I'm beyond fine with this, even though the purist in me wants to get all up in Comedian-worthy arms. But honestly, it's one of the parts of the books I've never thought would translate well to the big screen. At some point you have to start making choices for the quality of the movie, and not just for the quality of the translation.

I'm fine with the squid being removed. I was worried how that would be translated to screens anyways.

My only question would be exactly how Veidt's new plan is supposed to work. In the book, the giant squid was used to represent an external threat from either a different planet or different dimension. The idea was to unify the world through fear of this external threat.

If Veidt is just setting off a bunch of bomb-like things around the world, how is this supposed to stop the escalation of hostilities between Russia and the US? Are the bombings designed to represent an alien invasion or something? How is it that these bombings won't be perceived as something done by another country, thus further bringing the world closer to war? And if that happens, then the whole concept of Veidt's plan goes completely against what the whole purpose of the story was in the book.

So I guess I'm saying I'm totally cool with the giant squid being gone, so long as whatever the new plan is manages to accomplish what Veidt's original goals were in the book. Different plan, same results...works for me.

Fuck that, dude. I understand that the squid might not be acceptable to the mainstream audience, and I'm not THAT upset about it being changed. But an energy reactor? What is this? Spider-Man 2?

If your device for destroying a city is going to be as fucking dumb as the artificial sun anyway, just use the squid and keep the fanboys happy.

Veidt destroying cities around the world is pretty lame too. I think blowing New York to shit is enough, and it would probably be more powerful that way too, seeing all the supporting characters from throughout the film getting torched. Snyder adding more cities to the attack reminds me of Lucas adding the Gungans to the post-Battle of Endor party. Leave well enough alone.

AND adding more cities to the destruction joins the Batman-esque fight that Night Owl and Silk Specter have while breaking Rorschach out as some of the most mind-boggling decisions I've heard yet about this film. Content from the book is being cut because of time constraints, and yet the Night Owl and Specter have time to perform a Hardy Boyz tag team move on the prisoners/guards, and we all have time to watch the efile tower and big ben crumble to the ground. Piece of shit.

My thoughts? Slightly worried that you think the Watchmen movie is "realistic and dark" with or WITHOUT a giant squid in it. Schindler's List is "realistic and dark". Watchmen is grown-ups in tights.

Sensaes — As far as comic movies go, poopy pants.

The 'squid' doesn't necessarily need to be in the movie, but some unimaginable beastie should be. The whole point of the creature was to confront the world with something so unthinkable, so foreign, so out of place, that they'd unify at the very thought of it.

It doesn't have to be a 'believable' part of the environment. By its very nature it needs to be exactly the opposite.

It would, however, be hard to translate the psionic blast effectively onscreen, so I guess I can see why a story change would be warranted. Not necessarily welcome, though, after so much effort has been put into being faithful to the source material.

Since superhero movies exist in a hightened realities anyway, I'm definitely pro-squid. The squid represents an otherworldly threat that gets humanity united. Goofy as it may be to viewing audiences, I still think it works better than some energy device/framing Dr. Manhattan hooha.

I smell a bit of deliberate disinformation here as well, and I wonder if there really even was a screening. The Internet is hardly a reliable newssource when it comes to genre film stuff. This site excluded, of course.

i want the squid. i mean, it's already ridiculous enough that they're shooting Watchmen panel by panel. they might as well go ahead and keep the squid in the movie. if they're going to suckle from the teat that is the Watchmen, don't just suckle it halfway and then leave the Ozymandias-flavored milk dripping everywhere while they go get a Batman & Robin footlong dog down the street -- they should finish the goddamn meal (a.k.a. the story) the same way they started it. yeah, the squid is goofy. but that's why Watchmen is so awesome.

Rob - The poopy pants should DEFINITELY be left out of the movie. (Unless they're radioactive, and/or being worn by Alan Moore in a surprise cameo appearance.)

I don't know if I can agree with the squid toss. How then, would the film explain all the writers and artists gone missing? Are they going to take that out, too? I dunno, I really liked the idea of creative minds holed up on an island to construct a doomsday device.

I love Watchmen to death, but I'm pretty well fine with this. The giant squid suddenly showing up would probably hinder it in movie form more than it would gain in pleasing purists if they kept it in. So long as it's replaced with something equally destructive and not even more ridiculous(and it seems it has been) I can live with this.

The bit where he hasn't mentioned it does bother me though...

I think, thematically, Ozy blowing up reactors is a bit shit, even if they are Doc Man level (I'm assuming that they are supposed to be replicants of Doc Man himself?).

The whole point behind the squid alien is that the world was supposed to realize (or be led to believe) that all this bickering and threatening each other with nuclear weapons is fucked up because there's something BEYOND humanity that's going to fuck us up unless we pull our shit together and start working together. Ozy's sacrificing a single city (albeit, a really large one) is morally ambiguous, since the world was about to destroy itself had he not done what he did.

