We got our tickets for tonight’s IMAX midnight show of the Watchmen! Huzzah!
Tickets for the SF IMAX midnight show have been sold out, early reviews from critics and fans seems strong, and keeping in line with Gaiman’s Law of Superhero Movies: this movie has the look and feel of the comic book. (As opposed to the accompanying graphic I’ve posted which is up cuz it cracks me the hell up. Schroeder as Ozymandias = Hilarity!) All of this indicates Watchmen will be having one solid opening weekend. A better breakdown can be found at boxofficeguru.com.
A few months back my biggest concern was if Zack Snyder could fit all of Alan Moore’s narrative into a movie form. Now my biggest question is if US moviegoers are really ready for Moore’s commentary on what happens when we give away our decision making power, when we’ve settled for safety for so long that we’ve lost all our agency, when we can’t tell the terrorists from the freedom fighters. Of course, this sounds mighty familiar when you put it through the 9/11 lens and say–Hey that’s us! But it’s not, Moore wrote this for an audience that (whether they knew it or not) were ready for new heroes and the only it was gonna happen was to take the familiar tropes and completely burn em in effigy. Expose them for how hollow they are in the face of real terror and have some of them come up with the courage to put on the costumes again, even if they’re 20lbs and 10 years past their prime. And that’s what I doubt US audiences are ready for. They hate to have someone else tear down their heroes, they’re fine doing ti themselves with the power of the tabloids and negative opinion, but have someone else come in and question all that is popular and sells well on the Home Shopping Network and things change. So, will Snyder go for the explosions and visuals to satisfy Hollywoood or will he delivers all the goods. I’ll find out tonight.
On a related note: Watchmen is #1 on the New York Times’ newly inaugurated Graphic Book Best Seller list. I’d be more excited about the fact that the Times has such a list in place but I think that the reports of the comicbook’s death (If Comics Don’t Change, They “Could Be Dead In 18 Months) are not exaggerated at all. Very littel daring or innovative has come from the spandex brigade in a minute and Marvel seems ready to put more energy and resources into Hollywooding their properties then they are in developing new heroes.