Poll: Anyone else prefer the Watchmen movie ending?

[Daniel Cygnus]

Eh, gods get killed all the time. Look at all the fantasy and older (good) mythology.

I didn't mean literally a god. I meant that it's pretty much flat-out stated that he's completely invincible. In mythology, the gods are pretty much people in the sky, and thus their defeats are to be expected. You can't really say the same thing about Jon, because he is literally undefeatable. The best you could possibly hope to do is postpone your inevitable destruction. You couldn't even emo-exile him to Mars again, because if he's decided to attack, that means that he doesn't give two shits about Earth and wants to destroy it all.

Whoa, wasn't expecting it to get that long.

ALSO! How they didn't have the part where Nite-owl one got killed?

Director's Cut has it, and it's awesome. He puts up a bit of a fight, too, which I really liked.

 

[MysteriousClark]

I really don't see how the film ending could work.

If Dr. Manhattan was such a deterrent, why was the World on the brink of war in the first place? He didn't seem to scare the Russians that much when he was a visible "weapon" for the US.

Why in the film did they play down the extent of Manhattans power (something that is debated in the book) if he was going to be used as the crux for the resolution. Surely they should have made more of it?

It's been a while since I read it, but, didn't the resultant psychic shockwave from the "squid" echo around the planet so every country knew what had occurred at once? How can attacking several countries at once be the best plan for peace?

As someone has pointed out earlier in the thread people are not exactly rational when something big goes off in their own yard. One thing I thought was a brilliant move in the book is the alien "attack" being on US soil, thus preventing retaliatory attacks and garnering sympathy in one move.

I thought the film on the whole was pretty poor. It looked the part sure, but it seems to me Snyder wanted to make a Rorschach film (which he did do quite well) and the rest of the film happened to be there as an excuse for it.

 

[Sovvolf]

I preferred the movie version, while reading watchmen (Around the time the movie was coming to the cinemas) I thought that the Octopus thing wouldn't work in the movie... modern movie goers might not take to it and they may find it camp or really stretch the suspension of disbelief... some times things work in comics which just don't work in movies. Another thing to remember is that there was a full B story regarding the octopus and the scientists working on it that wouldn't have worked in the movie. Fitting it in would have made the movie a little too long for the average movie goer and it could break the pace of the movie.

 

[SnipErlite]

The movie was....more sensible?

However, how the feck was the world supposed to unite when they thought Manhattan did it? What the shit are they going to do against this....well, he's technically a god.

The alien thing, more plausible. The world united against aliens makes sense.

But really?

 

[fullbleed]

I preffer the film's version of the distruction of manhattan because... giant squids. BUT, the actually ending persay is better in the book esspecially because Ozzymandais had such a bland emotionless reaction in the film compared to the book where he cries out "It worked!", also the book explores his doubts more over whether he did the right think with his conversation with Dr Manhattan.

 

[soren7550]

How the movie ends makes far more sense than the comic's ending.

And it could be because I saw the movie before I read the comics (not that I didn't try), but overall I prefer the movie to the comics. (the same goes for at least one of my brothers.)

 

[Richard Hannay]

Manhattan > Giant Squid, but making Manhattan the bogeyman is not enough to make me want to sit through the mediocre movie again. Conversely, the goofiness of the squid is not enough to keep me from rereading the great comic again.

EDIT: There is a precedent for these changes. The novel Dr. No had a giant squid as well, but we were denied the chance to see Sean Connery go toe-to-tentacle with it on screen. Fun fact.

 

[maninahat]

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Maybe the term has come to be misused, but "Graphic Novel" isn't meant to make an adult distinction with "Comic", but rather to mean that it has a self-contained story, like a novel.

i.e: A graphic novel is to a comic what a movie is to a TV series.

Ah, that doesn't make much sense to me either. Although Watchmen is provided as a single book format, it is made up of a number of issues, like a comic. Sure, the whole story has a clear beginning and definite end (something which lots of "comics" don't have), but to me, that just says a Graphic Novel is destinct from comics in that it simply ends sooner. Some comics also come to complete closure too. The better fitting comparisson would be a short OVA (like FLCL) to a perpetually on going anime series (like One-Piece).

 

[boholikeu]

Then explain to me why you find a man with god-like powers that can be contained be a "really smart man" more sensible then a psychic alien made by the same "really smart man".

Like I mentioned earlier, it's more believable because there is more back-story establishing Dr. Manhattan's powers/origin than there is establishing psychics. If Moore had thrown if a few more psychic "easter eggs" like what he did with bioengineering (the lynx, etc), then it would have been fine.

In any case, the main reason I liked the Manhattan ending better was for thematic reasons, not because it was more plausible.

