Zack Snyder is a very successful Hollywood director and that of course comes with its fair share of criticism. Joel Silver is a legendary Hollywood producer who’s been around and seen it all and probably has never shied away from giving his opinion on anything. Silver recently had been quoted in an interview at Comingsoon.net as saying that Terry Gilliam’s version of Watchmen would have been a much better film and that Snyder was “too much of a slave to the source material.”

Silver definitely has a great point. Watchmen is one the greatest graphic novels of all time and Snyder’s film certainly stayed as true as any film ever has to the original source material. While this is pleasing to fans of the graphic novel, I can see where it could be a tough watch for the movie going masses who may not have been exposed to the book. I certainly feel like you have to reinvent the material when translating it to a new medium and perhaps Silver is onto something here. One can not deny that Silver knows a thing or two about delivering films for the masses. Would he and Gilliam have made a better film? Who knows? Gilliam certainly has missed the mark a few times and him taking drastic liberty with the ending of the Watchmen story certainly would upset the diehards but it might have had more appeal to the masses.

Snyder in an interview today with Huffington Post was quoted as saying, “the fans would have stormed the castle on that one.” He also states that Gilliam’s ending was “insane and that he ultimately made Watchmen to save it from the Terry Gilliams of the world.” Both parties certainly have good points. Was there a more marketable film that could have been made for the masses? I think so. Would it have pleased fans of the original source material? Probably not. It certainly would have been interesting to see Gilliam take a crack at it.

Whether you like Snyder and his version of Watchmen or not, his love for the material certainly shows. Huffington Post interviewer Mike Ryan calls Watchmen a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t project.” He is absolutely right but that hasn’t made Snyder steer clear of high profile projects like Man of Steel and the upcoming Batman Superman movie. Snyder’s future will be full of second guessing from airmchair quarterbacks.

One thing is for certain, no one’s film version of Watchmen was EVER going to please Alan Moore.

All this nonsense got you in a tizzy? Take the edge off with a Rorschach Cocktail.