Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias (Watchmen, 2009).
 |
| Jesus Christ! What the Hell is that? |
To address a point raised in the review of the Watchmen, the ending for the film differs wildly to that of the comic,
and this upset a lot of the die-hard fans.
Before I can explain further, first I must talk a little about the two
different endings.
Essentially, in theDC comic there is a minor subplot
involving Ozymandias kidnapping artists and writers to work
on ‘designing’ an alien life form which, through bio engineering, he intends to
create in-the-flesh. These ‘fake aliens’ will be used to wage a false invasion
on Earth, to give America and Russia (who at this time are on the brink of nuclear
war) a reason to unite; to battle this superior foe. This is Ozymandias’ plan,
his conceit is that if the world cannot be encouraged to live peacefully together,
then perhaps it can be tricked- united in fear.
In the film, this whole plot-thread is cut, yet Ozymandias’
general principle remains intact. Instead of ‘creating’ an alien life form,
Ozymandias instead frames Dr Manhattan with a terrible attack on Earth from his
lair on the moon. He does this by ‘mimicking’ the nature of his energy. Again, this gives
America and Russia (who at this time are on the brink of nuclear war) a reason
to unite; to battle this superior foe.
Controversially, I prefer the film’s deviation from the
source material. I always found the squid-alien out of place for a comic that
tries desperately to root itself in some sort of believable world. It was
needless, almost insignificant till the point of reveal, and daft. By inserting
Dr Manhattan as the fall-guy (with minimal changes to the story, or the overall
outcome) the film ties its endings together gracefully and more fittingly. Fall
all of the film’s miss-steps, this is perhaps its most intuitive success.
Sorry fan-boys, but get over it.
No comments:
Post a Comment