Watchmen vs. Spidermen

Justice In Film Part 3

I recently viewed the film Watchmen (the Ultimate cut) for the first time. For a comparison, I watched the latest Marvel capeshit film of interest, Spider-Man: No Way Home. This Spider-Man film is actually a Spider-Men film, bringing in all three of the 21st-century live-action Spider-Man actors. This film is obvious millennial nostalgia bait. The typical snark and awkwardness of the characters’ dialogue in films targeted at millennials is apparent.

Watchmen came out in 2009, and this latest Spider-Man film in 2021. Although only twelve years apart, they were made for, and made by, different generations. Watchmen was crafted by early Gen-Xer Zack Snyder, while Spider-Man was directed by early millennial Jon Watts and stars late millennials Tom Holland and Zendaya. As I mentioned, it has what we call “millennial writing,” characterized by unserious, snarky, and awkward characters, although much of what we call “millennial writing” is actually written by Gen-Xers, as was the case with this film. The term more generally means “written for millennials,” as opposed to “written by millennials.” This is not to build some deep generational theory for this review, but simply to establish an understanding of how these films are targeted at very different audiences.

Over the last decade, many people have understandably developed an inherent disgust reaction toward superhero films in general. Dismissing the genre out of hand as trash or mere entertainment, however, is misguided; the great Jonathan Bowden (whose “NAKED FASCISM OF THE HEROIC AVENGER” my Judge Dredd piece invokes) understood the value of comic books, and everyone can name a superhero film that had more to offer than mere entertainment, be it Watchmen or one of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. Millennials in particular have a strong tendency to zero in on the silly elements of any film and use them as a springboard to mock that film, but this sort of behavior only reveals an ignorant, provincial attitude toward such things. Film is the great American art form, and not to take it seriously is not to take your own culture seriously.

The real reason why the Marvel capeshit films are so unsatisfying (aside from the rate at which they are spammed) is, once again, a perverted sense of justice, which, as you can see, is a theme in my film reviews so far. The Avengers & Co. absolutely embody millennial ethics. What do I mean?