Changing the "alien" to something that doesn't look like a squid is fine. It's a bit splitting hairs. However, if it isn't a fake alien force meant...then they may be missing the point.

*and by that I'm just concerned what else he's not telling us.

Also, who knows, multiple screenings, multiple endings ;)?

Wasnt the point of the squid to represent an alien menace that unites the entire planet in peace? I thought that was one of the main points of the book. Ozymandias' decision to kill everyone in Manhattan for the sake of world peace was the most madly demented yet most thought provoking parts of WATCHMEN.

I wish directors wouldnt be so damn condescending to their audience. give us something we havent seen before! An unstable reactor is boring as hell!

You cant tell me those few spash pages of an apocolyptic New York with a giant squid with it's brains splattered all over the place wouldnt be the coolest damn thing ever to see!

Hmm, I guess I can live without the squid, though I really wanted to see what he'd look like on the big screen. I think the effectiveness of the change will be based on how the movie compensates. As mentioned earlier, removing the squid nixes out the island, the artists and pyschic, and a huge part of the Comedian's breakdown in front of Moloch.
Plus, as also mentioned, there's the whole man vs. otherworldly element that's a key part of Ozy's plan.

I guess we'll have to see how they explain it.

I guess I'm not surprised that so many posters are pro-squid, but I keep thinking how FF2 mucked up the Beyonder, and thinking that I'd rather have a successful Watchmen than a completely faithful Watchmen.

Matt had some good points about the ramifications of the exclusion of the squid, though. It will cast a pretty large shadow, and here's hoping (if true) that the continuity elves are in full work-mode.

I certainly hope this is just a rumor, but I won't be surprised at all if it isn't.

And as some others have said, if there's not at least some discussion of an alien presence--i.e., Veidt spreads the idea that the cities are destroyed as the result of an alien invasion--then the whole "unite humanity" thing doesn't really work. As long as the perpetrator comes from a particular nationality, blame can be assigned to that state by the rest of the world.

And the fact that Kevin Smith liked it is almost a kiss of death for me...this is the man who gave a rave review of Revenge of the Sith.

All that aside, though, I'm curious to see how the film turns out. I was never that excited about it, so I don't really have any expectations to be harmed by this.

Maybe they plan putting out two versions of the movie with two different endings.

http://io9.com/391488/learn-how-watchmen-changes-the-graphic-novels-ending
According to that old article, the squid ending was filmed.

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/07/16/patrick-wilson-says-watchmen-ending-remains-the-same/
Then there's that, which doesn't say too much either.

I honestly think the squid will still be in, and they are trying to keep it secret. I think there will be subtle changes to the ending, but removing the squid means a lot of other plot nuances would have to be shifted as well.

The giant squid replaced by happy funtime explosions? If true, FUCK that.

No matter what size, explosions aren't the same as a giant alien. It doesn't even have to be a squid, just some huge grotesque alien creature. I think this is a down grade in the climax, blowing cities up can be found in any movie, and I think it lessens the impact of Veidt's plan and the Watchmen story as a whole.

No matter what size, explosions aren't the same as a giant alien. It doesn't even have to be a squid, just some huge grotesque alien creature. I think this is a down grade in the climax, blowing cities up can be found in any movie, and I think it lessens the impact of Veidt's plan and the Watchmen story as a whole.

I'm pretty much along the same lines that davelog said.
"The whole point of the creature was to confront the world with something so unthinkable, so foreign, so out of place, that they'd unify at the very thought of it."
It doesn't have to be a giant squid but I would hope that the replacement (if it does go that way) would have the same type of impact as the original story.

giant floating cube, giant f-ing howard the duck, giant alien creature thingy, giant blue smurf, whatever.......

"The 'squid' doesn't necessarily need to be in the movie, but some unimaginable beastie should be. The whole point of the creature was to confront the world with something so unthinkable, so foreign, so out of place, that they'd unify at the very thought of it."

I totally agree with this.

I think any movie with a glowing blue naked guy could have some horrible monster in it and still remain believable.

Just another failure of the imagination on the part of Hollywood filmmakers. They don't have the guts or vision to attempt the audacious. Instead they just keep remaking genre pieces that worked because of time & place to ever-lessening effect (DAWN OF THE DEAD, anybody? Anybody?).

I'll bet the squid, or more specifically, destroying NYC, might've been controversial for being rather cliche in a film form now despite being clever at the time of imprint due to too many films, video games, and real life events hammering on the Big Apple. Including the Spider-Man flick someone above mentioned.

I want the squid or at least some kind of interdimensional alien kept in for sure, but I'm at least happy that they're not changing the ending so the heroes stop Ozymandias's plan. That's what I was afraid I was going to see with that headline. The actual ending irritates me everytime I read it, because Ozy the "bad guy" wins, but I wouldn't want it filmed differently just to make a feel good ending. If they make it a happy, victory triumphs affair I may well vomit.

