Who Watches The Watchmen?

Naturally I've read Watchmen. It seems it's frowned upon to consider yourself as having a good knowledge of comics without having done so. And I could see why people loved it so back when it was released. It was a labour of love. This one off series had more back-story and character than some on-going stories. It was an inspiration to everything that came after it, and to everything at the time, it was Alan Moore telling people, 'this is how it's done'.

20 years later however and we're spoilt for choice. I personally don't rank Watchmen as being in my top five series, let alone the best ever. But this is an era where we're blessed with the likes of Preacher, Kingdom Come and, in my opinion, Moore's best work, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Don't get me wrong, I was excited about the Watchmen film. Very excited actually. But only because it's difficult not to be excited about the film of the comic that was supposedly unfilmable. And I have to say, Zack Synder proved us all so very wrong. Watchmen is a masterpiece, it truly is. As a film in it's own right it held my attention all the way through. Admittedly it was slow moving which is unusual for a film based on a comic, but that really didn't matter. It was well written, engaging, and hell, when the fight scenes did come around they were vicious and epic. This film is one of the few that actually made me wince as our heroes got their asses handed to them by someone who was obviously their superior.

The criticisms of Watchmen are few. The sex scene may have been a little too explicit (you could feel the whole cinema cringing slightly) and overall the story is a little confusing if you have no prior knowledge of the plot. Yet Snyder's new ending ties the film up nicely. I didn't understand the reason for changing it, I really think the original finale really could have worked and would have been simpler. But I'm sure Snyder had his reasons.

If anything, Watchmen the film may have actually turned my respect for the original comic into actually love. Not the love I have for Preacher or for a good slice of cake, but a love that's going to make me pick it up and read it again from cover to cover. If I can remember where I bloody put it...