What if the most controversial superhero movie director took on the most beloved comic ever made and created a brilliant and underrated film? That’s the case with Watchmen, Zack Snyder’s surprisingly great and weirdly underrated adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic comic.
When you’re ready for the kind of R-rated comic movie you’ll never get from the MCU or DCU, you should stream Watchmen for free on Tubi.
Driven By An Edgy, Sci-Fi Story And An Iconic Cast
The plot of Watchmen begins with a former superhero being murdered by an unknown assailant, leading to some of his former colleagues trying to discover his killer and avenge his death. They soon get caught in a sprawling tale involving the government, the smartest man in the world, and a godlike being who transcends time and space. These heroes’ success or failure may determine the fate of the planet, but they’ll have to overcome their individual grudges and various neuroses if they want to save the world.
A superhero film is only as good as its ensemble. Watchmen has an awesome cast that includes Patrick Wilson (best known for The Phantom of the Opera and Hard Candy) as Night Owl, a Batman-like vigilante who reluctantly comes out of retirement to fight crime yet again. He is joined by Jackie Earle Haley (best known outside this film for the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot) as Rorschach, a deranged vigilante who may unravel the big mystery…assuming, of course, his mind doesn’t unravel first. And Billy Crudup (best known for Almost Famous) stars as Dr. Manhattan, the only hero in the world who has actual superpowers.
Other big names in Watchmen include Malin Akerman (best known outside this film for the criminally underrated The Final Girls) as Laurie Jupiter, a spunky adventurer married to the world’s only superhero. Meanwhile, Matthew Goode (best known for Stoker) plays Ozymandias, the so-called smartest man in the world. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan (best known outside this movie for The Walking Dead) as The Comedian, a character whose mirthless grin hides some shocking complexities.
Who Watched the Watchmen?
Watchmen ended up being profitable, but it didn’t make as much money as the studio would have liked. Against a budget of about $140 million, it only earned $187 million. Still, the movie was successful enough that it cemented Zack Snyder as a major superhero movie director, and he would go on (for better or for worse) to become the chief architect of the failed DCEU.
While Watchmen is controversial among superhero fans for its occasional deviations from the source material, the movie managed to mostly win the critics over. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 64 percent, with critics praising the film for its gritty storytelling and unique aesthetic. They did note, however, that Watchmen follows the comics’ complex plot closely enough that it’s not as accessible as other tentpole superhero films.
How Zack Snyder Won Me Over
As for me, Watchmen occupies a special place in my heart because of how much I enjoy Moore’s original comic. I never thought it would be adapted into live-action, and while it’s not completely faithful to Moore’s work, Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is very clearly a labor of love from a director with something to prove. Ironically, while I hate much of Snyder’s later work in the DCEU, I found Watchmen almost transcendently good in its balance of superhero deconstruction, kinetic fights, and absolutely sick needle drops.
If you watched Watchmen before, you should know that the movie has only gotten better now for the simple reason that it takes the kind of creative risks that Marvel and DC will never take. Those rival superhero movie franchises have become boring and predictable, but Snyder’s original superhero movie stays wonderfully unpredictable from beginning to end. And in everything from its gory excess to its hilariously campy sex scene, Watchmen delivers the kinds of freaky fun that the MCU and DCU are now too afraid to embrace.
Will you agree that Watchmen is Zack Snyder’s most iconic superhero film, or is this one bloody comic movie you’d rather vaporize in the Intrinsic Field? To find out, all you have to do is pick up the remote and start streaming it for free on Tubi. Afterward, you may never look at Snyder’s other, far tamer comic book movies the same way again!
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