Differences between Watchmen comic and its 2009 film adaptation
The original graphic novel Watchmen is a comic by Alan More and Dave Gibbons published in the 1980s. The writers presented a fiction storyline that features real political events and accounts at the height of the cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Due to its sophistication and brilliance, the comic appears impossible to transform into a movie without losing most of its gorgeous emotions and humor. Zack Snyder manages to make the film out of the comic but not without some changes. This paper explores the differences between the comic and film.
The first difference between the film and the graphic novel is the ending. While the graphic film gives an ending with an imagined alien apocalypse, the film ends with a faked earth’s assault by Dr. Manhattan (Moore & Gibbons, 2005). In the original work, a giant alien squid manufactured in the lab launches attacks in New York, resulting in terror and destruction that unites the world against possible attacks by aliens. In contrast, the attacks in the 2009 film are staged to appear as if they were initiated by Doctor Manhattan through the use of Radioactive Decay Signature associated with him (Snider, 2009). Veidt is the real attacker on the earth’s power centers, citing the need to create a common enemy between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to achieve peace and end the civil war. In order to avoid the newly found peace, Doctor Manhattan decides to conceal the truth behind the nuclear reactor attacks and vanishes to a distant galaxy.
What I liked about the film
A second difference is the enhanced superhuman abilities in the film as opposed to the graphic novel. The characters in the novel give an account of average human beings with additional training that they use to fight injustice and crime. With the exception of Doctor Manhattan with godlike abilities, the characters in the novel do not exceed human strength. In the film, however, Watchmen is portrayed to have superhuman capabilities. Doctor Manhattan and other main characters in the film can withstand strong collisions that can break skulls and even punch through walls (Snider, 2009).
A third difference is the simplification of the background of the characters in the film, as opposed to the comic. The graphic novel uses flashbacks to detail the backstories of the characters that explain their actions and words in various contexts. In the film, however, Snider summarizes the accounts through a credit sequence designed to present the main historical moments of the characters (Snider, 2009).
I liked the 2009 adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel for its ability to reproduce the complexity and sensational semaphore contained in the original material that is interesting to watch even for the audience without the knowledge of the comic storyline (Snider, 2009). The film incorporates so much of the original words contained in the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons that the absence of the two characters in the film appears absurd. The film also captures the original ideas and
What I dislike in the film is the loss of some of the original humor conveyed through the Watchmen merchandise in the graphic novel. For instance, in the novel scene where Rorschach notices toys lined up on Adrian Veidt desk that represents Watchmen, he transitions his warning about imminent mask-killer into a mockery (Snider, 2009). Rorschach mocks Veidt about his willingness to compromise his persona in exchange for “toy soldiers.” This mockery is missing in the film. It is replaced with the scene where the excited Nite Owl muses at Ozy’s small action figures on the shelf.
In brief, the 2009 Watchmen film is a perfect recreation of the 1996 comic by Alan Moore. Although most of the film is a replica of the exact words, characters, and storyline, especially at the beginning of the film, some differences from the comic are undeniable. However, most of the changes appear to be an adjustment of the original story in line with recent political occurrences such as 9/11 to make the film more relatable to the audience.
Reference
Snider, Z. (2009). The Watchmen. Retrieved 1 May 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb1p0xuSTZU
Moore, A., & Gibbons, D. (2005). Watchmen. 1986-87. Illus. Dave Gibbons. New York: D.C. Comics.