Millions of People are Watching the Watchmen, and Playing the Watchmen Too
Watchmen was one of the highest grossing films of 2009, and it was a film that fans of graphic novels had been waiting decades for. The Watchmen film is an adaptation of a series of graphic novels done in the mid 80’s. The comic and the film are set in an alternate reality in the 1980s. The alternate reality is similar to the real world in many ways except that in the alternate world superheroes not only exist, they live among everyday citizens. In the world of Watchmen superheroes were created in the 1940s and in the 1960s in order to help the US win WWII and the Vietnam War. For awhile superheroes were essentially freelance operators working for hire, until a law was passed that required all superheroes to either retire, or work for the government. At the time of the Watchmen film there is a general bad feeling among the public about superheroes and they are not considered role models.
The Watchmen are a particular group of superheroes who are brought together in order to fight the threat of nuclear attack against the American people. The loose group consists of Rorschach, Ozymandias, Silk Spectre, Nite Owl II, the Comedian, and Doctor Manhattan. Unlike the traditional superhero of graphic novels the Watchmen really don’t want to help out. They have more human qualities than any other graphic novel superheroes have had in the past. They drink, they curse, they are very, very flawed individuals. Often fans refer to them as “superheroes with issues.”But in the end they band together in the name of friendship and justice to save the world the way that all superheroes do.
The Watchmen movie almost didn’t get made. Originally Watchmen was optioned back in the 1980s but at the time film adaptations of graphic novels were not nearly as popular as they are today and the film rights were passed from one studio to another while the story went from one director to another. Terry Gilliam, one of the famed members of Monty Python, at one point was attached to the movie but dropped it after he declared that it would be impossible to bring Watchmen to the screen. It was impossible in the 80s, but in 2009 a Watchmen movie was released. The dark, edgy, action film found a ready audience among fans of graphic novels, Sci Fi, and action films. The movie was filmed in a style similar to the hit adaptation of Sin City starring Clive Owen and the gritty, graphic imagery resonated with the audience. Watchmen didn’t have a mainstream audience in the 1980s but modern audiences embraced the cynical superheroes.
Watchmen costumes are expected to be a big hit this year.
At the same time the Watchmen movie was released a Watchmen video game was also released for PC, XBox 360 and Playstation. Game players are allowed to play as the mysterious Rorschach or as the enigmatic Nite Owl II. The Watchmen video game got mixed reviews from gaming experts, but fans of the game and fans of the movie and original graphic novel thought that while the game wasn’t as good as it could have been the lush graphics made it worth playing.
