I’ve said as much, but that I was willing to accept that they can be these amazing works of art. There’s nothing inherent about the form that makes them incapable of transcendent greatness, or whatever high-falutin’ description you want to use.
It’s just that ones I’ve been told I need to read, ones that are the best of the bunch—including Watchmen—have been entertaining in a pop-culture way, but not the great works of amazing art I’ve been lead to expect. I’m willing to concede that it could simply be a matter of overly elevated expectations, or that maybe my brain just isn’t wired to find great meaning in superhero stories, however well done. (My first instinct is always, “Well, if you wanted to tackle [big issue], it would’ve been stronger to do it directly instead of indirectly through guys who can destroy worlds and such.”)
That said, I think it’s interesting how fans are so quick to dismiss any criticisms of the Watchmen movie, whether legitimate or otherwise, which RobotPants there was doing. The opinions of critics are only meaningful when their views match up with our own, hence people using the critical reception of The Dark Knight to show how comic movies are taken more seriously yet irrelevant when it comes to Watchmen.
I’ve noticed plenty of skepticism, particularly among fans here. It only seems to be recently that some suggestion that the movie might actually be better than one would expect.
Apart from that, I think Watchmen is a superhero story as The Crucible is about witchcraft.
Watchmen is kinda too meta to stand by itself – it partly plays off the reader having read tons of superhero comics. The point is that the characters are kinda silly and uncool, and that story can only exist in the world of other comics and readers who really know the archetypes.
And part of it might be how your brain is wired – do you find yourself just reading the text and turning the page? You could try reading some Chris Ware or other comics where are long series of pages with no words whatsoever. It will force you to look at the medium visually because there’s nothing else there, and when you go back to comics with words, you see more.
You know, when I read the original book, I hadn’t touched a comic in years and it still blew me away, so I’m not so sure that you have to have READ the comics so much as you just need to be aware of the archetypes. What affected me most about it was simply what it had to say about the exercise of power, the achievement of good, and the relationship between the superhero and the world as we know it today. Maybe I completely missed the point, though - it certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
Also, for what it’s worth, Ryan Scott seems to think this is the best movie ever made. He’s got a summary of what’s different up over on The Geekbox if you care to peruse. I’m trying to go in blind, so I haven’t allowed myself to read that entry in Google Reader yet.
In the other Watchmen thread, the criticisms that got everyone’s haunches up were directed at the book, not the movie. A lot of the negative reviews (those not written by Anthony Lane) cited pacing and kind of a cold sterility as the primary issues, which is pretty much what I expected/feared from a movie adapation. No problems with those comments.
Well, first of all, I’m not a fan of the Watchmen. Second, I’m not dismissing criticisms as much as I’m just pointing out that the difference between Rottentomatoes’ critic reviews and “normal” reviews doesn’t tend to matter in a movie like this one. It wasn’t a slam or praise for one side or the other. I haven’t seen the movie so I have no idea how good or bad it actually is.
I think this is very true, but it’s also really important to remember the time in which it was created. Back then the comic code authority still had a stranglehold on comics and most books were all popcorn a bubblegum.
Watchmen was one of the first comics to point out how fucked up people who wore costumes and ran around fighting crime must really be.
I’ve been trying to avoid the thread for fear of spoilers, but has anyone seen the ‘video comic book’? I see it available on demand for I think $20 for all of the chapters and about that or more for download on XBox Live. How does it stack up to the comic book (which I haven’t read)?
