If you're a geek like me, I'm sure you're tuned in to the "phenomenon" currently sweeping through theaters.
That being, Watchmen!
A film version of Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbon's comic book masterpiece (often called the best comic book of all time, and listed among TIME Magazine's 100 Great Novels) Watchmen is raking in the dough at the box office while it draws a divide through us fans of science fiction and fantasy. Some of us love the movie and the book, while some think the book speaks for itself and a movie never should have been made in the first place.
Fans of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings faced a similar situation back when those classic stories were brought to the screen.
The difference is that Tolkien's estate approved of Peter Jackson's work on the latter pictures. In the case of Watchmen, the eccentric and elusive Moore, burned by Hollywood's treatment of his other stories (From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, V For Vendetta) denounced the Watchmen film and demanded his name be kept off of it. Gibbons, the artist who worked with Moore on Watchmen, had no such reservations and was deeply involved in the project.
I myself had read about half of the Watchmen book before seeing the movie, and from what I read, I can attest that the film is completely faithful to the original work, even more so than the Lord of the Rings films. When it comes to adapting books into film, I recognize that it's impossible to simply film every page, line by line. And it would be foolish to try. What's important is that the tone and spirit of the original story be maintained, and to me, both projects succeeded wildly in doing that.
If you're considering going to see Watchmen, I have to tell you it's far from your average super hero movie. Sure, there are tights and capes and bad guys get beat up, but this is no light and fluffy Spider-Man and it's not even a dour and serious Dark Knight. This is a thoughtful and at times disturbing meditation on heroism and its cost, with plenty of gore, brutality and darkness. Not for the faint of heart (and certainly not for the 10-year-olds I spotted in the theater when I saw it... do some research parents!), this movie is pretty hardcore.
But it's also a whole lot of fun, and if you don't mind a movie that flirts with the three hour mark and demands attention and participation from the audience, I suggest you drop what you're doing - and go watch the Watchmen!
I've read the book, and I can't wait to see how the hell they turned it into a movie. And when I hear just how faithful an adaptation it is, I can't help but wonder how the hell they did it.
Posted by: Tyler Ohlew | March 15, 2009 at 11:16 PM