Watching the “Watchmen” Trailer A Little Too Closely

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


doc-manhattan175.jpg

The actual movie’s not due for another seven and a half months, but the trailer for Watchmen is out. (Watch it after the jump.) Which means I and other fans of the graphic-novel masterpiece that the movie’s based on can get some answers to our nagging questions. Obvious questions like, Can a two-hour movie capture author Alan Moore’s brilliantly constructed storyline and artist Dave Gibbons’ impeccable yet pulpy atmospherics?

But beyond learning whether director Zack Snyder (300) has delivered a CGI-bloated mess, here’s the practical if prurient question that’s been lodged in my brain since adolescence, when talk of a Watchmen flick first surfaced: How will the movie portray Doctor Manhattan, the Smurf-blue, radioactive superman who likes to walk around with his, uh, nuclear facilities out in the open?

I’m kind of serious. Doc Manhattan is, I believe, the first comic-book crime fighter to forgo the pretense of wearing a skimpy, skin-tight costume to let it all hang out. Nudism actually makes a lot of sense for shape-changers: No one’s ever explained why, when the Hulk rips out of his civvies, his normal-sized pants become a pair of cut-offs. (Ang Lee tried to get around this by dressing him in spandex shorts.) If I recall, Manhattan’s reasons for going au supernaturel have more to do with physics than physicality (something about the laws of the universe not distinguishing between the atoms in clothes and skin or somesuch). Anyway, it all presents a challenge for the frontal-male-nudity-phobic Hollywood and the moviegoing public. Yet the Watchmen trailer has snagged an “All Audiences” rating even though it briefly, if blurrily, shows Doc Manhattan in all his sky-blue glory. Check it out:

I know: naked blue dude or not, that made absolutely no sense to 99 percent of the population. Which comes back to the question of whether Watchmen will be an unwatchable mess. I have to say the trailer looks visually faithful to the original, which is a good sign. And as for that Billy Corgan song…God help us all, indeed.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate