Hey gang, I'm back again with my analysis of the latest Watchmen trailer, following the great reaction that my first such piece got, watching the trailer that was attached to The Dark Knight in July. This trailer is less about imagery, I think, and has more dialogue, but there's still lots to be interpreted, so... here we go.

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Here's the MPAA rating screen for Watchmen, which tells us that it is Rated R for "strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language." That sounds about right.

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This trailer starts with images from the murder scene that starts the Watchmen story. Someone wants to kill Eddie Blake, AKA The Comedian, and that someone is seen standing here. The question of who this person is drives the mystery of the entire story, so yeah... I'm not going to identify Eddie's unwelcomed visitor. I'm not even going to point out the clues in this image.

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Meet Edward Blake, The Comedian, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who with Harry Dean Stanton, sci-fi author Alan Dean Foster and myself belongs to an elite little club. The four of us should have lunch sometime. Anyway, Morgan is probably best known as the dad on Supernatural and as Izzie's weak heart quasi-boyfriend patient, Denny, on Grey's Anatomy. Jeffrey Dean Morgan went through a lot of makeup work for various scenes in Watchmen because his character (along with Carla Gugino's) is seen at various points over a 40 year period, from World War II until his death in the 1980s. His line here, "Just a matter of time, I suppose" isn't in the Watchmen book, because, well, Eddie Blake didn't have any lines in the flashbacks to his death scene. Whoever it is that narrates those scenes attributes Blake as saying things, but there are no direct quotes. Also, note the "smiley face" pin on Blake's robe, which is not yet bearing the trademark red blotch.

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And here we see Eddie getting thrown across his apartment by his mystery guest. Please consider how strong someone would have to be to hurl a muscular man over 20 feet through the air. Oh no, that was a hint, wasn't it? Since I don't have much else to say about this image, this is a good point to say that the song for this second Watchmen trailer is Take a Bow by the British band, Muse, although it is incorporated with other music (the movie's score?). I don't think it's anywhere as good (as a background song) as the Smashing Pumpkins song in the first trailer, but there the strange rhythm does sort of match a few shots later on. The song itself is awesome, but just strange as a trailer song.

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And... SPLAT! That's not ketchup. The blood hasn't yet drip down the smiley face pin to form the 11:00 clock hand that it symbolizes in Watchmen artwork. The only other thing I get from this image is that Eddie's thick robe looks really, really comfy. Fighting the bad guy in that thing couldn't have been comfortable, though.

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Eddie's unpleasant departure from his apartment. This image was also in the first trailer, but since it's one of those shots where director Zack Snyder makes great effort to replicate an image from the comic book, it can't be ignored. Here, not only does the villain throw Eddie, but this time, he breaks the glass of a skyscraper penthouse apartment, which you've got to figure is not easy to break.

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Here the Muse song starts up, as Rorschach, the masked man walking here, says "Watchmen." That is great for the trailer, but problematic for fans who know that in fact... the word "Watchmen" is never actually said in the book. It appears as graffiti ("Who Watches the Watchmen?"), but unlike what you might think, our group of costumed adventures isn't actually called that in "Watchmen." The original WWII-era team of heroes was called the Minutemen, and the second generation group, during their brief time under a team name, were called the Crimebusters. Devin Faraci of CHUD.com noticed the same thing, and asked director Zack Snyder specifically about it. Basically, it sounds like the term "Watchmen" is being used in the movie, but as a generally symbolic term, and not as a specific hero team name. Also, notice on the right what looks like a scantily-clad prostitute in the background talking to either a john or her pimp, and on the left, is a person wearing what looks like an umbrella hat.

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