Who Watches the Watchmen?

I saw 'Watchmen'. Enjoyed some of it, and was lulled to sleep by others. Zack Snider did a 'paint by numbers' approach to this film. Use of secondary colors for tone of movie as done in novel? Check. Panel by panel accuracy with the graphic novel as the scenes in the movie progress? Check. A bigger and more blue penis than the book? Check. Failing to make a statement as an auteur of modern cinema and as a thinking person interpreting a classic piece of modern literature? Priceless.

Watchmen could clearly have used a daring screenwriter who would go for the jugular and say fuck off to the fan boys of comic book shops and make a good 'movie' for filmophiles.

Zack Snider is clearly a skilled director and has a lot of chops when it comes to making a film. That's why he wants Watchmen virgins to remain Watchmen virgins before the see the film. Like any good performer, he doesn't want to reveal the source of his material. And boy was he faithful to the comic. Too faithful. If the squid and the island and the psychological profiler's relationship with his wife can be omitted, why not go full tilt and make a movie that is relevant and resonant to our time.

Bring the movie into the fucking twenty first century. Go for the jugular. George H.W. Bush is still president, we are still in operation Desert Shield/Storm and the Nuclear threat is a unified extremely radical faction of Islam with the Hussein Family of Iraq, The Prime minister of Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, North Korea, China and Pakistan takes the place of the Soviet Nuclear threat.

Transpose the novel to our time and it would have a more potent and virulent film. Would it rile the vile up in comic fans? Sure. but who cares? Art, is supposed to anger. I've yet to see someone protest a work of 'paint by numbers'.