WATCHMEN: Thoughts on a second viewing
I went to see WATCHMEN again yesterday, with a friend who hadn’t seen it until then. He was a huge fan of the Watchmen graphic novel (and indeed comics in general), so I was interested in seeing his reaction as well as gauging my own on a second viewing. How did it go? The film holds up remarkably well on a second viewing, really. After my initial amazement at kit, I thought that a repeated viewing would diminish my enjoyment, but no, if anything it heightened the experience.
I loved it even more. My mate was thrilled with the film, and pointed out repeatedly that the changes that had been made all made sense, and in some cases worked better than the comics themselves. sacrilege, I hear you cry, but justified.
It is with a second viewing of the film that you can appreciate the construction of it more without figuring out where they changed elements of the story. I found my second shot at seeing the film incredibly enjoyable, and found myself appreciating the visual richness of its construction to a much greater extent. Much like the graphic novel itself, there is so much going on in every frame that it will take repeated sittings to take it all in.
The level of detail is simply amazing, and there are some lovely little touches that I’d missed before. One of my personal favourites was noticing the inclusion of the classic 1984 Apple Macintosh advert on one of Ozymandias’ TV screens.
Mac love aside, the Watchmen movie holds up extremely well on a second viewing, and we agreed that the extended cut is going to be even better. This is a brilliant moment in the evolution of the comic book film, and a brilliant time to get into the genre. Zack Snyder and his merry gang have raised the bar to an unprecedented level with this film.
