Okay - plenty of spoilers here. Move along if you haven't seen the film...
Right - the whole point of Ozymandias' 'evil' plan is to unite the Russian and American superpowers (and the rest of the world) against a common enemy, thus ensuring that there would be no nuclear stockpiling and thus the world is saved from nuclear armageddon. Ozy chose the 'common enemy' to be extraterrestrial, thus giving the world something to be wary of and unite to try and fend off. The movie opts to make that threat Jon and it just doesn't make sense - Jon is American. If an American (and one who had been trained to fight in wars for them) laid waste to cities around the world, the world wouldn't just go "Oh, he's buggered off to Mars has he? We better join forces and make sure that he doesn't try that again. Cuh! Homo superior, eh? You just can't trust 'em..." No! They'd demand that the US strip its armed forces unit (of which Jon was a part), cut back its weapons, do the whole Treaty of Versailles thing and basically try to neuter them. Of course, the US would refuse, there'd be arguments and eventually an actual World War.
The problem is that the aliens ending sounds silly but actually works in the book. And here's where we get on to my 'What's the Point?' comment - the story of Watchmen is already in the best medium for the story - a comic book. The comic allows the different story arcs to overlap and merge whenever they like - unconfined to the 2/3 hour time limit set by most films of today. And, more importantly, it allows the ending to work. If you haven't read it, then you've just made my Christmas shopping far, far easier!
There's a comment you made - "I'd love to see Gaiman's Sandman done" - which brought a wry smile to my lips. Because, of course, you have seen Gaiman's Sandman done - in the comics that you read and loved. Your Dream sounds the way you think he should because it's your mind and imagination helping to create him as you read the stories. Any screen version is bound to be second best, which is why most comic book films get mauled by the fans.
I'd extend this argument to any book to screen - if you're not doing something interesting with the tale, don't bother.
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Right - the whole point of Ozymandias' 'evil' plan is to unite the Russian and American superpowers (and the rest of the world) against a common enemy, thus ensuring that there would be no nuclear stockpiling and thus the world is saved from nuclear armageddon. Ozy chose the 'common enemy' to be extraterrestrial, thus giving the world something to be wary of and unite to try and fend off. The movie opts to make that threat Jon and it just doesn't make sense - Jon is American. If an American (and one who had been trained to fight in wars for them) laid waste to cities around the world, the world wouldn't just go "Oh, he's buggered off to Mars has he? We better join forces and make sure that he doesn't try that again. Cuh! Homo superior, eh? You just can't trust 'em..." No! They'd demand that the US strip its armed forces unit (of which Jon was a part), cut back its weapons, do the whole Treaty of Versailles thing and basically try to neuter them. Of course, the US would refuse, there'd be arguments and eventually an actual World War.
The problem is that the aliens ending sounds silly but actually works in the book. And here's where we get on to my 'What's the Point?' comment - the story of Watchmen is already in the best medium for the story - a comic book. The comic allows the different story arcs to overlap and merge whenever they like - unconfined to the 2/3 hour time limit set by most films of today. And, more importantly, it allows the ending to work. If you haven't read it, then you've just made my Christmas shopping far, far easier!
There's a comment you made - "I'd love to see Gaiman's Sandman done" - which brought a wry smile to my lips. Because, of course, you have seen Gaiman's Sandman done - in the comics that you read and loved. Your Dream sounds the way you think he should because it's your mind and imagination helping to create him as you read the stories. Any screen version is bound to be second best, which is why most comic book films get mauled by the fans.
I'd extend this argument to any book to screen - if you're not doing something interesting with the tale, don't bother.
Grouchily yours...