Spring Break
Gritty thriller 'Watchmen' provides top-notch movie entertainment if viewer reads book
Libby Segal
Issue date: 3/12/09 Section: Entertainment
03/12/09 - Last year "Cloverfield" was hyped up for months. This year, "Watchmen," directed by Zack Snyder, was hyped up similarly. Everyone was asking the question, "Who will watch the "Watchmen?'" The question should have been, "Who will enjoy the movie based on the novel comic written and illustrated by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons?" The answer to that question depends on one condition: whether the viewer read the comic or not.
Snyder, who directed the 2006 movie, "300," matched "Watchmen" as best he could to the original, and that may be where he went wrong if he was attempting to profit off the movie.
The comic book, "Watchmen," is not the basic comic book with fluid storylines. It isn't like "Spiderman" where there is one superhero and one villain.
"Watchmen," which opened up at No. 1 in the box office this past weekend, is about a world in distress during the time when people were nervous that the Soviets were going to drop a nuclear bomb and President Nixon was in office.
In fact, the comic book doesn't follow a superhero at all-the comic book follows regular people who once dressed up in Halloween-type costumes and worked to save their city from crime. Normal people fighting normal crime. The plot isn't just one storyline. It is many storylines about many characters - characters known as the "watchmen." Snyder made an attempt to portray all the storylines in the comic book, which for "Watchmen" readers was refreshing to see on screen, but for those who hadn't read the book created a confusing two and a half hour commentary that was impossible to follow.
In the week prior to the commercial release of "Watchmen" several articles were published in USA Today, the New York Times and other local and national newspapers describing the epic release set for March 6. USA Today warned viewers that the movie would be gruesome, gory and gritty. It predicted that Snyder would shock with full frontal nudity and brutal scenes filled with blood. Snyder tried to reproduce the book, just as it was read, as close as he could with the time allotted for a film-and the book was very graphic.
Snyder, who directed the 2006 movie, "300," matched "Watchmen" as best he could to the original, and that may be where he went wrong if he was attempting to profit off the movie.
The comic book, "Watchmen," is not the basic comic book with fluid storylines. It isn't like "Spiderman" where there is one superhero and one villain.
"Watchmen," which opened up at No. 1 in the box office this past weekend, is about a world in distress during the time when people were nervous that the Soviets were going to drop a nuclear bomb and President Nixon was in office.
In fact, the comic book doesn't follow a superhero at all-the comic book follows regular people who once dressed up in Halloween-type costumes and worked to save their city from crime. Normal people fighting normal crime. The plot isn't just one storyline. It is many storylines about many characters - characters known as the "watchmen." Snyder made an attempt to portray all the storylines in the comic book, which for "Watchmen" readers was refreshing to see on screen, but for those who hadn't read the book created a confusing two and a half hour commentary that was impossible to follow.
In the week prior to the commercial release of "Watchmen" several articles were published in USA Today, the New York Times and other local and national newspapers describing the epic release set for March 6. USA Today warned viewers that the movie would be gruesome, gory and gritty. It predicted that Snyder would shock with full frontal nudity and brutal scenes filled with blood. Snyder tried to reproduce the book, just as it was read, as close as he could with the time allotted for a film-and the book was very graphic.