Here's a psychic easter egg for you. Robert Deschaines. Remeber him from the book. The psychic who's head was stolen, brain taken, cloned, augmented, and put into the alien monster?

Look back through the book and you'll see that there are hints of the psychic alien before it shows up. Chapter 8 Page 11 has a major one. The monster is being drawn by Hira Manish. Another major hint was Babustis, the genetically engineered lynx that Veidt had made for himself. The lynx shows that Adrian Veidt was capable of creation new life forms. Look back at the island where the writers were sent to. In the book there was mention of a writer named Max Shea. A number of writers and surrealist artist were sent to an island under the impression that they were making a science fiction movie. They were there really to conceptualize the alien monster for Veidt. The Comedian was flying over the island and suspected action of a Marxist faction called the Sandinista. He infiltrated the island and found out what was going on. Which is why he was killed. There actually was a mass amount of back story for the alien, it just wasn't fed to us like it was in the movie. The movie's ending was simple to find out if you read the book. They added the part where Veidt and Manhattan are working to store his energy. Most people who read the book saw that as part of Veidt plan. Especially since the creators of the film said that there would be no alien in the movie. The movie ending was just easier to understand.

Yeah, I remember Robert Deschaines, but I would've liked the book to establish psychic energy a little more like it did with genetic engineering. Most of the examples you gave above only foreshadow the alien itself, not the psychic powers which I actually had a problem with. It just seems to me that if the psychic detail was so important to the ending he could have written into the story's world a bit more. I mean, Dr. Manhattan doesn't even have psychic abilities, and he's akin to a god. At least the movie has Veidt engineering something that is already established as possible within the world of Watchmen.

I just think I would've found the book ending more plausible if the alien went on a rampage instead of releasing a death-induced psychic scream.

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You guys missed this conversation a bit earlier in the threat, but for a lot of people the fact that Dr. Manhattan is akin to a God is what makes the world's unification so believable. Think about it, if a god-like entity caused mass-destruction on earth but didn't instantly annihilate it, it would imply that he was simply "punishing" earth rather than declaring all out war. Therefore, humanity's best defense is not stocking up more weapons, but rather "keeping our nose clean" to make sure we don't incur the wrath of the watcher again.

This interpretation definitely changes the meaning of the work a bit, but don't think it makes the ending simpler. It still raises all the questions about whether or not it was right for Veidt to "play god", and it raises a few new ones as well about the role of religion in society.

If Dr. Manhattan was such a deterrent, why was the World on the brink of war in the first place? He didn't seem to scare the Russians that much when he was a visible "weapon" for the US.

Perhaps Veidt wasn't the only one with a psychological analysis of Manhattan's ties to humanity.

 

[Vraeyda]

From a filmmaking point of view, the Movie Ending makes a ton more sense then Insta-CthuluOMG!

Yet the movie's ending in no way takes away from the epicness of the graphic novel, and the limited scope the movie was able to touch on with time and plot constraints. A steady round of applause for Zack Snyder!

 

[Spiner909]

I've never seen the book, but seeing as I despised the movie ending, I'll go with book.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Everyone is ignoring the historical problems here. The movie/comic separation is pretty small compared to the DECADES of time that came between them. The aliens and psychics were far more appropriate when it was published (the psychics especially as both military superpowers were popularly known to be looking into "psychics").

While narratively I prefer the movie ending, I still prefer the comic ending over it for one simple reason: the movie ending completely ruined what was, to me, the most important character in the entire thing. Forcing Doc's hand completely ruined his voluntary exile. While in the comic we were watching his apotheosis into a god as he came to terms with what he had become and began to give up on the humanity he no longer possessed, in the film he's just a superhero who gets tricked into leaving. The Doctor Manhattan in the comic wouldn't have even bothered dealing with such petty concerns.

Additionally, the comic's ending was sort of an "oh" ending. It ended abruptly, not entirely satisfactorily, and somewhat strangely. However, such an ending was PERFECT given the rest of the story and the themes of the comic. The nice and tidy ending of the film ruined that for me as well.

 

[Weaver]

I think by all accounts the movie's ending is more logical... but I'm still siding with the giant psycho-squid.

 

[Rangergord]

Can I say I like both, and both serve their purpose in their perspective media. Would we in this era of movie going (especially those not familiar with the graphic novel) have little "what the F... the conspiracy was a giant alien squid and psychics...really??" And go wow what a twist! in a >The Village< type of way. Or simply say, meh we saw a squid in Pirates of the Carribean and Hellboy so what. So yah this was for more for the general public, and had a Fan shout outs. A large expensive movie has to be broad reaching and cover its basis to make money, thats the bottom line now days.

