Comic-Con crowd watches even more 'Watchmen'

As a viewer who loved the early 300 footage and then detested the actual movie, I'm personally a bit wary, but that's just my cynical side coming through. The Watchmen stuff we've seen looks superior.

Don't believe me? Ask Dave Gibbons, co-creator of the classic comic book.

"I think at any moment I expected I was going to be pinched and wake up. It's just the stuff of dreams," Gibbons said of his experience on the Watchmen set. "To smell the Comedian's cigar, to have the Comedian slap me on the back and proudly show me his guns."

We'd have asked Gibbons' colleague Alan Moore about the project, but Moore's distaste for attempts to film Watchmen have been well documented.

"I see there is an elephant in the room," Gibbons cracked at the mention of Moore. "Really, I wish that Alan could feel the same kind of excitement and joy that I'm feeling and I wish he hadn't had such a bad experience in the past, because I'm certainly have a good experience."

It helps that Snyder has always been outspoken about maintaining certain key details about the material, particularly its Cold War milieu.

"There's a lot of things in the graphic novel that comment on mass culture and how the world has evolved now," Snyder told the crowd. "I just felt like making the movie about the war on terror and trying to jam these characters into our modern politics just seemed wrong to me. If cooler if people go 'You know what that makes me think?' than me telling them what to think."

The panel was a fairly spirited affair, especially when The Dark Knight himself went to the microphone to ask a Snyder who his favorite character is.

"That's a good question, Batman..." Snyder began. "That's not really a fair question, though. I will say that I like them all for different reasons."

BOO!!!

"Everyone likes Rorschach the best," Snyder said, trying again. "So that rules him out. Everyone also likes the Comedian, because he's kind of like a badass and is morally... you know. So there's those two I can't vote for. Also, you have the girls, which I think... awesome, but also a cop-out. Just because it's 'Oh, yeah I like the girls best.' It seems obvious, doesn't it? When you look over there, it seems obvious. You know what? I'll just stay with that. I like the girls best. Thank you Batman."

Just as he had praise for characters, Snyder also had kind words for the cast (it helped that the Watchmen were all in attendance).

"The thing that's been really cool about these guys is they have really absorbed the material in a way that when they want to talk about their character or a certain interaction, it's always based on what is Watchmen-y and what is consistent with the book," Snyder raved.

And the Batman wasn't the only popular summer movie character to ask a question. The Joker popped up to inquire about maintaining the comic's dark tone, it's nihilism.

"Yeah, the book is dark," Snyder answered, "But we never really thought about the overall 'Oh gosh, is the movie too dark? Are we going to be plodding down this dark road so far that people slit their wrists and call it a day in the theatre.'"

He added, "I think that it's really also about what is darkness in a movie. If someone is psychotic or they do something that is not morally what somebody in society would consider correct, is it a metaphor, or is it real?"

Snyder's point was to compare Watchmen to films like the Saw franchise, where people just get their arms sawed off.

"People get their arms sawed off in our movie, too," he admitted. "But for different reasons. For moral reasons."

Suuuuure.

A few highlights from the actors' discussions of getting into character:

Patrick Wilson (Night Owl): "I could sit back with a carton of Haagen Dazs, a couple beers and call it a day."

Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan): "How you pretend to be the 6'4" master-of-matter when you're a 5'9", 40-year-old jackass playing dress-up... Man, it was a blast. It was challenging. It was mind-numbing. This character, there's a lot to him. I studied the script. I studied the book. I had long conversations with Zack with regard to the character."

Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach): "It was really empowering when I finally got into the outfit. It was just a blast."

Watchmen won't open until March 6. 2009.