What Zack Snyder’s 2009 Watchmen movie got right (and wrong)

3. Loyalty to source material

This is perhaps one of the best things about Synder’s film. For the most part, the comics are adapted down to the smallest detail, to the point where a lot of the shots recreate specific panels. The care that went into it is very evident, and some of my favorite shots from the film come directly from the comics.

But the film has detractors, with some fans wishing it hadn’t stayed so loyal to the graphic novel. They considered the adherence to be fan service, and dubbed the movie structurally “incoherent.”

So far as changes go, the only major one is the ending. In the comics, [SPOILER ALERT], the story ends when a giant alien creature, manufactured by the superhero Ozymandias and his team, is warped into Manhatten, killing millions. It’s all part of Ozymandias’ plan to unite a world on the brink of war against a common enemy. In the movie, Ozymandias simulates the power of Dr. Manhattan, an extremely powerful and alien-like superhero, to destroy cities, achieving the same result.

As for HBO’s show, none of this will really be a problem. Showrunner Damon Lindelof has said, “We have no desire to ‘adapt’ the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago. They will, however, be remixed. Because the bass lines in those familiar tracks are just too good and we’d be fools to not sample them. Those original twelve issues are our Old Testament. When the New Testament came along, it did not erase what came before it.”