Zack Snyder’s Watchmen has got to be one of the most divisive superhero movies ever made. For every person who thinks it bungled bringing Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel to the big screen, there’s another who thinks Snyder did an amazing job. There are enough of the latter group for many to have called for more movies set in the Watchmen universe over the years, too – perhaps based off the Before Watchmen prequel comics. Unfortunately, though, no further films were ever made, and that’s certainly a shame.
The visionary director’s take on the material may not have totally understood what Alan Moore was trying to say in his comic, and gave us too much distractingly gory action and one of the most absurd sex scenes ever committed to celluloid, but it wasn’t all bad. Jackie Earle Haley was an excellent Rorschach and the Koyaanisqatsi soundtracked Dr. Manhattan origin scene was pure brilliance. Plus, it was consistently beautiful to look at – unsurprising given that Snyder always infuses his work with gorgeous visuals.
But what was perhaps the film’s biggest downfall was that it was simply too far ahead of its time. Or so says Jeffrey Dean Morgan. While chatting with Variety during the premiere of his new movie Rampage – which hits theaters on April 13th – the actor (who played The Comedian in Snyder’s pic) admitted that he’s very proud of Watchmen, but thinks it was ahead of its time and that’s why it failed to catch on.
Morgan’s definitely right here. While it did have more than a few flaws, Watchmen was also a bit too far ahead of its time and if it had been made in recent years, it probably would have fared better. After all, like we said above, there’s a lot to like in the film. For one, it’s extremely faithful, right down to the bloody ultra-violence, dour tone and politically-charged alternate reality setting.
Not only that, but Snyder’s attention to meticulously capturing the finest details from the comic make watching it a markedly unique experience. Perhaps more than any other superhero film, Watchmen feels like a stylish graphic novel playing out on the big screen.
But I digress. While the franchise might have never taken off in theaters, the likes of Doctor Manhattan, Nite-Owl, the Comedian and the rest will still be returning to the screen soon in HBO’s TV adaptation. It’s early days on the project and understandably, details are scarce, but the last update we received said that the network was ecstatic about the script. That’s certainly encouraging to hear and we’ll remain hopeful that the Watchmen TV show finds a bit more success than the film did.
