Watchmen: The Ending

When it comes to cinematic adaptations of comic book properties, it's hard to get more faithful than Watchmen. Perhaps never before has a comic book movie made its target audience the fans in such an extreme way that the general opinion on the movie is so sharply divided. From the characters, to the dialogue to even near-perfect replicas of panels right from the comic, it's almost an exact translation.

Well, except for one thing. The ending.

SPOILERS

The general gist and events of the ending are the same in both versions; the heroes discover that Adrian Veidt, AKA Ozymandias is plotting some kind of catastrophic event, so they race to stop him. By the time that they get there, though, he reveals that it's already too late - Veidt has already attacked New York City and disguised his involvement through an illusion. His "fake" attack kills thousands, in an effort to steer the world's countries to unite with each other against the foreign threat and thereby create world peace. Despite their horror at his actions, the heroes decide to keep Veidt's involvement a secret, not wanting to throw the world back into chaos...except Rorschach, who is promptly blasted away by Dr. Manhattan when he threatens to reveal the truth.

To non-fans, the difference in both endings may seem minor, but it was the source of much debate on comic book message boards both before and after the release. That's because in the film, Ozymandias' attack on New York was an energy blast with Dr. Manhattan's energy signature, causing the countries to join together against the glowing blue "Superman." In the comics, it was a staged alien invasion, with a fake giant monster laying waste to the city.

As pointless as this change seems, it can be explained by noting the different between the two mediums, as well as the background of the "alien" in the book. It's creation by all of Hollywood's greatest special effects artists, who are then murdered, is a running subplot throughout. Watchmen was already a very long, complicated movie, and adding on the addition of a staged alien invasion could have made it seem too cluttered.

So why frame Dr. Manhattan? Because given the condensed nature of the film medium, it ties everything together. The audience already knows Dr. Manhattan, and in an interesting way the character's story arc almost seems to pointing toward the movie's ending. In addition, an attack by the god-like Dr. Manhattan has the same impact as an alien invasion - it's an unworldly, foreign threat too powerful for any single country to handle.

So really, the ending works and works well; it's not quite as faithful to the letter as the rest of the movie, but it's still incredibly accurate to the spirit of the comic, as well as its cynical message.

If anything, the bigger loss that isn't focused on enough is the absence of the scene where Ozymandias questions Dr. Manhattan if he did the right thing in the end; the doctor smiles and replies "Nothing ever ends." The line is touched upon, but the scene's absence takes away from Veidt's character arc. To him, Dr. Manhattan may as well be God, and his God is telling him that he just sacrificed thousands for nothing.

Still, Watchmen is a fantastic movie, and well worth watching for both comic and movie fans alike.