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Jenny Vo
Professor Jackie Hymes
English 114B
17 February 2015
Extra credit for Watchmen
Reading a book is always more enjoyable than watching the actual film. I say this
because the book is more detailed than the movie. A film can never get every single detail of the
book because it would be too long, but a film can change up some things of the book. Even
though the graphic novel Watchmen was already a set up picture read, it had a lot more detail
than the film. The film actually does a good job in portraying all the different kinds of characters,
except for Veidt. In the graphic novel, he is shown as a big, tough man that is very fit. While in
the movie, Veidt is a skinny man that does not seem like he has any muscle. It is understandable
how Veidt in the novel can take down The Comedian. But in the film, it seems impossible since
The Comedian looks a lot more powerful than Veidt. Other than Veidt, all the other characters
seems very well played. I think the film does a great job on portraying Jon because he actually
like some blue creature rather than what I expected. Before watching the film, I thought that Jon
would just be some blue man but I was wrong. The film does a great job on transforming him
into a giant and do whatever other super powers he has.
The film shows the story in a more darker tone than the tragic novel does because the
scenes itself are actually in the dark so it makes it more suspenseful. For example, the scene
when Rorschach burns the house on fire with the man in it seems more scary actually watching it
then reading it. Maybe it is because the audience is actually watching what is happening and
realize how gruesome it is, or maybe the reader does not actually note how bloody the scene
actually is. Another example is towards the end of the story when the other masked heroes have

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found out about Adrian and his attempt mass murder. In the book, the authors make it dramatic
by having Laurie, Dan, and Rorschach act all differently. While in the film, they react all the
same and does not actually seem like they are that emotional that Adrian is killing a lot of
innocent lives.
The benefits of reading the graphic novel closely is that you can see the difference in
storyline between the novel and the film. Such as what the director decided to change scenes in
the film and what he decided to cut out of the film from the novel. The movie changed some
parts from the novel which kind of threw me off. Instead of having a scene where Janey Slater is
being interviewed about Jon and the relationship they used to have in the graphic novel, the
director of the movie decided to film Janey going into Jons interview on live television and
making a huge scene that he is the cause of her getting cancer. In this scene from the movie, it
really shows how much of an easy target Jon is to Veidt. While as in the book, it just shows how
Jon is an easy target because Veidt already knew that he would take his side. But here in this
scene in the movie, it shows that Jon shows emotion for seeing that he was the cause of his exgirlfriend getting cancer. In the movie, they do a better job at exposing Jon than in the book
because of the emotions they play on Jons face. But then again, that did not happen in the book.
In the book, he vanished everyone and then teleported to Mars where he made his own castles of
glass. This does show the reader than Jon is furious but in the movie they do a good job on
playing with his emotions. Something I did not like from the movie is that towards the end, when
Jon is about to leave for good after Veidts confession of mass muder, him and Laurie show
affection to each other. In the novel, it does now say that they show affection anywhere. IN the
novel, it is Laurie and Dan showing love to each other. But with the way how Laurie and Jon
ended things I do not think that they would show anymore affection what so ever because it

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looks like she has moved on with Daniel. But overall, both the graphic novel and the film were
interesting and mysterious.