Film adaptations of comix and graphic novels run the gamut from laughably awful (say, Howard the Duck) to respectful but turgid (like, oh, Superman). Somewhere toward the right-hand side of that continuum is a sweet spot, rarely targeted by Hollywood, where the budget is spent not on stars or explosions, but on recreating the look-and-feel of the book and script doctors from the UCLA film school clutching copies of Joe Campbell's collected works are shot on sight. So truefans of a particular comic tend to hold their breath and devour the pre-production gossip, looking for straws in the wind. And, as someone who believes that Moore and Gibbons's Watchmen is not just one of the greatest graphic novels, but also one of the best sf works of the last twenty years, I've been anticipating the film, scheduled for release in March, 2009, with a mix of breathless anticipation and horror and mortal terror. Then, before the Dark Knight yesterday, I saw the trailer.

Go watch the trailer.

It's one thing to see the backlot photos, it's quite another to watch the Owlship rising from the East River to the Smashing Pumpkins. Suddenly seeing come to life "the light is taking me to pieces" panel, Dr. Manhattan in Vietnam, the Comedian going through the window, the oudchat on the elevator door in the background of the Veidt assassination attempt (we shall say nothing of the walkie talkie at 1:32), it is such rich, thoughtful detail; clearly an adaptation, a transcription for a different medium, but, at least in these few thousand frames, a faithful yet emergent one.

And the framing device, the long pullback through the gears? Only someone who really gets the beginning of chapter 4, and the linkage between Einstein, the blind watchmaker, and Dr. Manhattan, would embed this into the title. Unexpected, and yet richly syntonic.

Based on that, I'm willing to believe — even if only provisionally, that director Zack Snyder really can deliver the goods for this almost impossibly unfilmable book. We shall know next March.

Resources:
Watchmenmovie.com official site
Watchmencomicmovie.com
Production blog

ps: I told you it was rabid fanboy drooling.