Long wait near end for suburban 'Watchmen' fans
Keith Anderson, a Schaumburg comic-store owner and longtime fan of the "Watchmen" graphic novel, says he's pumped to see the movie version that opens at midnight Thursday.
His excitement, though, is tempered by another emotion - fear.
"Overall, I feel really good about the movie," said Anderson, owner of Keith's Komix on Roselle Road. "It seems like (director) Zack Snyder has been as faithful as you can be to the book.
"But in the back of your mind, you can't help thinking: What if they screw it up?"
Anderson's angst isn't unusual. With the release of every new promotional image and trailer for the movie over the past year, the mood of "Watchmen" fans has swung from joyous expectation to dread and back again.
Why all the drama? Primarily because "Watchmen" is the "Sgt. Pepper" of superhero comics - a revered work that changed people's notions of what the genre could do. Fans have analyzed and debated every panel and line of dialogue since "Watchmen" appeared in 1986.
For almost as long, fans have speculated about what a "Watchmen" movie might be like. Numerous directors have tried to get one off the ground, but until now each of those projects fizzled out.
"The movie is kind of like the Great White Whale for the fans," Libertyville resident Chris Dryden said with a laugh. "It's something they've been chasing for so long. What if it doesn't live up to all that?"
"Watchmen," by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, hit the comics industry like a grenade. The novel re-imagined superheroes as deeply flawed vigilantes - some make the Joker in "The Dark Knight" look well-adjusted - and brought new levels of sophistication to the genre.
"It really does read like a novel," said Michael Caplan, a "Watchmen" fan and professor of film and video at Columbia College Chicago. "The characters have real depth. The story is dense, complex and textured."
So complex, in fact, that fans have wondered whether any film could do justice to it.
"I was horrified when I first heard that a 'Watchmen' movie was actually going to be made," said Clint Peterson, a teacher's aide at Buffalo Grove High School who works part-time at Comix Revolution in Mount Prospect. "I just didn't think a movie could do what the book does."
Peterson's opinion softened a bit when images of Snyder's film started to hit the Internet. "The more commercials I see, the better it looks," he said. "You can now count me as cautiously optimistic."
Wauconda fan Justin Taylor went so far as to say that at this point, he's optimistic without the "cautiously." He plans to attend a midnight showing with his wife and friends.
"I'm so excited about this," Taylor said. "I wasn't so sure about the idea of a 'Watchmen' movie originally, but Zack Snyder really seems to get it.
"And if it's bad, hey, I can still enjoy the book."
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=276587">Review: 'Watchmen' captures look of cult graphic novel, but not its soul <span class="date">[03/04/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=276408">'Watchmen' to have plenty of life on DVD <span class="date">[03/04/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>