Watch Watchmen
The Watchmen movie turned out very well. As a big fan of the book I was worried that too much would be changed, but the spirit of the story and many important details remained intact.
When adapting a book as complicated as Watchmen to film, it should be expected that some things will be changed, as the mediums work in different ways. Of course, Hollywood has a habit of making unnecessary changes. With one possible exception, this is not the case with Watchmen. The concepts of the superhero and costumed adventurer are explored and the feeling is not much different from the book. With the possible exception of Dr. Manhattan, I did not get the feeling that any major character was made substantially more or less sympathetic than their book counterparts. They also look and act much like their book counterparts do. Critical lines, including those that may at first seem minor like “This is what gets you hot” “From themselves” “What I actually said was God exists and he’s American” and “Rorschach dropped him down an elevator shaft” are included.
The Minutemen backstory was explained well enough considering the time constraints. The Black Freighter story did not find its way into Watchmen, but an animated Black Freighter film is set for release, and I think it’s been hinted that the Black Freighter might come up in a director’s cut of Watchmen. The origins of the second generation of heroes are sufficiently explained, though I wish a little more Rorschach was in there.
The film added extra flying fists and fireballs, but it was well done and they didn’t detract from the story. Plus a comic book film needs that kind of stuff. The amount of nudity was good, and I don’t just mean the blue penis they weren’t scared to show.
A stupid, but minor change from the book is that Nite Owl uses a gatling gun instead of a water cannon to put out a fire. But this is almost redeemed by the fact that the flamethrower does get fired accidentally while he’s going at it with Laurie in the hovering owlship. I do wish Nite Owl’s scooters found their way into the film, and it can also be noted that cars in the movie do not appear to be electric yet.
You may have heard that the ending was changed. This is not true. The film closes on Rorschach’s journal on the top of the New Frontiersman’s crank file with its fate entirely in the editorial assistant’s hands. What is different is the method of Veidt’s plot. His motives, and the essential character of his plot are intact however. I’m not really sure whether the movie or book version of his attack is more plausible or interesting. What the change in Veidt’s plot does do is allow for Dr. Manhattan to be read as the great self-sacrificer that we are supposed to view as heroic. However, the film makes it appear that Dr. Manhattan really does not hold any interest in how humanity at large views him, so his sacrifice would appear very small to him.
In short, fans of the comic who understand the different requirements of film and comics will probably like Watchmen, and people who didn’t read the comic but like genre-breaking awesomeness will probably like it also.
