We should clarify something very quickly: Of course I enjoyed Watchmen. It was a film based (as faithfully as possible) on one of my all-time favorite comics. The cast was spot on, the FX were great, and the alternate ending even worked despite itself. If you want to read reviews about why it was good, there’re plenty online. If you want a voice of descent, then there are plenty of those as well. What I want to focus on is the reaction of the layman to this movie. Hearing why I loved it or where I thought it needed work doesn’t do much for anyone who would be reading this.
The layman, though. That’s something I’d like to write about.
The friends I enticed to see Watchmen were not comic book fans. They’d read a few (some at my insistence or ones I’d given as gifts) and had been intrigued by the trailers, but neither of them (one a man and one a woman) had that a connection to the material as translation from another work (otherwise known as “arrogant pessimistic nerd syndrome”).
These two “newbies” had positive reactions to the film but for different reasons and being someone who loves to be the “pusher” of all things nerdy and film-related, it was a treat to enjoy the picture with both of them separately.
The man (we’ll call him “Two”) was someone of similar taste in violent and intense films as me. We both liked b-movies and he leaned more towards horror than my interests, but we found common ground in films like Rambo, Death Sentence, and Sin City. He’s also an artist who admires color and mood and he’s into uniquely dark anti-heroes and their brutality. Suffice it to say, he ate up every minute of bone-crunching fight scenes, one-liners uttered in gravely voices, and disturbing scenes of dark behavior. We both sat in focused attention to every frame only breaking eye contact with the film to lean over and exchange the following joke, “I thought I’d seen violent, then I saw Watchmen…”
The woman (we’ll call her, “September”) was someone with an aversion to the things that Two enjoyed. Violence made her uncomfortable and the dark and twisted lives of characters were not enough of a reason for her to show interest in a particular story. The artistic sensibilities, however, were something that Two and her shared and the idea of a different world similar to our own with conflicts of the human condition seemed to appeal to the same degree to September that blood-and-battery appealed to Two. She commented on the colors and the palette used to bring certain scenes to life as well as how the tragedy of certain characters made her really root for them at certain points.
Both September and Two liked the film, no question. Both went on to recommend it to other newbies and both felt comfortable discussing its merits and its flaws. No matter how poorly the film has fared lately, it DID reach an audience. It did have an effect as a movie on newbies and could pique enough interest for a pop culture pusher like myself to now be able to go, “well if you liked Watchmen, then you’ll really like THIS.” That’s what really makes all the difference, right?
