Patrick Wilson says Watchmen was ahead of its time — was it, though?

Patrick Wilson wants justice. Justice for Watchmen.

The Zack Snyder adaptation of Alan Moore's landmark graphic novel Watchmen is best remembered as simply having happened — but Wilson who played Nite Owl II in the 2009 film, recently sang the film's praises, saying it was "ahead of the curve."

In an interview with the Reelblend podcast, Wilson revealed Watchmen is "the only movie of mine that I have watched front to back since a premiere." (Thoughts and prayers to Phantom of the Opera.)

"I just wanted to look at it as an older guy, as a filmmaker," the Insidious: The Red Door actor/director continued. "I knew Zack was ahead of the curve. It's weird to say that audiences weren't ready for it. But you need a movie like that. You need movies to go so dark that then Avengers can go so light. I do believe in that."

Granted, Watchmen was dark, but so was The Dark Knight, which came out the previous year — in fact, the entire Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, and nearly every DC superhero movie since, including Snyder's own deathly self-serious Justice League, have been dark.

Almost as dark as their futures at the box office.

Meanwhile, Ironman, like The Dark Knight, also came out in 2008, setting the generally lighter tone for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So it's not so much that audiences weren't ready for Watchmen, it's more like they didn't know why they should care.

Since its publication in 1986, Moore's graphic novel has been revered in a way other superhero comics never were — it was named to Time magazine's list of the 100 All Time Greatest Novels, the only graphic novel to be included, and EW included it in its 2008 list of the best reads of the past 25 years.

Watchmen was regarded as a watershed moment for comics, bringing a level of respect and prestige to an industry that would eventually come to take over film and television. Snyder's highly faithful adaptation could never hope to live up to the original and, unlike HBO's far superior take, the movie didn't add anything to Moore's creation. Which should be the point of adapting a piece of art from one medium to another.

Perhaps Snyder's adaptation will get the revisionist treatment and audiences will look back on it in 10 years as a forward-thinking triumph, whether it is or not. It's not. But at least Watchmen will always have a fan in Patrick Wilson, who sounds just about ready to don the Nite Owl cape and cowl again.

"I'd love to do that movie now," Wilson said. "It would be so awesome to just do it now."

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