Entertainment
Email
Print
Watch Words
AP Photo
Turns out even superheros have issues. Local folks weigh in with their expectations for and interest in Watchmen, which was 20 years in the making.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: March 5, 2009
Updated: 03/04/2009 04:15 pm
People will finally be able to watch the Watchmen this weekend. After about 20 years in development, the movie hits screens Friday with its tale of dysfunctional superheroes in a corrupt world spiraling toward nuclear war.
Watchmen started out as a comic book miniseries in 1986 and 1987, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. It was set in an alternate universe where superheroes had existed since World War II, and examined what social, technological and political differences might exist in such a world.
Take for instance, Dr. Manhattan, a blue-skinned Superman-like figure with atomic powers including the ability to control and reshape matter.
How significant are achievements such as the Apollo moon missions in a world that has a man who can just fly to the moon when he wants? How would American history be different with such a figure able to single-handedly win the Vietnam War? And would a man with such vast powers be able to relate to everyday people?
The comic had mature themes and controversial content, including emotionally twisted characters.
Adam Casey, the store manager at Ssalefish Comics in Winston-Salem, said that he is cautiously optimistic about the film. "The trailer (that was shown) in front of Dark Knight was astounding," he said. "I was pleasantly surprised. The footage looked great."
Customers at comic shops in the area have had a wide variety of opinions about the film despite the fact that none of them have seen it yet.
"As with any comic movie there's a mixture of excitement and apprehension," said Michael Tesh, a salesperson at Classic Comics in Lewisville. "If you don't take it straight from the source material, they're going to be really picky."
But he thinks the fact that director Zack Snyder is a fan of the original Watchmen comic is a good sign.
"He's a fan of the genre, so we're thinking it will be decent," Tesh said. "the problem is, with 12 issues, trying to compress it to a three-hour movie it's going to lose a lot of stuff."
"There are the people who are pre-down on it, they assume every comic adaptation can't be good," Casey said. "And there are some who have been waiting a long time to see it… and some people just think the footage looks cool and they're excited about it."
Some skeptics
Among the skeptics is the writer of the original story. Alan Moore has been burned in the past by lackluster Hollywood adaptations of other comics he wrote, including The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell. He has sworn off any involvement with the film, turning the creator credits over to Gibbons.
Ever since the 12-issue run was first compiled into graphic novel form, it has stayed in print, in paperback and hardcover editions including a hefty $100 Absolute Watchmen hardback loaded with bonus material. The comic is the only graphic novel to make Time magazine's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.
And nearly since the beginning, there has been talk of a film adaptation.
In the late 1980s, 20th Century Fox acquired the film rights. Then in the 1990s, Warner Bros. picked up the idea, attaching cult director Terry Gilliam to the project -- until Gilliam decided that there was no way the elaborate story could be boiled down into a single film. Other drafts came along at other studios in 2001 and 2004 (with director Darren Aronofsky attached), then in 2005 Warner took another stab at the film, tapping Snyder to direct the film. He successfully adapted another graphic novel, 300, to the big screen.
The movie's release was threatened last year when 20th Century Fox filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros., saying it still had the rights to the film. The suit was settled out of court in January, with Fox getting a share of the box office.
And with the movie comes plenty of merchandise. Titan Books has produced four companion books, three about the film and one with Gibbons' original notes and sketches from the comic. Posters, T-shirts and action figures of all the main characters are now available. An animated adaptation of the original graphic novel, Watchmen: The Motion Comic, was released this week on DVD and Blu-ray. And later this month, another animated DVD/Blu-ray release, Tales of the Black Freighter, will be released telling a side story from the graphic novel that was left out of the feature film. And DC has released new printings of the graphic novel. Casey said that he has sold at least one copy a day at his store since the first trailer for Watchmen was released.
Relevant fiction
The accolades for the Watchmen graphic novel led Elaine Hage, the writing program coordinator at Forsyth Technical Community College, to teach about Watchmen in her class on science fiction.
When she was putting together the curriculum for her science fiction class, she focused largely on such famous writers as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.
But she knew that she wanted to include a graphic novel, "because graphic novels are a pertinent part of science fiction, and comics are too," she said. She talked the idea over with students
and heard about Watchmen. When she looked into it further, she decided it was a perfect fit for her class.
"We look at it, analyze it, look at the thematic material," she said. "We examine what the point of it is: What's the reason for writing this?"
The key to Watchmen, she said, is the complexity of the characters. "These characters in this book are real people," she said. "They all have different motivations, and they're not all good guys."
Her class this year won't discuss Watchmen till April, but some of her students have already bought and read the graphic novel and many of them are eager to see the film.
"The whole storyline, I think, is really great," said Julie Broyhill, a student in the class. "There's a sense of mystery to it."
She has already read the entire graphic novel once and is now re-reading it in preparation for the movie.
"I have not read comic books since I was a kid," said Broyhill, who is 38. "But when I started reading I could not put it down."
She hopes the movie lives up to the source material. "From the trailers that I've seen, it looks like they have done this exceptionally well," she said, "from the costumes to the way it's been filmed, the lighting and special effects…. I'm hoping to see it on opening weekend. I am so excited about it."
Email
Print
