Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

So it's a little off-script for me, but I wanted to point you to this NY Times story about the upcoming movie, Watchmen. It does a wonderful job relating the challenges of bringing the original Watchmen graphic novel to the screen, focusing largely on the balancing act played by director Zack Snyder (who had to appease studio heads and fans alike, all while trying to condense an extremely complex story down to movie-size).

If the trailers are any indication (available at the Watchmen homepage), this movie is gonna rock. I grew up reading comics by the ton, but somehow I never managed to read Watchmen when it was originally released in serial form. I picked it up last summer on the advice of my two older brothers, and I was astounded. It simply operates on more levels than any comic I've ever come across.

Can there really be such a thing as a hero in this day and age? And have we all become so utilitarian that we can always make the ends justify the means in our actions and lives? Is there no such thing as a concept of a life well-lived, anymore? And do we have no common good? Watchmen take up all these questions, and it provides no easy answers. For those of you who think of comic book stories in the relatively two-dimensional mode of Superman, prepare to be surprised.

The movie reportedly clocks in at 2 hours and 40 minutes. In the Times article, Snyder acts as if he went to great pains to stay faithful to the original story, which is a good thing. That, combined with the CGI technology that will allow them to do justice to Dr. Manhattan, means this could be a really good film adaptation. Go see it, but read the graphic novel first. Watchmen opens in theaters on March 6.

[Update: Nick Hunt of CNN.com has a good story on the upcoming release of Watchmen, which you can find here.]

[Update: A.O. Scott of the New York Times published a review of Watchmen on March 6, 2009, which you can read here.]