The Watchmen (2009) Opening Title Sequence

The Watchmen (2009) is about a group of superheroes, all do not have super powers but still fight crime. The opening stands out as being great. The first snippet of this opening shows  a man grabbing a crook who has a gun, connoting straight away this is an action film. Many of the clips are odd, out of place suggesting possibly hybrid genre of thriller or mystery. Also there could be a sub genre of sci-fi connoted by the blue glowing man shaking the president’s hand. The narrative is open and the titles clearly suggest things are changing for the heroes shown by not just visual elements but also the lyrics from the song ‘the times are now changing’. The clips however feed the audience hints for the films themes from an enigma code. War is definitely included in the film apparent from all the scenes of war and the effects back home. Poverty, corruption and protest could be argued from the small ginger boy looking afraid or the hippies who place a flower in a gun barrel of the National Guard to be shot upon. The Buddhist who set himself on fire in protest during the Vietnam War or the president being shot, all these suggest poverty, corruption and protest. The fact all these famous historical events happened on separate years makes it hard to pin point when this film is set. However, the ending seems to be relatively modern suggesting that the film is set in the present.       

Most the clips are set in urban environments also suggesting that this film is set in the cites, also all the clips from true historical events are American showing the film is set within America. The music catches you of guard at first as you don’t expect chillwave music (also called 'Texas music') to be with an action film opening. However, once you start acknowledging the lyrics ‘the times are now changing’ suggests things are changing from perfect shown by smiles at the start of the clip. The happy music juxtapositions the titles towards the end not with its lyrics but with its calm relaxing atmosphere as the images progressively become more violent. The names of the crew and cast come up in big bold yellow font in a comic book type way (superheroes being related to comic books) within each snippet catching the viewer’s eye but not distracting him from the important images on screen.