Rewatching Watchmen

I rewatched Watchmen for the first time in a few years last night. It's actually something I was thinking of doing for a while. See, for ages, this was my favourite film of all time, and then as I started watching more films and expanding my taste, I just kind of forgot about it. That's when I properly started to get into films, and really started looking at them in depth and analysing them, and in my quest to watch as much as possible, old and new, Watchmen started to feel like a sure thing, until I just kind of forgot about it when I thought about my favourites

What put it back in my head is the new TV series, which I'll admit I haven't watched yet. But seeing so much praise for something that's related to a film that I've always loved so much but needed to revisit made me want to.... revisit it. And since I watched it last, I've changed a lot. I mean, not only am I older now than I was when I watched it last, but I've also changed in how I watch movies, and given how many superhero films have come out since this and also how many times Zack Snyder has messed up in the genre, I was kind of worried that, for one reason or another, it wouldn't hold up

And then the opening credits happened, that incredible montage of a world that could have been under different circumstances, set to The Times They Are A-Changin'. This is when I started to realise that there's something in the story of Watchmen that really resonates with me, and as the film went on, I not only remembered how much I love it, but I also rediscovered why I love it. Superhero films have grown as a genre since 2009, and have kind of taken over the mainstream. I don't really have a problem with them, and I think they're fine. It's a genre that I like but have a hard time loving, because, especially now, there is a kind of saturation taking place. Watchmen reminded me what these stories can do at their best, and instead of focusing on the action, instead looks at the implications. The personal, moral, social, political and cosmic consequences of everything that the characters are doing. I appreciated that so much more this time, and really loved how it could be bleak and dark without ever feeling hollow or superficial. It's not subtle, not at all, but would it work if it was? I love that it uses its story to ask questions that don't have answers, and that's something that's more relevant now than it ever has been. How much do we trust the people put in place to protect us? How moral do you have to be when you're doing the right thing? There's so much going on in this movie, and even if not all of it works, when it hits, I think its really, really special. Watching Watchmen again made me fall in love with it again, with how brazen it is and how large it is, and how they really threw everything at it and most of it stuck. Look, I can understand someone not liking it, but after what feels like so long since it was one of my favourites, I'm happy to report that I loved it all over again