By Ryan Parsons | Image property of Warner Bros, AICN
Watchmen
Listen dude. That so-called squid seen at the end of Watchmen -- in the source material, at least -- isn't even a squid at all, so you really have no right to demand that the er, creature be in the film when you don't even know what it is. Besides, having read the graphic novel myself, I wasn't all that impressed with the choice of creature. I actually remember thinking, "That's kind of weird..."
Watchmen Ending Talk
After spending months battling with Warner Bros. to ensure that the film is as faithful as possible, do you really think that Zack Snyder would throw out the 'squid', or should I say fifth dimensional entity, for no reason? Didn't think so. It turns out that the squid er, thingie was just too much of a distraction, required some explaining and, besides, there are other tools that are much more catastrophic.
During the recent Watchmen screening in the UK, Snyder tells audiences to stop hoping for the squid, as there is no alternate ending. Here is a first-hand report to surface at AICN:
Zack Snyder confirmed that the ending is the one seen in the recent test screenings. The ‘squid’ is definitely not in this thing… its not being hidden in a different ending… its gone… vanished… with the big calamari in the sky.
This has created a fair amount of debate for obvious reasons, but I have to say that I side with the filmmakers on this one. Zack came out with a good summary for its exclusion. He only has a finite amount of time to play this thing out in cinemas… roughly 2.5 hours. Now to include the squid would have meant sacrificing a lot of the character to story, there’s just not enough time to play it both ways. And Watchmen lives and dies by its characters… it’s the dilemmas that they face and the decisions they make… it’s what they come to learn about the world & their place within it… that helps make the novel what it is. The essence of the ending is still intact… the characters still go through more unless the same progressions that they did in the novel. At the end of the day the ‘squid’ is a means to an end… the filmmakers have gone down a slightly different route, but the overall picture is still the same.
Since Snyder stuck close to the source material, does that mean Watchmen will find it more difficult to go mainstream? Check out the director's thoughts here.
Watchmen hits theaters on March 6th, 2009.
For the poster, trailers, pictures and more info on the film, go to the Watchmen
Movie Page.
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