Reality Amuck™

Well I watched the Watchmen opening week. I haven’t blogged a review about the experience, nor do I intend to now.  I would, however, like to take a moment and write about the Watchmen experience as a whole.

As the movie approached I would repeatedly hear comments like, “I’ve waited twenty years for this movie” “This book changed how I looked a comics” “This is one of the best novels of all time” or “I’ve read this book a dozen times”.  Well those comments did not apply to me nor did they resonate with me in any way.  I’ve always been into comics, predominantly DC comics, as far back as I can remember. I’m still upset with my mother for trashing a stack of Silver Age “World’s Finest” comics that I had held onto from the mid-70s. But I completely missed “Watchmen” when it came out.  I was 15 or 16 when “Watchmen” was first published and I never saw it. Honestly I don’t even know if I ever heard of it till I was in college in the early 90s. I never got around to reading it until sometime in 2004, by which time I was somewhat familiar with the story from hanging out in comic shops listening to people make the above comments.

I will grant that Moore changed the face and direction of comics for the next twenty years with this book. I won’t comment on whether or not that was a good thing at this point, but everyone would have to grant that it did change how comics are written and read. But I didn’t get it. Perhaps it was the fact that I waited so long to read the comic that the profound paradigm shift it caused was missed on me. I was reading “Superman”, “Batman” and “Green Lantern” and the changes in comics were incorporated into these books slowly. Maybe if I had read “Watchmen” when it was first published, when the shelves were full of patriotic pabulum filled with Boy Scout super heroes fighting for truth, justice and the American way; maybe then I would have been emotionally moved by the book. Perhaps it would have been a life altering event that I could fondly recall with the same devotion as the others that had read the book back in the late 80s. But I didn’t.

It didn’t change my life or how I looked at comics. I didn’t wait twenty years for the movie. And when I saw the movie I wasn’t overly upset by what was left out. I was surprised by how much was left in the movie. That is one point I would like to make and hope that Hollywood hears from the fans and heeds. The movie followed the comic it was based on and that made people happy. When we go to see a movie based on a comic we would like for it to at least resemble the comic in some way.

Graphic violence and sex could have been toned down a little. Earlier this week I picked up my copy of Watchmen and re-read it, now looking at it in the shadow of the movie, and really thinking about what was changed or added for the film.  The occasional body exploding is fine by me (did I just type that?). But having a cut away shot to show entrails hanging from the ceiling I feel to be unnecessary. Nite Owl and Silk Spectre in the Owl Ship went further than what was shown in the book, but considering modern movies, I guess it should have been expected. It just seemed a little out of place in a comic book movie to me.

All-in-all, I enjoyed the Watchmen film. I would agree with most people that Watchmen the book has a terrific story, well worth reading. I just can’t get as excited about it as true fans were.  I would recommend any comic fan (of the appropriate age) watch the movie and read the book. I just don’t see it being as relevant any more.

Sorry.

BTM