The fine line between being Good and Enjoyable. And a question for everybody.

I finished The Watchmen. It promptly gave me nightmares. It was excellently written but I thought the ending was incredibly dissatisfying and now I pretty much don't want to see the movie. Sigh. I won't deny that it was Good but I can be pretty clear on the fact that I didn't get a single moment of pleasure out of it.



And then I got lectured about not depriving myself of the joys of Frank Miller just because I've prejudged him (based on everything I've ever seen of his work, ALL of which I hated). Sigh. And this was shortly after he re-watched Sin City last night and deemed it "moronic". Sin City was the only movie I have ever walked out of in theaters. Although the last Batman was pretty close too.

So I read The Dark Knight Returns, to make him happy. Yes, it's a brilliant story. Yes, the art is great. That doesn't mean I didn't still fucking HATE IT. I grew up on the cheesy Adam West Batman and the early Tim Burton Batman. Those were silly and fun. This is go-kill-yourself levels of depressing. Jesus, yes it was a brilliant idea to have Batman and Superman fight and it was a great setup (who else could get you to root AGAINST the Man of Steel?). That still didn't make me like it. Or any of the rest.



I don't like Hemingway either. I will acknowledge his greatness, but he pisses me off. Alan Moore I'm ok with, but I don't know if I will read V for Vendetta after all. And Frank Miller? Yes he's great. But I never want to read anything else by him. Ever.

There's a meme - best item of reading or viewing material that you hated? As in, you can acknowledge how good it is but still can't stand it. Anyone? Anyone?

Edit: Tonight I finished Arkham Asylum and The Killing Joke (both Joker ones). This is just not my Batman. Tomorrow I pick up Sandman and V for Vendetta at the library. Maybe those will be interesting without being so miserably bleak. We'll see.