As a comic book, Watchmen presented an alternate history of the 20th century, twisting the familiar into the surreal. Director Zack Snyder chooses to cherry-pick chestnuts from every decade of the story's time line. There's a little
Billie Holiday, a little
Nat King Cole, a bit of
Simon & Garfunkel and
Janis Joplin, some ironic disco via
KC & the Sunshine Band, some somber sobriety with
Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," and a whole lot of
Bob Dylan (whose "The Times They Are A-Changin'" opens the film, underscoring a montage telling the story's alternate history), who is then covered by
Jimi Hendrix and
My Chemical Romance, whose truncated cover of the epic "Desolation Row" is performed in the "style of
the Sex Pistols," as requested of the band by Snyder.
MCR's "Desolation Row" is placed here at the beginning, not the end as it is in the film, all the better to get attention -- and it does get attention with its buzzy guitars and
Gerard Way's affected snarl. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine