8) Watchmen
Zack Snyder’s 2007 comic book film 300 may have been R-rated, but it was juvenile and cartoonish enough to seem like it was more directly aimed at gore-hungry teenage boys. Snyder’s follow-up, however, was different: in finally bringing Alan Moore’s Watchmen to the screen, Snyder went for a mature approach. This was to be an adaptation of the most revered graphic novel of all-time, after all, not to mention the one most embraced by regular literary types.
Though Snyder’s Watchmen isn’t entirely successful, it is faithful, down to the bloody ultra-violence, dour tone and politically-charged alternate reality setting (it’s 1980s America, and Nixon is back in the White House, having won the Vietnam War). There’s also a sex scene set to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” something you’d clearly never find in a Marvel or DC/Warner Bros movie.
7) A History Of Violence
If this is the first time you’re learning that A History of Violence even was based on a comic book, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Director David Cronenberg himself didn’t realize Josh Olson’s screenplay for the movie was an adaptation of a John Wagner/Vince Locke comic until after he’d signed on to direct.
Cronenberg may not have initially known what he was actually working on, but A History of Violence is one of the finer comic book adaptations. It’s also one of the more adult and difficult to watch ones: not only is Cronenberg’s film sickeningly violent (a nose hangs off a face here, a man’s throat gets crushed there), but it actively encourages you to root for a ruthless killer, then question why you’ve agreed to do so.
Not just a great comic book movie, A History of Violence challenges your perception of movies in general.