According to The Hollywood Reporter in the US Watchmen took a respectable $55.7 million in its all-important opening weekend, which isn’t bad at all but apparently its way down in the lower end of what the studio had been hoping for and substantially less than Snyder’s previous comics-to-cinema offering, 300, which took $70.9 million in its opening weekend back in March 2007.
I wonder if that is at least perhaps because, despite being arguably the most famous graphic novel in the medium, its still a film which is likely to principally appeal to – well, to folks like us, who read and love comics. Iron Man and Batman have more popular cultural appeal, I think, even to people who rarely read comics; they still know who they are and can be enticed into the cinema but, hard as it might be for us to believe, the world is full of people who have no idea who the characters from Watchmen are and while they’d go see Batman they’re probably wondering what all the fuss is about and why were were all so interested in Watchmen.
And having caught it at the weekend myself I was left with the distinct impression that if someone watched it who wasn’t familiar with the original comics they might struggle to make sense of it all (obviously as someone who is very familiar with the original I can only theorise on that matter, but if anyone who hasn’t read the book goes to see it I’d like to hear if they did follow it okay or if they found it a bit confusing). Anyway, there are plenty of reviews out there already so I’ll just give my short version of the film – its better than I thought it would be. Which is not to say I was blown away; far from it in fact, I was not exactly overwhelmed, but to be totally fair (and given how hard it is to try and create a single movie narrative out of such a complex, layered and long comic) its not bad either but despite its impressive origins as a comic, in movie form its sadly not up there with last summer’s Dark Knight or even Iron Man (and, I think, lacking in the broader appeal those films have outside the serious comics readers, as I said), although there is an impressive attention to many small details from the comics which was satisfying.
But while the film may be middling at best at least it does have some saving graces – its got a lot more people wanting to read the graphic novel in the last few months and its raised the profile of the medium among the mainstream media while it did so. But my god, the Nixon prosthetics – that was a bad, bad idea – he looked more like a cartoon character than any of the costumed heroes, I could take Nixon’s head in Futurama more seriously…
March 9th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I went to see the Watchmen at the weekend, and i’m guilty of not reading the book. However i did find it ok to follow, saying that though i’m used to reading and watching Sci-fi and fantasy all the time. My other half on the other hand was compleatly confused as to what was going on.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
As a long-time fan of the graphic novel, I thought the film was far better than I’d expected. I fully expected to spend the whole time counting all the disappointments. Instead, I spent the whole time counting just how many things they got right.
For me, the middle section sagged and slowed the pace down far too much for far too long. It will be interesting to see whether the additional material which is going to be added to the DVD will address that. That aside, however, I felt most of the film worked well … even the infamous change of ending! I have a feeling that, over time, Watchmen could become the Blade Runner of super hero movies. Remember how lukewarm the reviews were for that in the wake of Star Wars? And how its reputation has grown since?
As for non-fans, my other half has never read Watchmen (or any other graphic novel!) and only reluctantly agreed to see it with me. She had no trouble following the story, enjoyed the characters and awarded it 8/10.
March 10th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Yeah the Nixon nose drew giggles from the audience when I saw the movie.
SPOILER ALERT:
I found it difficult to be objective about the movie. Having just read the graphic novel again I knew what was coming, so any element of suspense or intrigue was lost on me. The altered climax of the movie… didn’t quite make sense did it? Surely the Russians would simply blame America, considering “The Superman exists and he is American”? The giant squid may have been a bit too dopey for the film but at least it was easy to see how it could be perceived as an outside threat to unite the Earth.
Fascinating to see the movie adapt the comic so faithfully but the more subtle nuances of the comic were lost. (I suspected this would be the case as soon as I saw the movie smiley badge blood splatter wasn’t a metaphor for the hand of the doomsday clock as it was in the comic.) The graphic novel remains the better way to experience Watchmen.