A new trailer just came out for the movie Watchmen, and in reading some of the fan comments, there has been a HEATED debate about something being changed in the movie. These folks are calling themselves Squiddies, because of the change.

For those of you who haven’t read the book, I’m not going to make a reference to the argument being made, and that’s kind of the point with this.

For months there has been a lot of chatter about changes being made to the movie. You had, as usual, fans who wanted to have everything exactly as it was in the book. You had the director who said he was trying to make sure the film ‘would be true to the source material,’ which frankly in Hollywood terms could mean anything. In looking at the first images of the movie, the director got a lot of it right. The themes and elements are there, but make no mistake; this isn’t going to be the same as the graphic novel.

All one has to do is go back to another well received Alan Moore adaptation; V for Vendetta. I loved the comic and when the movie came out I was disturbed by a lot of changes made by the producers, but it still worked as a film. As a fan, I hated the way the voice of the nation was changed to a Bill O’Reilly caricature instead of a reasoned, flawed character. There were whole scenes cut from the film I wish were in there, but it’s unfortunate that you cannot make a good transition from one medium to another faithfully and expect to win the hearts of the fans.

The chat rooms are aflame with the changes made. I understand completely, but my goodness, one of the reasons why producers like the material and not the fans is exactly because of the reactions fans make about any change. I remember when Lord of the Rings was in production people were screaming about how the elves weren’t done correctly. They said the eyes were wrong in color. I saw this discussion go on for days!

As someone pointed out on one of the sites, there were deviations in The Dark Knight (Joker wearing makeup, not a chemically induced bleaching of the skin, Harvey Dent’s face changed by an explosion and not by acid) yet critics and fans alike loved the movie. It is possible to change the material and make a good adaptation. By the same token, you can make crap with the changes. Right now, and I doubt this will happen, but Beyonce is rumored to want to play Wonder Woman. Sorry, but Wonder Woman is white, especially since she’s of Greek decent, so a black woman in the role would be wrong. Right now Robert Rodriguez is working on a Red Sonja project with Rose McGowan. She just doesn’t strike me as the sword wielding barbarian type.

I understand the point of the squid, but I have to admit if I were making the movie, I would be concerned having that in the film. It makes sense in a comic book format, but when you’re trying to get audiences who aren’t comic book people to relate to the film, the squid really pushes the boundaries of believability. We all have to look at the bigger picture. As much as we are fans of the film, we don’t add up to spit over the actual potential of a movie going audience. I’m not saying that as a mean thing but as a business thing.