Watchmen Book Vs Movie Analysis

Comics and comic book films have been an immense cultural force for decades, in both niche comic book culture and the wider public. Comic book heroes, and especially superheros have become ubiquitous in American entertainment and consumerism. No work, however, did more to subvert comic book conventions then Allen Moore's and Dave Gibbon's Watchmen. An epic of the genre, it challenged both the constructs and assumptions of the genre, and critiqued American culture and politics. The novel takes place during the Cold War, at a time when nuclear disaster is inevitable. Because of this the themes of the book resonated with the culture in 1987, however, when the film adaptation was released in 2009, the Cold War was long over, and nuclear war was no longer a significant fear in America. Instead, terrorism had become the biggest threat to natural security. With 9/11 just eight years past, and in the midst of the War on Terror, America's fears had shifted from international total destruction to covert acts of terrorism on American soil. This shift effected both how the culture viewed tragedy and villians. In the film adaption of Watchmen, the changes made

The dialogue between Ozymandias and Dr. Manhattan after the attack is absent from the film, replaced with a scene in which Nite Owl attacks and reprimands Ozymandias for his terrible actions. While Ozymandias does say, “I've made myself feel every death.” the sentiment is lost because of the way the charter is portrayed (Watchmen). Actor Michael Goode plays the character with a cold and sinister persona, removing the emotional core of the character and making him “seem to drip with sociopathic evil” (Cinefix). Because the film lacks Ozymandias' doubt and his emotional tic, it removes the nuance from the character and paints him as a sociopathic terrorist rather than a man with good