Watching the Watchmen

Alright readers... Lets get something straight right now, because I don't want to come into my office tomorrow morning and find "HERETIC" written on my wall in blood (or any other bodily fluid.)

I did not come here to contend that the film adaptation of "The Watchmen" is an exceptionally good film. Nor do I believe it to be even an exceptionally good comic book film. I would not rate it in my top 5, nor would it be included on my "desert island" list. (For that matter, neither would the watchmen book.)

There.

With that said I'm going to come right out and say it. I do not understand why the film gets so much negative feedback from people.

I have read the book several times, and I have watched the film several times as well... If you enjoyed the book how can you not enjoy the movie? The movie IS the book. All of you people who complained about Spiderman's organic web shooters or Joker being the killer of the Wayne family in Tim Burton's Batman cant suddenly decide that someone has been "too faithful" to a literary work. It reeks of "I just want to bitch about something."

If Snyder had taken major liberties with the characters... (Rorshach was a girl, The Comedian survives and saves the day at the end, the whole thing was orchestrated by Veidt's tiger / goat thing...) you people would have been sacrificing chickens in the streets and calling for executions.

Alright, alright... I hear you over there. Now you're saying "But there were differences! I saw them!"

Very well... Lets examine them shall we?

OH MY GOD SPOILERS!!

The most glaring of course, being how the ending comes about. We reach the same conclusion (albeit with several major cities destroyed instead of just New York like the book) but the way we reach it is a little different and well... are you ready for this? I'm sorry readers, but the movie's "Dr. Manhattan has turned against us" plot line was in my humble opinion much better, and made much more sense than the random "Giant dead alien!!!" plot line from the book. The alien bit felt to me like Moore was just like "You know, I'm sick of writing this. Lets drop a big fake alien carcass on New York and be done with it shall we?"

He probably stroked his beard a bit while he said that.

Alright what other big differences did we have... Lets see there was Nite Owl's costume change... Lets have a look at them shall we.

And Theeeeen...

Boy I sure am pissed that they changed him out of that...

Don't get me started on Ozymandias's book outfit (Granted that the one in the movie was just as goofy looking).

Right, okay... So maybe you've taken a stand against the film because of Alan Moore's stance against it... You feel that because the creator deems it "unfilmable" that it should not have been made. On this point alone I will give you a leg to stand on. I do not claim to know what went on in the offices of DC comics in 1986... I was probably still trying to figure out how to tie a shoe at the time. But sure... Maybe Alan Moore got swindled out of the rights to the characters or whatever. Says him.

But he signed the contracts. He released the books.

An artist can cry "integrity" all he or she would like... but the bottom line is, that if you are turning your creations over to a company, you had better be smart about it because you are giving them a free pass to make money with it in any way they can. In the world of comic books that implies movies, action figures, and video games. If you truly wanted to maintain the absolute essence of integrity then as an artist, musician, or writer you would be keeping your creations to yourself forever, or self releasing them under the strictest of stipulations. That is the only sure way to keep them from harm.

Alan Moore knows this, and I'm sure that he knew it back then. Even though I like his claim that he does the things he does in comics because that is the only place they are possible... I also feel like we should objectively look at the movie for what it is... A pretty damn good attempt to put the book to film.

Now my comic credentials are well known and I do not feel the need to back them up to anyone. But as comic fans I think we've all maybe been slightly ruined by our upbringing. I'm not sure what it is about comic book fans that makes us think we're so god damned refined. I think the comic reader suffers from a more advanced form of whatever ailment it is that causes frequent book readers to look down upon people who enjoy films based on books. Reading is great. It's fantastic. But so is enjoying a film. And I don't understand why they cant live in harmony with each other.

If someone wants to try to make a buck by creating a decent film based on a decent book then who are any of you to stop them? If you're against it don't watch the damn thing. Yes, most of the time the original source material is better. But if someone watches the movie and enjoys it then chances are that their desire to check out the source material just took a major leap.

Watchmen is a decent film, based on a decent book. Stop stroking your ego (and Alan Moore's) and lets give it a rest. It isn't amazing, but its not like you're watching C.H.U.D. 2

Sorry C.H.U.D. fans.