Yeah, AotD did nothing for me. But I’m not into that genre to begin with. Although I was surprised at how much I enjoyed World War Z several years ago.
Anyway, Zack’s take on Watchmen is really fascinating to me. I’m trying to write an essay on it that is really proving difficult to reign in. He’s clear that there was initially studio interference to try to make it a traditional superhero film! He explained to the execs, no, that that’s not what the Watchmen comic is—it’s a deconstruction. And he basically says that after he was well into making the film they finally accepted that and let him do what he wanted. But then he says that the film is basically a satire of the superhero genre! I think that sense of it being “satire” arises from the compromise he was forced to make from the start.
Knowing how WB operates, I think it was compromised by the studio from the getgo. And Snyder was having to figure out how to fit in subversive deconstruction themes. To make it look like a sleek, sexy standard pop culture superhero film and sneak those themes in, basically. However at the end of the day Snyder does want us to be able to love superheroes after deconstructing them (unlike Alan Moore who dismisses superhero mythology as childish fantasy escapism). So the fact that he gave Watchmen’s superheroes a “cool” factor belongs to that basic project of legitimizing superhero mythology even after deconstructing it.
