Book: Watchmen Art of the Film

Part of the fascination with Watchmen is the art of Dave Gibbons. Each page of the graphic novel is bright, vibrant, and full of detail—enough to lose yourself in for hours on end. The other part of the fascination is the world created by writer Alan Moore, giving us an alternate Earth where superheroes exist—one that is not unlike our own, holding many of the same realities, with the exception of real superheroes. Director Zack Snyder has a lot to tackle in accurately bringing WATCHMEN to the big screen, the biggest of which includes making the film look like the panels of the graphic novel, and making the movie feel real, and not super stylized like 300 or other big screen comic book movies. If we are to believe superheroes really exist, they have to be based in a world that mirrors our own.

Watchmen: The Art of the Film details the steps that Snyder and his production of super talented art directors and special effects supervisors took to create the look and feel of Watchmen, reflecting the pages of the graphic novel with the utmost care and accuracy. Without having seen the movie, basing my opinion solely on what I know of Watchmen and what I’ve seen on the pages of The Art of the Film, I can say with absolute certainty that the film will look as though the pages of the graphic novel have literally jumped onto the big screen.

Writer Peter Aperlo splits the book into six main sections, spending a considerable amount of time on each of them: Concept Art, Sets and Props, the Owlship, the Costumes, and a final chapter on Posters. From beginning to end, the book is full of amazing imagery that fans of Watchmen will be salivating for. Regardless of how the film turns out (which is leaning towards awesome at this point), one cannot deny that the artistic effort and talent used to bring WATCHMEN to the big screen is impressive; the attention to detail depicted in the pages of The Art of the Film will have you falling head over heals in admiration.

Every page of the book is rich in color and artistic beauty. Exploding with vibrant colors, there are over 250 pages of imagery to thumb through, depicting everything from storyboards to the final film, special effects blueprints and pictures of the set, and close-ups of props and official promotional material. The amount of effort that Snyder and his team put in to making each frame to reflect that of the graphic novel is amazing; every prop and epic-in-size set appears to have leaped out of Watchmen’s alternate 1985 universe and into our own reality.

The Art of the Film is best used as a coffee table book, as there’s very little text compared to the amounts of colorfully glossy pictures of the film’s artwork. That’s one of the things I liked most about this book. Yes, there’s some narrative about the talented people who created this world, but it isn’t overwhelming. It says what it needs to say, then it leaps head first into the fantastic imagery, letting the pictures and the captions tell the rest of the story. The book itself is a piece of art. It’s perfect for flipping through nonchalantly and admiring the rich colors and overall cool shite that the film offers; it’s also ideal for examining the detail of the art itself, as each page is full of enough goodies to satisfy the biggest Watchmen fan.

Based on what I can tell of the movie, The Art of the Film is the perfect companion piece for those who want to spend more time examining the film’s background, checking out the sets or props, and seeing side-by-side comparisons of the graphic novel to the final film. Each page is literally packed full of amazing photography from the production, including sets and a handful of props that may only be seen briefly on the big screen. For those wanting to spend more time with the movie, and check out (in depth) how well they brought the graphic novel to life, this book is for you. I’d go as far as saying that The Art of the Film is for any fan of WATCHMEN period—whether you only like the graphic novel, or you end up worshiping the movie version—regardless of your WATCHMEN preference, this book will rock your world and then some. It’s simply amazing… and I can only imagine at this point how flippin’ awesome the movie is going to be.

9/10