ecocd wrote:I was told about the giant squid after the movie by a friend and I think the movie's set-up, especially with multiple world cities getting leveled, is so much more cinematic that the giant squid would've ruined the movie. (Plus, if only NYC was leveled, why wouldn't the Soviets have rushed to take advantage?)
In the book, it was half about uniting against a new threat, and half about putting aside their differences to help America rebuild.
Regarding the ending, it's not the bait-and-switch catastrophe that I personally didn't like, it's...Well, it's pretty much everything that happens at Karnak (That'd be Veidt's Antarctic base, if you didn't catch from the throwaway line in the movie).
Oh shit fanboying ahead:
First, in the movie, Nite-Owl and Rorschach are instantly sold on the idea that Veidt is planning something big and that he's just completely gone off the deep end, which is unusual (for Nite-Owl) considering they've been friends so long (though in the film Veidt does have a distinct air of Bond villainy about him that can't really be denied). In the book Nite-Owl is skeptically chiding everything that Adrian is telling him, which makes the "I did it 35 minutes ago." line feel so much more powerful. There's one panel, right after he says it, of Rorschach and Nite-Owl just staring at him, and you can tell that Nite-Owl just got hit with the weight of the fact that Ozy might not be lying after all.
Second, film-Veidt was pretending to watch TV while Rorschach approached, whereas in the book he was pretending to eat dinner. This really doesn't have any bearing on the story at all, but it robbed the film of the panel where Ozy punches Rorschach after standing up from his seat and calmly saying, "Manners."
Third, they never explain where Laurie gets the gun from in the movie. In the comic she picks it up from Detective Fine's body right before they teleport from New York to Karnak. That, like Bubastis' existence, is a pretty big hanging thread in the film. Speaking of the gun, I was also a bit irked that they had (Laurie, I think) offhandedly mention that Veidt is rumored to be able to catch bullets in the movie, whereas in the book he explains that he would have been safe if the would-be assassin had aimed for him (instead of his assistant) because "I guess I would have just had to catch the bullet then." When Nite-Owl says that's impossible, he gives the world's best shit-eating grin.
Fourth, no "I DID IT!"? That really sold the fact, for me at least, that Adrian really had convinced himself he had done the right thing (at least until point five). In the film he still seemed like he was just kind of justifying his douchebaggery.
Fifth, I was seriously pissed that Laurie was the last person Manhatten talked to in the movie, and that she gave the "Nothing ever ends" line instead of him. In the book, Manhatten visits Veidt right before he leaves for another galaxy, and Adrian asks him, "I did the right thing, didn't I? It worked out in the end, right?" to which Manhatten gives the "Nothing ends. Nothing ever ends." line. That one moment of self-doubt that all his meticulous planning, and his killing to keep the secret intact, might have been for nothing, went a long way in humanizing his character. I mean, it seems like the film's analogue for that was the added scene where Adrian lets Nite-Owl beat him up a bit after witnessing Rorschach's death, but that wasn't so much a "I understand what I did was horrible, and I fully accept the punishment" thing so much a "Do whatever you want, you know that in the end, I was right."
I can't really think of anything else about the ending right now...If I do, I may amend this post to add it in.
