Does the world really need a Watchmen movie?

It's always sort of exciting to see comic book characters you've known for years fleshed out in live action movie posters, pics and trailers, even though--90 percent of the time--I never end up going to the films being advertised.

Usually the movies are bad. Or the portrayal of the characters is so far off the mark for my tastes. I don't know, for example, if I'll see "Batman: The Dark Knight," despite all the great reviews it's generated. I've lived with dark Batman for 20-some years now and, frankly, I liked him a lot more the way he was before. The best-ever on-screen take of the character for me was "Batman: The Animated Series." And his high water mark in comic books was when Denny O'Neill and Neal Adams chronicled his adventures, not that I don't love the Fox/Finger/Sprang stories or the Haney/Aparo "Brave and Bold" years just as much.

And then there's "The Watchmen." The limited series came out 20 years ago and, along with Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight," and changed the super-hero genre completely. Maybe forever. And, in my opinion, for the worse.

These were groundbreaking comics at the time: Dark takes on the super-hero mythos. And they were fascinating to read. But I think anything provocative they had to say has been diluted by the influence they had on every other super-hero comic that followed. The genre has become one of unrelenting darkness with nary a spot of humor or whimsy to be seen.

And, in recent years, super-hero movies have followed suit. From what I've seen and read of it, "Batman: The Dark Knight" is what it is because of "The Watchmen" and Frank Miller's Batman comics. "Spider-Man 3" was fairly dark. Same with "The Incredible Hulk." Those movies, along with "Iron Man" and others aren't appropriate for children--the audience the characters were originally created to entertain--even though there's still plenty of toys and other related merchandise from those movies being marketed to kids.

So, I'm wondering, will "The Watchmen" film have any sort of impact in the wider culture--that which exists outside the walls of comic book shops? Seems like the general public may likely say "Dark superheroes. Seen it." And, unlike Batman and the Hulk, none of these characters has any name brand recognition. People may go because it looks cool and it has superheroes in it. But will they come away feeling any of the shock and awe present in the Alan Moore-David Gibbons comic series?

It may well be "just another super-hero film," where "The Watchmen," at the time, was anything but "just another super-hero comic."