Can Snyder Materialize the Unfilmable Watchmen?

Whether you dug 300 or not, it's hard to deny that Zack Snyder crafted something impressive with the visual design. Critics of his visceral adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel -- myself included -- can't get over the fact that it seems somehow ... hollow. Much like an aboriginal didgeridoo (like the one pictured here, available here), it's beautiful to look and makes plenty of noise, yet when you look inside, it's empty except for the lengthy history of the item itself and the sweat-covered blood put into building it. Considering the adrenal context of the story, all of the brutally-saturated stylish intents still sorta work for 300 ... though it could've been a hell of a lot more poignant.

But with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, Snyder's in a position where he needs to step up his game. It's not a story that he can fluff and dolly up without any of the source material's commentary, which backs the aesthetically rich / thematically inconsistent director in a corner. As one of Time's 100 Best Novels, it possesses a sense of mind-tinkering tangibility and striking tonal focus that some consider to be the evolution catalyst of the graphic novel medium. Is Watchmen going to match its paperback counterpart? Likely not, but it'll at least be an entrancing experience to witness in Snyder's hands. He's done above-average things with the tale of Hell's Gate and George A. Romero's story of shopping-mall seclusion within a zombie apocalypse, so it makes for a situation where the jury's still out whether he'll do proper justice to the Watchmen or not. At least in his hands, moviegoers are pumped for a strong visual representation of an oft-stated "unfilmable" story.

Fans of the novel, however, wait with bated breath to see if Watchmen builds into the cinematic representation that they've always desired -- and always feared.Current News