If anyone asks me how Watchmen (2009) is as a superhero movie, I’d probably call it a masterpiece and give it a solid 9 out of 10. But if you ask me how good of a comic adaptation it was, I’m not sure if I could say the same. The movie had a mixed reaction from both critics and audiences for some of its differences from the source material. Well, as a comic-based movie, Watchmen (2009) indeed has its ups and downs. In this article, we are going to spot some of the major differences between the movie and the graphic novel and see what good or bad they did for the movie.
Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is criticized for many things (coming next), but one thing everyone has to agree on is that the opening credit (or the intro) scene is such an upgrade from the source material. A video montage of a world where we get to see America’s historical timeline from the ’40s to the ’80s, more or less altered by the appearance of the heroes of Minutemen and Watchmen. The credit scene introduced more than a dozen characters, narrated the whole 40-year timeline, amalgamating tons of references from world history in a really effective way. That creative choice of the director made it possible to set the tone and theme of the movie at the very beginning. It was good to see visuals of events that were vaguely mentioned but have a huge impact on the overall storyline of the graphic novel. With extraordinary cinematography, artistic visual representation, and effective narration style, the opening credit is considered a great change that the director made from the comic. And Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’ song fits perfectly with the montage. It felt like the song was written particularly for the film.
Ending
Zack Snyder made a bold decision by changing the ending in the movie, and that had a mixed reaction from the audience. In the comic storyline, Ozymandias creates a giant psychedelic squid in his laboratory and teleports it to the middle of New York City, killing millions of people and convincing the world of an alien invasion. However, in the movie, Ozymandias rigs and explodes all the energy reactors (that he built earlier with the help of Dr. Manhattan) in New York and other places across the world, again, killing millions and framing Dr. Manhattan for this. Either way, the objective was for the world to face a common threat so that they all fight against it together and stop the nuclear world war they were going to have.
One big difference between these two endings is the level of horror. A gigantic squid appearing in the middle of NY City and killing millions was super horrifying. The comic used 6 of its pages to cover the deaths across the city caused by that attack. It’s gruesome, and it was supposed to be. But the movie completely ignored that horror of the deaths of millions by showing a bunch of skeletons in some craters caused by the explosion. By undermining the gruesomeness, the movie somehow justifies that ‘genocide’ caused by Veidt to protect against ‘Nuclear War.’
Apart from this part, I really liked the change Snyder made to the ending. And this way of ending makes more sense too. I wrote an article explaining why Watchmen movie’s ending is better than the comic. Feel free to check it out.
Character Treatment
One thing Snyder’s Watchmen is often criticized for is the wrong treatment of a couple of characters. Take Rorschach, for example. In the comic, it’s pretty clear that Rorschach is a disaster as a person. He’s a racist, homophobic, sexist guy with mental issues; not someone that anyone should idolize. But Zack Snyder, on the other hand, presented him as a noble hero, justifying everything he stands for.
The movie completely ignored the trauma of Silk Spectre II, who was pushed into the superhero life by her mother and was objectified/sexualized at a very young age. In the movie version, she’s more of a hot, badass superhero without proper depth to the character. Snyder’s version didn’t even explain why exactly Dr. Manhattan fell in love with her.
The rest of the characters were pretty much the same as in the comics, and I liked that. Though the superheroes in the movie seem to have super strength unlike in the comic, that doesn’t really bother me.
Tone
Snyder did an extraordinary job replicating shots frame by frame from the comic. But the sad part is, he seemed to fail to understand the main point of the graphic novel. Even if he did understand, he couldn’t reflect that on the screen.
As a superhero movie, Watchmen (2009) is a great film without any doubt. But that’s the problem here (in spite of its long runtime). Watchmen wasn’t supposed to be a superhero film. Rather, it should’ve been a ‘Vigilante Drama’ just like the source material.
I feel like the movie doesn’t understand its characters or their emotions properly (as I said earlier) or any core message the comic tried to convey. And that’s a big downside of the movie.
Well, making a movie adaptation out of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ masterpiece Watchmen was always considered impossible. Having said that, Zack Snyder did a pretty good job making an ‘unmakeable movie.’ The movie sure has some flaws and some changes that aren’t really pleasing. But I think Snyder’s Watchmen gets way more hatred than it deserves.
