If you saw The Dark Knight in theatres recently, then chances are you've seen the attached trailer for the Watchmen movie. Now being a comic book collector over the past 25 years, never have I bothered picking up any of the 12 issues of Watchmen that was published during 1986 to 1987 - despite the fact that there was a comic book shop right across the street from where I went to high school. I've heard about the series, but I never took my friends advice and read it. From what I've heard, this is the only comic book in history to receive the prestigous Hugo award, and was also the only comic book to be on Time Magazine's Top 100 list of must read literature... Which kind of says a lot. Well I have to say that after seeing that Watchmen trailer, I was completely blown away by so many things about that movie and what I have to look forward to when it comes out next year (3/9/2009). The darkness and mood of it, the characters (mostly Dr. Manhattan/the illuminated blue naked guy), and the overly stylized action seems like it's right out of a comic book. Now I'm thinking about going to the comic book store to buy the entire series. Well in case you haven't seen this phenomenal trailer, it can be found on the official website: www.watchmenmovie.com Oh and in case you're wondering what the song playing in the background is the trailer, it's Smashing Pumpkins. The song is actually from the soundtrack from that God-awful George Cloony/Batman & Robin movie. It's called "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning".
I thought it just looked pretty generic, like a lot of other movies that have been out in the past decade (X-Men, Fantastic 4 etc) ... Although, to be honest, me not being a fan of this type of movie means that i'm not really going to be excited in the first place..
To be honest, X-Men and Fantastic Four were both the worst interpretation there ever was of comic book movies...Period. And I didn't like either of them in the least bit, other than the fact that they were more entertaining staring at my belly button lint. In Watchmen, Sin City, V for Vendetta, 300, and Sky Captain, all of those movies represent a style that would be considered fresh and new to the flim industry, and pays a better tribute to the source material than any of the Spiderman's, Batman's, and other superhero movies out here.
Once I heard way back that there was a movie coming out on this, I had to read. I got the graphic novel and it blew me away. There is so much going on in every comic panel. There's the dialogue, characters' faces, newspapers/books on the ground, ads, people in the backgroundm the way letters on doors are reversed on the floor from lighting. It's just genius all around. The only thing I worry about is that I don't believe the Public of morons will like the ending. But they need to get over themselves if they are going to see a comic book movie.
In all honesty, I haven't read one iota of information about this film in past years, but after seeing the trailer, I am hooked. So I've been on a quest to find out as much as I can on the Watchmen and it's characters. My favorite being Dr. Manhattan, I can relate to him on a socialpath kind of level. I also look forward to reading the complete novel whenever I can find it... I'm definitely hooked. That's for sure.
