Watchmen
So, while Sophie has been getting excited about Dollhouse, I’ve been quietly waiting in anticipation for the Watchmen adaptation that’s coming out next week in Australia, at least. There is no doubting that Watchmen is the greatest superhero story of all time. It redefined the genre, helped make Alan Moore one of the most admired comic book writers of all time and generally has the most incredibly compelling and sympathetic cast of raving lunatics I’ve ever seen. It even made it into the Time magazine top 100 novels of all time!
Now film adaptations of Alan Moore comics tend to be pretty dire. V for Vendetta (my favourite Moore comic) was ok but From Hell was execrable and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was even worse. So to say I’m nervous about this is an understatement. I saw the director’s previous comic movie, 300, on a plane. I found it surprisingly enjoyable but then again I once though Home Alone was pretty good on a plane. I also don’t like Frank Miller’s work in general and had never read 300 so had no emotional investment in it.
Given the source material, I’m expecting this to suck – it’s an enormously complex plot and I can’t imagine Zack Snyder getting it right. Early reviews are so varied as to be no help and I don’t trust Will Wheaton (or geeks with pre-release access in general).Visually they do seem to have nailed it pretty well though, so who knows.
I’ll be stupidly disappointed if it sucks and as glad as I’ve been about anything since Fellowship of the Ring if it doesn’t. Luckily, I’m going with my friend Ciaran so I’ll at least have someone who knows the comic book to debrief about it with and you can expect a review in good time. Finally, for a funny look at this (provided you’ve read the comic) check out this.