller’s “Ronin” than superhero comics in general.
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