Ranking Every DC Comic Book Movie - From Worst to Best

9. Watchmen (2009)

One of the most celebrated graphic novels ever written, Watchmen had been deemed 'unfilmable' and spent decades in development hell, passing through the likes of Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass before Zack Snyder finally brought the project to the big screen. In his hands, the director delivered a faithful adaptation that was darker and more violent than the usual superhero fare, if a little too slavish to the source material. Opening with a fantastic credit sequence that establishes the movie's alternate timeline in just a few minutes, Watchmen unfortunately fails to recapture the brilliance of the first scene during the 160 minute running time. However, the movie does still provide a hugely ambitious, visually stunning, R-rated comic book noir that can often creak under the weight of the exposition needed to tell the story but provides enough violent spectacle to entertain. The Director's Cut irons out some of these wrinkles and is a superior effort, given that it is marketed more directly towards the fans. Those unfamiliar with the source material will find Watchmen a tough sell and the narrative could do with some streamlining and a little more levity, but Snyder deserves immense credit for a bold and complex adaptation of a seminal graphic novel.