This is a fun clip. It’s from a recent appearance from actor, comedian, and author Patton Oswalt (whose new book, ‘Silver Screen Fiend,’ all about his obsession with movies, will probably be of great interest to ScreenCrush readers) at the WORD Bookstore in Jersey City, where he did a public conversation with actor Patrick Wilson. Oswalt is a hardcore comic-book nerd in addition to his passion for film, and Wilson starred in one of the most polarizing comic-book adaptations of all time, Zack Snyder’s slavishly faithful version of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ ‘Watchmen.’ When a fan asked a question about the movie, both Oswalt and Wilson shared their honest feelings about the project, which you can watch above.

I’m generally with Oswalt on this one. Credit to Snyder for feeling so passionately about ‘Watchmen’ that he protected its text to a fault, but in order to really adapt something you have to, y’know, adapt it. Too often, ‘Watchmen’ felt more like a transcription, and as Oswalt notes, what worked for Moore and Gibbons on the page didn’t necessarily work for Snyder on the screen. It’s also interesting to hear Wilson’s process as an actor, and how he not only used the source material as a resource for his character, but as a resource for his character’s look. He really leaned into the whole “recreate the book onscreen” idea, and did his best to really embrace the character from the comics and bring him to life onscreen. He did a good job, even if the movie overall is, in my mind, sort of a noble failure.

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