Earlier this year, the fever pitch for Watchmen was so thick in the air it was almost palpable. Everyone was writing stories about it, hypothesizing about the box office, and wondering aloud whether or not it would be the best comic book movie ever made. And then it came out and so sharply divided critcs that arguments linger, occasionally, to this day. I, for one, found myself somewhat disappointed -- very much in love with most of what I saw, but upset with the ending, which deviated greatly from the book. One thing is for sure: It wasn't the greatest comic book movie ever made. But could it still be? Very shortly we'll see the release of the Watchmen director's cut -- a new, longer version of the film -- followed later in the year by an ultimate edition that cuts in material from Tales of the Black Freighter. Some director's cuts have been known to make a mediocre film brilliant (like Ridley Scott's four hour Kingdom of Heaven cut) while others ruin their films entirely (like David Twohy's Chronicles of Riddick). Where will Watchmen fall? What could a director's cut fix? What won't it fix?

The Ending
Say what you will, but for better or for worse, the ending to the film was entirely Zack Snyder's. Whether he did it because he felt Heroes' first season scooped his film and ripped it off from the book or whether he simply felt he could write a better ending, Dr. Manhattan is still going to be the source for all the woe, and he's still going to fly off to the stars having talked to Laurie instead of Ozymandias. If you've never read the book that might not seem like such a big deal, but it is. You're missing out on a far superior, deeper, harsher ending.

Subplots
The Watchmen series/graphic novel included a number of great small characters and subplots which were excised for time. There are a number of scenes between a newsstand owner and a young boy through which we are told much of what the world is like in the Watchmen 1984 universe. There's also a number of great scenes they just didn't have time for in the movie. Much of this is what will find itself re-inserted to flesh out the film and bring it closer in line with the book.

The R-rating
Much ado has been made about the fact that Snyder took a book that at worst had a light R-rating and made it hard R, with broken bones, blood, and slow lingering shots of sex that just didn't appear in the book in the same manner. These will no doubt stay -- with the chance of some slightly harsher stuff finding its way in. If it bothered you before, it is certainly going to bother you now.

The Black Freighter
This won't appear in the director's cut, but it will show up later this year in a special Ultimate Edition (which Snyder is quick to point out is the studio's cut, not his). But with Snyder's ending to the story, in which Manhattan talks to Laurie rather than Ozymandias, it is unclear how this will work. In the book Ozy intimates to Manhattan (the only being on Earth smart enough to consider an equal) that he's been having nightmares about swimming out to a black ship -- then breaks off and decides against discussing it. In the graphic novel, the Black Freighter story is a metaphor for going to hell, so attentive readers glean that Ozy has been dreaming about going to hell for what he's done. Unless Snyder has filmed some clever segue way allowing this brief interaction to occur, the meaning of the Black Freighter storyline could potentially end up completely lost on anyone but fans of the book.

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