Sunday, March 8, 2009

Who Watches the WATCHMEN?

...me, apparently. Saw it last night, and still processing the experience.

Like most comic book creators of my generation, the WATCHMEN comic book had a profound effect on me. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of the comic book medium, and challenged all of us to add more depth to the work that we would grow up to do.

Unfortunately, that led to years worth of dysfunctional, psychotic superheroes that went a long way to driving most young readers out of the comic book audience and left it in the hands of adult readers who were more interested in intricate continuity that no one but other fans like them could follow. But that's a rant for another day.

As for the film, it was (much like SIN CITY and 300) slavishly faithful to the comic book, very loud (yet another sign I'm getting too old to be cool anymore), and visually stunning. But for me, it didn't quite translate to film. I just couldn't respond emotionally to the characters on the screen, which is odd, since I responded like crazy to more or less the same dialogue, story, and even pictures on the printed page.

Maybe I'm just getting old. WATCHMEN just didn't have the same kick-to-the-gut effect on the screen that the comic had. It sure was pretty to look at, though. Did I mention that it was visually stunning?

2 comments:

Amanda said...

Watchmen, Coraline and a long ago borrowed copy of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" made me wonder what Matt was up to. Google is grand.

Adorable photo of Sadie.

matthew dow smith said...

Amanda! Hey, that's great. Ain't technology grand? Drop me a line when you get a chance. I'd love to hear what you're up to these days.

Best,
Matthew