I saw it and it was good.
I first read Watchmen when I was in high school, 14 or 15 years old, and getting books delivered to me via the Science Fiction Book Club. I still have that same copy – though who knows what happened to the dust cover – it sort of disintegrated over the years, was laminated in a last ditch effort at preservation, and then went *poof* somewhere along the way. The pages are now yellow, it smells weird, and some of the colors are fading. I have found it endlessly entertaining. I never thought it could be made into a movie.
And I am so glad it was. It’s a great story and now people who would never pick up a comic book, or a graphic novel with text passages and weird collages, will get to know the story. Such a good story!
So often people refer to Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns in the same breath and how they reflected a darker aesthetic that had never been seen in comics before… and I think that really undersells how complex Watchmen is. How complex the characters are! Alan Moore and David Gibbons created a world that doesn’t try to explain everything (Hooded Justice! So many questions!) but let’s us experience the end of it. Miller’s TDKR is less complex – he plays with DC’s archetypes, but only a few – and it appears that he has been unable to move beyond it in his other creative work. Better comparisons to Watchmen, I think, would be Marvels or Kingdom Come. Or Kurt Busiek’s Astro City.
But nothing really compares and, almost immediately, everything was influenced by Watchmen. It showed the possibilities and made the medium’s mainstream open up to new kinds of stories. The 90s “alt-comics” and adult-oriented imprints, for example. Alan Moore insured his own continued career by creating something so outsized.
And the movie, it can never be the book, but it does a great job trying! I will see it again.
Cool.
I never read Watchmen but you and Nathan had it around so it was such a surprise to see familiar “cells” in the movie! I need to see it again to catch all the depths and I agree with the comparison to Kingdom Come too!
If you and Nathan both read it in high school, how did I miss out on it? I just wasn’t as cool.
I agree with your assessment, Dark Knight Returns is really good but Watchmen is much more dense and nuanced. The movie was excellent, I’m still gathering my thoughts on it.
I’ve seen it twice and am trying not to spend more money going to see it again. Watching that film was like seeing images from the graphic novel come to life sometimes. OK, it can’t fully encompass the complexity of the novel, but then neither should it. I also thought the changed “master plan” in the film was a an excellent idea which removed the need for even more backstory and character involvement.
On the whole, it’s a great interpretation and a strong incentive to read the book. Even my other half (who is not much of a reader) has expressed an interest in reading it now!