'Watchmen' Redefines Super-Hero Flick
Alissa Weinstein
Issue date: 3/24/09 Section: Entertainment
While waiting for The Watchmen to begin, I turned to look at the people in the theater. I find it interesting to look at the mix of people wanting to see this movie. You have a few certain types: the people who have read and loved the graphic novel and have been waiting endlessly for the movie to come out, the regular comic book fan, the boys dragging their girlfriends to see an action movie.
And then there was someone like me, not really a fan of comic books, not really having read this graphic novel in the first place, but having read about this movie for months, interested in seeing a visually stimulating film.
No one was disappointed.
For one, director Zack Snyder, who was also the man behind 300, took such a rich, multi-layered story and condensed it into an intelligent, action-packed, and downright stellar movie. Although, the film was two hours and 43 minutes, the story constantly moved and never slowed down. Every scene was stimulating, colorful, and well-crafted.
I think what makes this movie so special is that the original Watchmen graphic novel is not your standard comic book. The graphic novel was first published as 12 individual issues. It was always intended to tell a single story from beginning to end. I ended up borrowing a few issues from a friend just so I could compare it to the movie. Seeing the movie blind was interesting, and getting to read after seeing the film actually helped in explaining much of what I saw. What a great job the director did with the adaptation.
Watchmen is not your standard superhero movie. True, it has guys in costumes fighting street-level thugs -- and, later, other costume types -- with the same martial-arts moves you'd see in any of the Batman flicks. But this isn't an origin tale, like Batman Begins, Iron Man, or most other superhero films. It's the opposite of an origin, where the heroes are out of the spotlight on the other side, slowly dying, and being forgotten about as they reflect on their lives.
And then there was someone like me, not really a fan of comic books, not really having read this graphic novel in the first place, but having read about this movie for months, interested in seeing a visually stimulating film.
No one was disappointed.
For one, director Zack Snyder, who was also the man behind 300, took such a rich, multi-layered story and condensed it into an intelligent, action-packed, and downright stellar movie. Although, the film was two hours and 43 minutes, the story constantly moved and never slowed down. Every scene was stimulating, colorful, and well-crafted.
I think what makes this movie so special is that the original Watchmen graphic novel is not your standard comic book. The graphic novel was first published as 12 individual issues. It was always intended to tell a single story from beginning to end. I ended up borrowing a few issues from a friend just so I could compare it to the movie. Seeing the movie blind was interesting, and getting to read after seeing the film actually helped in explaining much of what I saw. What a great job the director did with the adaptation.
Watchmen is not your standard superhero movie. True, it has guys in costumes fighting street-level thugs -- and, later, other costume types -- with the same martial-arts moves you'd see in any of the Batman flicks. But this isn't an origin tale, like Batman Begins, Iron Man, or most other superhero films. It's the opposite of an origin, where the heroes are out of the spotlight on the other side, slowly dying, and being forgotten about as they reflect on their lives.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
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posted 12/17/09 @ 10:23 AM EST
I think that this movie is good to see.
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posted 2/06/10 @ 5:00 AM EST
For me it's another view on comic heroes. Nice history with unpreadictable end.
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posted 3/08/10 @ 3:08 PM EST
Hard to beleive, but in cinematography there's could be another kind of super-hero movie. Ten points go to Zack Snyder.
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