The movie Watchmen and Watchmen the comic are intended for different audiences and are therefore different in many aspects. The book Watchmen, is a more intricate story to follow compared to the movie. It is also darker, it is taking place in a world that is on the verge of war, while superheros are banned. While reading the comic book the reader has to be engaged in the pictures along with the words, there are many hidden meanings and clues in the book that make it as intricate as it is. The book focuses more on things that make it interesting to follow. In the book Watchmen there are many flashbacks and multiple storylines going on at once so we can get many aspects from each person’s backstory. In the movie, it is nothing short of typical that the director made it more appealing to people who do not want to think hard, and just want to sit and watch a movie. The characters back stories are simplified in the movie and the movie is centered toward fighting scenes and sex appeal.
In the book Watchmen at the beginning of each chapter, there is a clock which represents the countdown to doomsday. There were also other clocks in the pictures, including in chapter nine page twenty-five panel four. It is Laurie on her knees crying in front of Doctor Manhattan who is standing. It looks like a clock pointed at twelve. To signify Laurie’s revelation of finding out that the comedian is her father. Her doomsday clock stuck after finding this out. The clocks in the book helped to add on to the overall feeling of time is ticking for humans to figure their stuff out. Readers have to pay attention to the clocks and look out for them in the illustrations adding to the overall feeling of panic throughout the chapters. In the movie Watchmen, there was little to no clocks that appeared.
In the book, another thing that differed was how serious the Keene act was. In the book Watchmen, the Keene act was more serious and explained more. The comic displayed how society changed in response to the Keene act. In chapter four Page twenty-two panel two. It says ”in 1977, a city is shouting, claiming that masked adventures are making their job impossible. The police are on strike. Everyone is frightened, scenting anarchy.” The color of this panel is red, this displays a dark and terrible panel. Cops would look out for vigilantes and if they saw them they would arrest them. The comic also gives insight on how the characters themselves felt about the Keene act. Page twenty-three panel four it tells us how Laurie reacts to the Keene act. “She has been forced to retire by the Keene act, but having never really enjoyed the life she doesn’t mind. Her mother is more disappointed than she it.” Laurie never wanted to be a hero, her mother wanted her to follow in her footsteps.
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Laurie was not disappointed about the Keene act. On page twenty Chapter four panel six it shows us how Rorschach responded to the Keene act. “The only other active vigilante is called Rorschach, real name unknown. He expresses his feelings toward compulsory retirement in a note left outside police headquarters alone with a dead multiple rapists.” In this panel, there is a man lying dead on the ground with a sign on him that reads “never”. Meaning that Rorschach will never be forced to retire. Just because people do not believe what he is doing is right, he himselfs believes that it is. No one can make him stop killing killers and rapist, not even the law. In the movie, the Keene act was present but it was taken much more lightly. The movie did not have the time so they could not focus on the superheroes also running from law enforcement while trying to fight evil.
Dan in the book was a whining guy, he was helpless and not as heroic as he appeared in the movie. He did not stick up for himself and was just pushed around and ignored. In the movie he appears to be much more like a superhero. In the comic Watchmen, Dan is asking Laurie if she wants to stay with him to have somewhere to sleep for the night. He says “were both leftovers” (5.10.7) He sounds insecure he is trying to make himself seem more like a loser in order to relate to Laurie being left by Doctor Manhattan. Dan is tougher and stronger in the movie, at minute 53, while he and the comedian are in the streets. The comedian is killing innocent people and Dan tries to stop him. The comedian thinks that he is saving them from themselves. Dan sees that they are doing is horrific, this shows that he is sticking up for what he believes in, telling the comedian to stop. Something his scared character in the comic would not have done. He is more caring also in the movie he cares at the end of the movie a great amount that his past partner and friend has died, Rorschach. He cries when he is killed by Doctor Manhattan, while in the book he knows that Rorschach is some form of a serial killer so he would not have shed a tear.
The characters in the movie are more powerful than they are on the book. In the movie they have superhuman strength they can take hits and punches that would kill normal people. In the beginning of the movie at minute 4 when someone broke into the comedians’ apartment and slammed his body into a table he gets up and continues to fight. This beginning of the movie scene displays for the views that there are no ordinary people they have powers This would have killed any normal person or hurt them badly. In the book, they are just people with masks on not able to take any more punches than anyone else. Something that would kill a human would kill them too. When Laurie and Dan are breaking Rorschach out of prison in the movie they kill people all down the prison halls they are fighting and not caring about what they’re doing. In the book it is one panel in chapter eight page eighteen panel seven where they are breaking Rorschach out of prion and are fighting off other inmates. In the book they would not have killed random people. There is not a glorified fight in the book when breaking Rorschach out.
In the movie Watchmen, Laurie is more whiny and immature. In the book she is mature for all that she has been through. Laurie’s revelation about the comedian being her father happens at different paces in the movie and comic. In the comic her revelation happens slowly all throughout chapter nine with the nostalgia perfume but she figures it out on her own. In the movie her revelation happened much more quickly, Dr. Manhattan touched her face so she could see reality. Laurie’s costume in the movie is much more revealing than in the book. In the movie her costume is tight and made of latex and shows a lot of skin. She is also missing her skull necklace in the movie. In the book her costume is still revealing but it is more of a dress rather than laundire looking.
While Rorschach is talking to Dr. Malcolm in the book he gives much more of a backstory of traumatic things that happened in his childhood, more than the movie. Rorschach moment differs in both the movie and the book. In the book when he finds the child murder he cuffs the man to the stove and sets his house on fire. The man then has to decide to cut off his arm or die from the fire. While in the movie the guy begs to get arrested trying to make Rorschach seem more unhuman when he takes a cleaver to the murderers head. Him doing this in the movie makes him even more stone cold than he is in the comic when the guy is given a fighting chance, even though it was a small chance it was still a chance for the murder to live.
The young black Bernie reading the black freighter comic and the older white Bernie does not appear in the movie. The characters appear in the book quite often so cutting them out did not go unnoticed. They are important because old Bernie owns the newsstand he has all of the information about what is going on in the world. He shows us the readers what civilians in the book are thinking about. How they view everything that is happening. In the book when he died it is upsetting because readers felt like they knew Bernie.
At the end of the book, there is a squid that acts as a bomb and blows up New York City. That is confusing in the book so the director kept it out of the movie. That would just be too confusing for people to wrap their heads around while trying to sit and watch a movie. The idea remained the same that something blew up and killed a great number of people. In both cases the explosions made people from all around the world join together. In the movie due to time the characters backstories are simplified taking away from getting to know all of them and where they came from. The comic is an intricate story filled with twists and turns to keep the reader on their feet and fully engaged. In the movie those aspects were taken out in order for it to make more sense for the audiences. It was important to not inhibit the super heros with the Keene act in the movie due to the superheros being a huge part of what makes the movie entertaining. The fact that they can take a punch and do seem to have superpowers is what sells the movie. Unlike in the book where they are just normal people with masks on.