BTW if you are looking for alternative, find the Watchman motion comic, hours long andstays true, but essentially an audiobook, but pretty cool.

Did the movie do the comic justice. sure, in comparison to other comic movies it was okay. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. I mean to really do it as a moive it have to be 6 part 12 hour mini series with an Avatar like budget, and shot panal for panal...ahh dreams.

At least it was not the crap storm that League of Extraordinary Gentleman was as a movie. read the comic, watch the movie...is this even the same feeling or even close in characterization?

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

The comic ending was far better.

 

[Bat Vader]

I liked the giant squid ending better in the graphic novel. I mean the Manhattan one in the film did make sense and also made more use of the character but the one in the graphic novel also made sense since Adrian did use the cartoonist to draw the monster.

 

[Premonition]

Then explain to me why you find a man with god-like powers that can be contained be a "really smart man" more sensible then a psychic alien made by the same "really smart man".

Like I mentioned earlier, it's more believable because there is more back-story establishing Dr. Manhattan's powers/origin than there is establishing psychics. If Moore had thrown if a few more psychic "easter eggs" like what he did with bioengineering (the lynx, etc), then it would have been fine.

In any case, the main reason I liked the Manhattan ending better was for thematic reasons, not because it was more plausible.

Here's a psychic easter egg for you. Robert Deschaines. Remeber him from the book. The psychic who's head was stolen, brain taken, cloned, augmented, and put into the alien monster?

Look back through the book and you'll see that there are hints of the psychic alien before it shows up. Chapter 8 Page 11 has a major one. The monster is being drawn by Hira Manish. Another major hint was Babustis, the genetically engineered lynx that Veidt had made for himself. The lynx shows that Adrian Veidt was capable of creation new life forms. Look back at the island where the writers were sent to. In the book there was mention of a writer named Max Shea. A number of writers and surrealist artist were sent to an island under the impression that they were making a science fiction movie. They were there really to conceptualize the alien monster for Veidt. The Comedian was flying over the island and suspected action of a Marxist faction called the Sandinista. He infiltrated the island and found out what was going on. Which is why he was killed. There actually was a mass amount of back story for the alien, it just wasn't fed to us like it was in the movie. The movie's ending was simple to find out if you read the book. They added the part where Veidt and Manhattan are working to store his energy. Most people who read the book saw that as part of Veidt plan. Especially since the creators of the film said that there would be no alien in the movie. The movie ending was just easier to understand.

Yeah, I remember Robert Deschaines, but I would've liked the book to establish psychic energy a little more like it did with genetic engineering. Most of the examples you gave above only foreshadow the alien itself, not the psychic powers which I actually had a problem with. It just seems to me that if the psychic detail was so important to the ending he could have written into the story's world a bit more. I mean, Dr. Manhattan doesn't even have psychic abilities, and he's akin to a god. At least the movie has Veidt engineering something that is already established as possible within the world of Watchmen.

I just think I would've found the book ending more plausible if the alien went on a rampage instead of releasing a death-induced psychic scream.

snip

snip

snip

snip

snip

You guys missed this conversation a bit earlier in the threat, but for a lot of people the fact that Dr. Manhattan is akin to a God is what makes the world's unification so believable. Think about it, if a god-like entity caused mass-destruction on earth but didn't instantly annihilate it, it would imply that he was simply "punishing" earth rather than declaring all out war. Therefore, humanity's best defense is not stocking up more weapons, but rather "keeping our nose clean" to make sure we don't incur the wrath of the watcher again.

This interpretation definitely changes the meaning of the work a bit, but don't think it makes the ending simpler. It still raises all the questions about whether or not it was right for Veidt to "play god", and it raises a few new ones as well about the role of religion in society.

If Dr. Manhattan was such a deterrent, why was the World on the brink of war in the first place? He didn't seem to scare the Russians that much when he was a visible "weapon" for the US.

Perhaps Veidt wasn't the only one with a psychological analysis of Manhattan's ties to humanity.

Yeah, no. That's what makes it so unbelievably stupid. If "God" has it out for the world, you're basically screwed and you might as well stick your head up your ass and hope it's over soon. BUT, if an alien invasion of giant octopus attack, then at least the Earth stands a chance and thus the world bands together to fight off this invader.

 

[Doitpow]

the two are incomparable. In the movie the ending is an abrupt Deus ex Machina, frankly quite sloppily inserted, and is largely about spectacle. In the book it is a masterful Chekov's Gun hinted at throughout and is firmly grounded in the time period the book was set in. As the movie is more grounded in today's world however (despite being set in the eighties, again rather sloppy) an alien would have been very out of place. If the film had been more immersive, the alien ending would have worked.



I do like explosions though.