Loading ...This cartoon has been making the rounds on the Internet and I felt compelled to share it here, first of all because it’s exactly the kind of super-nerd fan humour I adore, and also because I think it nicely addresses a point I wanted to make regarding some of WATCHMEN’s detractors…
You see, I read a particularly upsetting review of the film in a college paper yesterday, and I just couldn’t resist abusing the power of this blog to respond to it. Now, I’ve read plenty of negative reviews of WATCHMEN, and while I haven’t entirely agreed with them all, at least they had valid arguments and solid reasoning. Because believe me, there is a strong case against WATCHMEN, and one that we could debate for weeks. This particular review, however, just seemed mean for the sake of being mean…
It opens with the headline, “For a glorified comic book movie, Watchmen takes itself far too seriously.” As I began screaming in outrage (consequently distracting the other people in the library) I realized there are two problems with this headline…
One: In the era of The Dark Knight, Persepolis, A History of Violence, Iron Man, V for Vendetta, and Sin City, there’s no such thing as a “glorified comic book movie.” We win Oscars now, baby! We’re playing in the big leagues. That’s akin to me calling Schindler’s List a “glorified Holocaust movie.” Genres don’t come with inherent quality or prestige – in other words, some genres aren’t better than others – it all depends on what you do with it. So please, get off the high horse…
Two: How can WATCHMEN take itself too seriously? It’s serious stuff by design. That’s like if I complained that Superbad wasn’t a serious, frank discussion about teenage sexuality…. No, worse, it’s like if I complained that Philadelphia took itself too seriously. WATCHMEN is about war – it’s supposed to be serious! The reviewer complains that he was upset by the political ideology of the film’s ending. Good! You’re supposed to be upset! That’s the whole freaking point. I was upset by the end of Old Yeller, but that doesn’t make it a bad movie. Had any of the seriousness or the intense ideological debate been stripped from WATCHMEN, you would have been left with the above cartoon.
And believe me, if the studio had its way…
