Watchmen Chapter 2 Is Finally Here: Is It a Must-See for Alan Moore Fans?
Watchmen returns, but do we really need it?
Warner Bros. Animation is not leaving Watchmen in the past. Three months ago, the first part of Brandon Vietti's adaptation was released, and now the second part has arrived.
But no matter how hard you try, it is quite difficult to squeeze Alan Moore's work into a compact one and a half hour running time.
What Is Watchmen About?
The world is on the verge of nuclear war. Even superheroes like Dr. Manhattan and Comedian are unable to save it. Suddenly, Comedian is killed, and Rorschach, a mysterious masked vigilante who prefers to work alone, takes up the case.
He suspects that someone has declared a hunt for superheroes. Now Rorschach must reunite with his former friends to investigate. Soon the superheroes realize that ambitious billionaire Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, is behind it all.
The Original Comic Is Still Better than the Adaptation
The new version of Watchmen is vulnerable to criticism: its usefulness as a whole is rather questionable, fans of the graphic novel call the adaptation a self-repetition, and the combination of hand-drawn animation with computer innovations has become boring.
But there are those who are more loyal to the original and simply nostalgic, even for the not-so-distant times when Zack Snyder released his adaptation of Watchmen.
It is worth noting that Brandon Vietti's adaptation turned out to be much closer to Alan Moore's work than the famous movie version. The authors set themselves the task of reviving the panels of the 1986 comic book using modern animation technologies.
But reaching for the bookshelf and rereading Moore's work still seems a more sensible decision than watching the animated version – it rather serves the function of a quick retelling.
Brandon Vietti's Watchmen Is an Unnecessary Watch for the Fans of the Original
On a stylistic level, the new part does not differ much from the discoveries of the first part. Drawings, contours, movements, no matter how catchy and interesting they look, quickly become boring, and the effect of innovation disappears.
The animation based on Watchmen still seems unnecessary, this is a story that has been told long ago and does not need new iterations. The new retelling did not add anything to Watchmen, but it certainly did add a new source of irritation and headaches for Alan Moore.