Visual Masterpiece. Slick and Wonderful. Synders Best

I liked Alan Moore's bits...

I have very mixed feelings on Watchmen. I think Snyder did a reasonably good adaptation, but it's pretty flawed. I'll try to be brief.

I don't like the changed ending. The alien let Earth perceive it as "Earth v. Aliens". Switched to Dr. Manhattan, the Soviets would've said, "You faked his "leaving Earth" to justify blowing us up," and used it as leverage in international negotiations. It would add tension, not alleviate it.

They also look too cool. Snyder is a super-cool director, but the characters in Watchmen are losers, weirdos, outcasts, and perverts. They shouldn't look "cool". Dan should have a visible paunch in his tights. Rorschach should make us cringe and grimace. I think Snyder tried to make a really great superhero movie like Dark Knight or Avengers, but that's not what Watchmen is about. There are other things like this that make me think Snyder understood all the plot points, but none of the themes of the comic.

Also: they seem to have superpowers. The Comedian punches through a concrete wall. With the exception of Adrian, the characters should just be normal people who happen to have particular skills and experiences that make them better at fighting and crime solving. I think this is another clue that Snyder wanted to make a great superhero movie, which is different than adapting Watchmen.

Snyder got the pages right, panel-by-panel, but failed to understand what made Watchmen work. He had to find out what made Watchmen work as a comic, and I don't think he did. He did make a pretty great superhero comic with hints at something better - that dark, satirical, deconstructionist stream that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons put in there.

So, ultimately: is Watchmen a refreshing, original, slick superhero movie that stands out from others in the genre? Yeah, it is. But, is it the best movie it could be? No - it doesn't live up to its potential and falls short of the comic's brilliance.

For stuff I did really like:

The opening credit sequence is one of the most masterfully-created I've seen. It delivers everything we need to know about the backstory of the alternate-history world of Watchmen in minimal time. It's well shot and exciting.

The music choices of Snyder always thrill me. His use of music in Sucker Punch is great. It's great in Watchmen, too. Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel - the soundtrack is great stuff.

The look of the film is superb. The costumes and cinematography is all great. I'm not a huge fan of Snyder as a director, but as an art director, I am absolutely on board.

The elements of the comic book shine through in places, too. Great moments like the reveal at the ending (I did it thirty-five minutes ago), or Rorschach's craziness, or the world itself are all there on screen. Snyder might not have plumbed the depths of meaning and symoblism here, but there's enough on the surface to make for a great story with wonderful characters.

The performances of the cast are really standout as well. A lot of people loved Haley as Rorschach, and so did I, but my favourite performance was Morgan as The Comedian. But, that said, I loved everybody. A lot of people gave Ackermann flack for her performance as Silk Spectre, but I even liked her. Every member of the cast does their part extremely well, and as far as that and casting goes, it's on-par with the accuracy of The Lord of the Rings. Jackson did a great job of finding people who looked and sounded like those characters from Middle Earth. Snyder found the perfect looking, sounding, and acting cast for Watchmen.