When you break the project that eventually became Zack Snyder’s Watchmen down to its broadest strokes, the fact it remains one of the most contentious and opinion-splitting blockbusters of the modern era make complete and total sense.
After all, we’re talking about an adaptation of a seminal graphic novel that’s rightly lauded as one of the greatest ever, which then spent decades lingering in development hell as the notion of Watchmen being “unfilmable” began to appear resolutely true. In the end, Snyder’s 2009 blockbuster bombed after earning $185 million on a budget hovering around the $130 million mark, with critics and crowds split on the movie’s merits.
Few things sum up Watchmen‘s oxymoronic nature than the sentiment it suffered from being too faithful to its source material, while the theatrical release was substantially improved by both the Director’s Cut and the Ultimate Cut, the latter of which ranked as the longest superhero feature ever made until Snyder outdid himself with HBO Max’s Justice League.
Proving that we’re never going to reach a unified consensus, a since-deleted Reddit thread slamming the director for “dumbing down” Watchmen has once more ignited the debate over its true standing in the cinematic pantheon. Some find it to be a minor masterpiece, others thought it was an unremarkable if entertaining slice of big budget bleakness, while more than a few didn’t care for it in the slightest.
One thing that is not inarguable in any way, though, is that Watchmen opens with one of the finest opening credits sequences you’re ever going to see.