The Watchmen… cometh!

Later this year marks the release of the highly anticipated Watchmen movie from director Zack Synder (“300″) and author Alan Moore. There’s so much hype surrounding the movie, so I decided to jump on board and ride the Watchmen train… to figure out if the story is really as compelling as people say. I approached the book with an open mind and a willingness to accept all the characters and style of writing that has made Alan Moore an icon of the graphic-novel genre! After reading the whole novel, I can honestly say to everyone: READ THIS BOOK! GO SEE THIS MOVIE! It definitely lives up to the hype. I won’t get into any spoilers, but here is my review:

This is no ordinary super-hero story, there are no men in red capes soaring over the land, there are no real “superheroes” in this story; with the exception of Dr. Manhattan (a walking nuke!). What makes this story so intriguing is the psychoanalysis of each of the protagonists. Each one of these supposed “heroes” has a flaw, a telling-flaw. One that encompasses everything they are and attributes to their reasoning for becoming a hero/vigilante.  The story takes place in fictional America, during a time when the aspect of nuclear war is upon us (right around the same time the Russians invaded Afghanistan). A law has been passed years earlier condemning superheroes and therefore making them illegal. An ex-hero is murdered and sends the remaining heroes into a tailspin of personal-discovery and armageddon-style revelations. The entire book relies heavily on allegory and imagery, and that’s what makes it so special. That and the individual pyschological profiles that make each character weaker than they admit themselves to be. The ending of the book comes off as a shock and it took me a few minutes to allow it to sink in, once it did I was hit with a wallop of shock and understanding.

At first, I felt as though the ending was weak; that it didn’t follow the progress of the story and ran off on a tangent. But as I delved deeper into my understanding of the novel, and how well it was written I came to realize it was perfect. The best way to end a book of it’s nature; it gives absolution to the smiley-face symbol. Reports have stated that there will be an alternate ending for the movie and will not showcase one of the main plot points. As upsetting as that sounds, I understand Hollywood’s decision-making on this. In an effort to make this movie universal, they decided to scrub the story a little bit. I am sure this will take away from a lot of the book’s appeal. Nevertheless, I sit in wild anticipation for the movie.

Rumor has it a new trailer will be supplied with the release of Quantum of Solace this Friday, November 15th (in the United States). So to all those skeptics out there, read this book, it will surely change the way you view comics and heroes in general. Quite a unique and honest portrayal of the human strain and all that we deal with as a society.