Sorry.
There's no other way to put it.
Having just watched the new trailer.
It's clear I've been kidding myself.
The director of 300 has taken one of the best superhero sagas ever put into book form and ruined it.
The slow motion shots, the characters calling themselves "Watchmen", the heroes posing like refugees from one of the BAD batman movies...it's all wrong.
Watchmen if you don't know was a graphic novel, actually originally a comic series. It was deranged genius Alan Moore trying to ask the question what would the world really be like with superheroes? We saw how they were compromised by the government, how they sunk into themselves, wallowing in their glory and sadism. It was a harsh, multi-layered look at another world.
In the trailer, the heroes strut like magazine stars. Their latex outfits glisten. Rorschach the comic's relentless and somewhat psychotic detective now sounds like Dirty Harry with extra hubris.
In the comic you had an idea of what the world with superheros would feel like. Smell like. And some of it was...shabby, awkward even embarrassing. Nothing on earth can make a guy wearing underwear on the outside and Owl Ears look right. Watchmen's writer and artist knew this. Their Night Owl had a middle-aged paunch. He didn't look comfortable putting the cowl on...that was the point.
Instead director Zack Snyder seems to be reveling in it all.
I have a baaaaaaaaaad feeling this is not the masterpiece Comic fans have been waiting for.
2 comments:
So many plot points from Watchmen have been used in other media now (The Incredibles, Heroes etc.) that it makes me wonder how the average movie-goer will respond. It may just look like one big cliche.
There's still hope... remember Michael Keaton as Batman.
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