Maybe Snyder couldn't sign the squid because it had scheduling conflicts with Cloverfield.

heck he looks more like DARK MAN from that movie i mean all dark looking

I've never been a huge fan of the outer-limits squid ending, but I always loved the psychic blast that preceded it. I think that was the most important part of the "universal threat" plot; that people got so overwhelmed with this sense of crazy fear/despair that if they didn't die from the squid's explosive entrance, they damn sure killed themselves out of fright.

But that may very well be lost in the movie, since the two detectives subplot has been truncated and the detectives finding the man that killed his family was part of the lead-in to the psychic blast ending.

So I don't necessarily mind the squid being removed, but what I worry about is that it changes the dynamic of Veidt's plan too much. I feel trying to frame Dr. Manhattan (even if he feels it's the right thing to do) would only make things worse for world politics. Since he started out as a tool of the USA, helping win wars and shore up the economy, I feel no matter what happened, he'd still always be associated with the US, and therefore can't achieve the unbiased threat the alien invasion could.

Sure the world might view him as a crazy madman with an almost alien mind, but I also think the fingers would be quick to point at the USA and scream "you unleashed this ungodly blue naked terror on us!".

Doesn't exactly make for the ideal grounds to sign a treaty.

What, they couldn't afford to hire H.R. Giger or Wayne Barlowe to design something suitibly eldrich to plop down in Times Square?

Eh...maybe it'll work. Like if it looks like Death Rays from the Heavens coming down and striking at the superpowers, or something.

Or the reports are simply wrong, or are a result of deliberate disinformation by the filmmakers.

Or they *really* wanted to sell an "Ozymandias' City Destroyer" playset in christmas 09.

I'm pretty much okay with the alteration as long as they make it look definitively like an alien attack instead of a terrorist attack.

Alan Moore can suck my hairy beanbag.
He has NO right to be pissed off at the commercialization of his work ever since his appearance on The Simpsons.

Snoogins.

I think Manhattan is going to take the full blame and allow humans to hate and fear him while he can go away to another galaxy and create a life form of his own.

I would prefer squid any day, to me it was the most fantastic shocker ending and no reason why audiences wouldn't like it.
But, considering most people haven't read the novel or couldn't understand it as easily as geeks here, maybe it can work.

The squid had to go for one very big reason.

Written, as it was, in 1986 Watchmen couldnt forsee the impact of a massive atrocity happening in New York in reality.

It assumed that massive human suffering in a city which is routinely described as the capital of the world would invoke such empathy that war would be impossble.

The book was wrong.

Within weeks of 9/11 much of the world was condeming America, accusing it of having created the situation and of having it coming as a result of decades of imperialism.

Clearly, the world did not unite as a result of a massive atrocity in New York so to make it an intrinsic part of the plot of the film would have been laughable.

Only an international attack, harming Russia as much as America, could create conditions where war would be averted and its a tremendous credit to Zach Snyder that he realised this.

The film is as good as it could conceivably have been. Its remarkable.

I agree with Mars that framing Dr. Manhattan of blowing up the world's major cities would not really lead to the intended effect of world peace and that instead the US would always suffer the blame for "spawning the blue devil."

Moreover, I think if indeed Dr. Manhattan unleashed his wrath on the world, the world would not unite together to fight him but instead be so afraid of him that they will ask for his forgiveness and bow to him. The world would lose all its heroism and instead cower in grave despair and in the fear of making Dr. Manhattan angry. How can you fight a "god?" If you knew that one possesses so much power to destroy you by mere act of will, you would wet your pants - you won't be able to stand up at all. You wouldn't want to lose his favor and if you do, you'd prostrate yourself to him to regain it.

Besides, Dr. Manhattan would not be an alien threat per se but a renegade former human being bent on revenge. Humanity would blame itself, it's imperfection and the "animal" in the rational animal for the creation of Dr. Manhattan. Changing Dr. Manhattan's skin color to blue would not remove the fact that he was a former human (and in a way, he still is) and the realization that one from your own's species could destroy you would make you think sadly of your own humanity.

Making the threat entirely alien would invigorate you and compel you to lean upon and trust in the human spirit and not forsake it. Humanity can only accept that the world's destruction is unthinkable if it thinks that one's own cannot and would not think about doing it - that only a wholly different mind, that of an alien, can think and do so.

Anyway, the different ending makes the inclusion of the outer limits opening theme and dialogue useless and meaningless. The point it was mentioned in the book was to show the similarity with the particular outer limits episode's ending. But with no squid or any other alien, the TV show's entry in the movie does not make sense.

@ ally cowan.
You cannot compare the unfortunate events of 9/11 to an alien attack. The rest of the world has relatively little to fear when terroists target the United States. However, when an giant extraterrestial being attacks, it's unlikely that the aliens are targeting one country specifically, therefore other areas of the world will logically also fear additional alien attacks.