Rank 'Watchmen' Among Comic Book Movies

The official reviews have been a mixed bag. Some critics loved Watchmen for its audacity, others applauded it for its faithfulness to the source material. On the flip side, some reviewers found Watchmen way too long, not interesting enough, and pseudointellectual. But the time for critic speak is over. Now it's completely up to the fans, whether you know the graphic novel like the back of your hand or if you just bought into the advance hype. You can leave general impressions if you want, but what I'm really curious to see is how everyone thinks it ranks among comic book movies. Is it a new milestone? Will we see more dark, difficult graphic novels now because of this? Does it compare favorably to Christopher Nolan's Gotham City or the early Spider-Man films? Or is it too close to the graphic novel and therefore not enough of its own movie? Have at it; the floor is yours.

Comments

[Anybody]

It was a worthy try, albeit unsuccessful...

1. The Dark Knight
2. Batman Begins
3. X-2
4. Iron Man
5. Sin City
6. X-Men
7. Road to Perdition
8. Spiderman 2
9. V for Vendetta
10. Dick Tracy

Hon Mentions: Spiderman, 300, A History of Violence, Blade, Watchmen (15th?), The Crow, Men in Black, American Splendor and The Incredible Hulk (with Norton).

[Ally]

1. Watchmen
2. The Dark Knight
3. Sin City
4. Iron Man
5. X2
6. X-Men

I think my list comes down to the fact that these are the only comics I've ever really enjoyed. I read X-Men and Iron Man as a kid, and once I got older moved on to Watchmen and Sin City as well as the darker Batman comics. I've never been a fan or Spiderman or Hulk, or even Superman...the comics as well as the films have never impressed me.

[Vince]

I'll rank my top ten (I haven't seen V for Vendetta, or some other movies that might make it on this list, just FYI)

1. The Dark Knight
2. Batman Begins
3. Spider-Man 2
4. Iron Man
5.300
6.Watchmen
7.The Incredible Hulk (2008)
8. Wanted- (I'll include it just because "Anybody" included Road to Perdition in his list).
9. Hellboy II
10. Sin City

Honorable mentions: The Crow (fantastic movie- underrated), The X-Men films, the first Spider-Man, the first Hellboy and the first Blade films.

[Joe]

I've always been a Marvel comics guy over DC, so my list might have that kind of bend.

1. Batman Begins
2. X-Men
3. Iron Man
4. Spider-Man
5.X-Men II
6.Batman (Tim Burton)
7.Superman II
8. Watchmen
9. The Dark Knight
10. 300

I LOVED the Dark Knight, but Batman Begins was a much more coherent movie. It held itself together better beginning to end. And it didn't feature Maggie Gyllenhal.

The X-Men sequel built off the foundations of the original. You couldn't just jump into the second X-Men movie without the first and while I feel that X-Men II is a FAR superior movie, X-Men I gets the higher placement because it came first.

Loved Spider-Man II, but again, the first one's quality is what made the second one possible. And Iron Man, come on. 'Nuff said.

Superman II could lose the "I gave up my powers to be with Lois" sub-plot, but otherwise it was a fabulous movie. Kind of spat on the comics in a lot of ways, but whatever. As I said, I was Marvel plus Batman and never a real "DC" guy.

I thought Watchmen was very good and very true to the original. As much as it could be. Definitely worth watching. But the negative points Colin mentions in the article are things that I liked about the original Alan Moore series - and MOST Alan Moore series. They are long, not much on action or just enough action, and pseudo-intellectual. Moore always makes you think, just not a whole lot.

Tim Burton's Batman and 300 had to included on this list because they were absolutely classics in my mind. They invented their genres. When Burton made Batman, we hadn't had a decent super hero movie in YEARS. And 300 pioneered the way that movie was shot. I chose 300 over Sin City for my top ten because Robert Rodriguez is a hack.

Thank you.

[Scott]

It's hard make a list because comic book and graphic novel movies are two entirely different things. At least that's my opinion.

If I had to clump them all together I'd put it around 5 or 6. Graphic novel wise it's a toss up with V for Vendetta.

One thing is for sure: I'll be paying very close attention to anything Snyder directs from now on. That guy has tremendous talent behind a camera (hopefully he'll cut back on the slow motion fetish though).

[Josie]

"Watchmen" was pretty much what I expected: visually beautiful but narratively clumsy. I'd give it a 2.5 out of 4, and I really don't have a desire to see it again.

The movie was too faithful for it's own good (and this is coming from someone who LOVES the comic and has read it at least five times). Snyder and co. were so concerned with being "faithful" to the comic that they forgot that what works on the page doesn't always work on the screen; Sin City had the exact same problem. For example, Dr. Manhattan's origin story, one of my favorite chapters, was dead weight on screen.

Watchmen the comic is number one on my "best comics" list. Watchmen the movie won't even crack my "top ten comic book movies" list. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I thought V for Vendetta got the better adaptation.

[Anonymous]

1. Watchmen
2. Batman Begins
3. Iron Man
4. Superman 2
5. X-Men 2
6. The Dark Knight
7. Hellboy
8. Spider-man
9. 300
10. Wanted

Watchmen was fantastic and stayed true to the source material. The Dark Knight while a great movie wasn't, I don't feel worth the hype. Christian Bale's voice got a little too annoying. X-men 2 was the best of the series so far. Iron Man was just awesome. Hellboy, well anything Guillermo del Toro touches is gold.

[Chris Rees]

Watchmen was a visual stimulant, but that is it. It was like being in a gigantic swimming pool and being constricted to the shallow end.

1 The Dark Knight
2 A History Of Violence
3 Batman Begins
4 X2
5 American Splendor
6 Iron Man
7 Road To Perdition
8 Sin City
9 Hellboy
10 Persepolis