I read the Watchmen graphic novel recently (before I found out about the movie adaption), and I loved it. I’m so used to Japanese manga that it was a bit jarring at first to read a western-style graphic novel, but it really blew me away with the psychological depth of the characters.
That said, the first thing I felt when I saw the movie trailer wasn’t excitement. I hate to be pessimistic, but movie adaptions of works I like don’t have the greatest track record. Numerous Hollywood movies have been made based on stories by Philip K. Dick — one of my favorite writers — but the only one of the lot that was any good was Blade Runner. I still remember seeing Paycheck (a movie based on one of the better PKD short stories), and wondering how in the hell the movie made it to theaters without anyone in charge standing up and saying “Hey, wait a minute… this is a piece of shit.” Additionally, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie pissed me off no end, not because it deviated from the story, but because it was simply unfunny and didn’t resemble Douglas Adam’s style of humor at all.
So, my expectations are a bit low.
I would absolutely love for the Watchmen movie to be a brilliant film, true to the depth and intelligence of the graphic novel, but that isn’t going to happen. Hoping for that is just asking for disappointment. I’m trying to be realistic.
All I want is for the movie not to suck. I just don’t want to be angry when I leave the theater. Is that too much to as?
I hear ya…I’ve been having the same thoughts. After waiting 20 years for something to be produced, I really hope it’s done right.
And you’re also right on with the PKD thing, although I did like A Scanner Darkly…
Right, I should have mentioned that. I really liked A Scanner Darkly (easily the best movie made from a PKD novel, and one of my favorite movies), but I don’t count it when talking about Hollywood adaptions of his work. It was an independent movie that had a very limited release, and didn’t attempt to attract a wide, mainstream audience, so comparing it to Minority Report or Paycheck is unfair.
The brilliance of that particular graphic novel is I really felt that comic used the medium like no other. There are things movies do better than comics and most comics really try to be movies. This was a graphic novel that used the pacing, space, and time that exists in the graphic novel in a way that won’t work in a movie. I hope it’ll be a nice little mystery, but I don’t plan on the movie capturing the magic of the graphic novel.