Tagline: “From the visionary director of 300.”
Translation: From the director of 300.
The Verdict: What’s most interesting about this trailer for Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is how it treats Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, and the Comedian as superheroes you already know — when in fact only a fraction of the 10 million-plus who will see this trailer before The Dark Knight this weekend will actually have read Alan Moore’s seminal 1986 comic. It’s not a bad idea to sidestep the unfamiliarity of most of these characters; after all, it pleases the all-important fanboy base but also implies to the world at large that the story is a classic, whether you’ve heard of it or not. Mostly, though, despite clear evidence of the tacky over-the-top visuals of 300, this trailer just looks great — especially that amazing, straight-out-of-the-comics shot of an enormous clockwork palace assembling itself over the plains of Mars, an image so beautiful and strictly unnecessary to the story that its inclusion not just in the movie but in the trailer gives us hope that this might be good after all.
Watchmen Trailer [Empire]
