We Watched the Watchmen: A Roundtable
A New Day in the Light: Watchmen Then and Now
Kessen: The movie is being heavily marketed to young people, and may well include a lot of material designed just to appeal to them. Will a generation that did not in fact grow up in the shadow of nuclear Armageddon respond as strongly to this story?
Alex: It’s R rated so I don’t think that [it's being heavily marketed to young people]. I don’t think that Watchmen as a comic is written for and can only be enjoyed by people who lived in the era it was produced anyway. It’s still a good comic book, people will continue to read and enjoy it. That said, any movie adaptation is going to also show the concerns of the age it is produced in and Watchmen the movie does that too. Personally I like that. Also, just because the cold war is over…
Matt: I think time will tell. The idea of the world going to hell in a handbasket is one that assumes a different form for each generation. For my parents, it was nuclear war. For my generation, I’m guessing the threat of terrorism will be a sufficient stand-in. I mean, this movie comes at at time when I think people see a world that needs heroes. Maybe even extraordinary heroes. But when heroes emerge, we question their motives or their ideological loyalties. Or we see them die. It’s a nice fantasy that there could be people who step outside the normal channels in an attempt to right serious wrongs, but Watchmen says that if those people existed, they’d drop the ball even worse than our duly elected officials. It argues that heroes suck, that the government sucks, that faith of any kind offers no rewards, but you can still have a good time watching these nonheroic badasses kick butt.
After all, it’s just a movie set in a faraway time in a parallel universe, so why worry? … It’s the kind of movie that uses a blood-spattered smiley face pin for aesthetic pleasure, then wipes the blood off and sticks it in your lapel as it everything it says it just a far-fetched “What if?” scenario.
It is, but it takes that faraway What If scenario so seriously.
I want to look up and shout, “WHY SO SERIOUS?”
And the movie answers, “No.”
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