Who Watches The Watchmen?



After the crushing depression that was Wanted and the realisation that, Dark Knight aside, pretty much all comic book movie adaptations were going to be a disappointment to me, I was really pleased to find this trailer for Watchmen.

Previously thought to be utterly unfilmable, the movie has already chewed its way through a host of directors, stars, locations and studios. Now it’s finally being put together by the guy who directed 300 – not that that is any kind of a recommendation. Based on this trailer though I can’t wait.

I guess one thing this, Sin City, 300 and Frank Millar’s new movie The Spirit show is that maybe there is a third way for superhero comic book adaptations to go given that they don’t often make great films. The third way of hyper-real visuals, phenomenal amounts of greenscreen and a focus on the key moments within the comics. There is a precedent for this in The Matrix, which borrowed heavily not just from comic books (check out the work of Geoff Darrow), but from Japanese anime like Ghost In The Shell right down to duplicating specific frames.

It’s a method that balances the apparent paucity of the comic book medium (there’s less depth in the average Fantastic Four storyline than in your average B movie) with the need to be somehow more stylish than most films.

2 Responses to “Who Watches The Watchmen?”

  1.  charlesfrith Says:

    I’m looking forward to seeing this although I’ve yet to catch The Dark Knight Yet in Beijing. (I did enjoy Ironman and I guess you didn’t enjoy it’s flippant side)

  2.  Palace Blog » Blog Archive » Great Trailer: Battle LA Says:

    […] the simple ‘trailer as exposition’ with a sense of mood. As an example, the Watchmen trailer‘s use of Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning‘ […]