Watching the Watchmen
Wow. It’s finally here and it looks as good as I’d hoped it would. (Here’s hoping the movie holds up.)
The first trailer for Watchmen has debuted, and it’s pretty incredible. As my wife commented, it’s possible that it exists mostly for those familiar with the story, and can recognize the various beats in the trailer — Vietnam war, unrest in New York, prison riot, etc. It’s likely, though, that the trailer will be just interesting enough to pique the curiosity of the masses. Most of the recent comic book properties-turned-movie are already pretty familiar to most people, so when one comes along that most people probably haven’t heard of, I’m not sure how the general reaction works.
Either way, when you’re adapting the Holy Grail of comic book properties (and the only graphic novel to be recognized on Time‘s list of the Top 100 modern English-language novels), that means two things. One, you’re not messing around with something as simple as Spider-Man. So, two, you’d better do a really good job with it.
Zach Snyder was pretty faithful with 300. Here’s hoping he’s been able to get a grasp on the more complex themes of Watchmen, and not just adapt the plot.
Overview of the film, gleaned from the longer section on the official site:
A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, the film is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity…but who is watching the Watchmen?
The trailer via YouTube is below, but do yourself a favor and catch the HD version over at Apple.
Update: Cinematical has a great post that walks you through the trailer according to the story’s plot points pictured without giving anything away. It’s a bit more in-depth than the plot summary above, and for those unfamiliar with Watchmen, it’s a wonderful place to start. The Beginner’s Guide to the ‘Watchmen’ Trailer.
Reader Comments
I never told you; I got Watchmen from the library and read it last month. Overall, I thought it was fantastic (even though the ending left me a little dissatisfied).
But I am completely amazed by this trailer! I’ve read that Snyder has been very faithful to every detail of the story and it obviously shows. I’ve pretty excited for this now.
I couldn’t tell you how the “general reaction” is… Although I know very little about Watchmen, I at least knew what it WAS when I first saw the trailer.
Watching it on the big screen yesterday with a bunch of people that may or may not know anything about it… There didn’t seem to be much stir during or after the trailer, like you’d expect there to be for an upcoming movie that was highly anticipated. We’ll see how they continue to market it over the next several months.
True…I feel, though, like Iron Man was a relatively unknown commodity when it first started being marketed, but it turned out to be one of the biggest comic-to-film successes ever.
I agree that it all depends on how they market it. They have to do a good job of showing that this isn’t just some new superhero team or superhero movie, that there’s a lot more to it than your standard comic-based story. I think, too, that Joe Watchmen Fans (like me) and others like him will be out there actively talking up this film to their friends. I would also expect some mass market paperback re-release of the original material emblazoned with a “soon to be a major motion picture!” sticker. We’ll see…