.First of all: This really is "Watchmen: The movie version". Not a different version, not an update, not "based on Watchmen", this is a lot closer to "Sin City" in terms of framing copied from the comic and it being mainly material from the comic (with various cuts, and a few new jokes and material).
It's not as good as the comic, nowhere near as good, detailed, intricate, etc' (but that's a given). It's also far less "deep", less of a "Gritty" look behind Superheroes and more of a "superhero/comic book" movie (the cheorography of the fight scenes, especially the last one is less "Watchmen" and more "300/Sin City", aka lots of wire-fu and humans weighing as much as a bowling pin).
Oh, the most important point of all: They did not ruin the movie. And it has all of the really important elements, most importantly of all - the ending. And The Line. The "35 minutes" line. (Yeah, no more giant squid monster. So what?).
A lot of the scenes are really reduced by the overall lack of subtlety, there's a certain feeling of "pornography" in the gratuitousness of the sex, blood, violence and bones snapping (Moore would burst a vein if he hadn't already done so). The scene with Rorsrach's flashback is much, much worse. From "Fuck... Dang" to "Yeah, so? Dang this is a crappy adaption of the scene".
Ozymandias is much less interesting, less sympathetic, and looks like a sharpened blackened condom. (and "Karnak" is waaaay overdone, the only thing missing is the lake of lava).
Going along with the "more of a comic book movie", don't expect Nite Owl to show his age or the classic scene with him trying to fit the suit on, such subtleties are unneeded for "Watchmen! Now with Kung POW Action!".
The music is sometimes a bit much, but "The times they are a'changing" works well (The opening credits are GREAT, don't miss them!), "All along the watchtower" continues it's streak from BSG to be a really awesome penultimate song, and "March of the Valkyries" has its best appearance in a movie ever. (Manhatten, Vietnam and lots of exploding).
Speaking of Manhatten, he's just less...."good" than the comic version - the SFX are great (though I dislike the skin pores), and the glass structure looks AMAZING, but his character and behavior are too compressed. (Although the full flashbacks were maintained along with many others, a thing which is to bee very highly commended to "300 Zack Snyder - director of Watchmen").
Speaking of the director - too much "Slow motion - snap to movement, then back to slow mo". Waaaaay too much, especially in the begginning where's it's too gratious. And speaking yet again of the beginning - it's too heavy of flashbacks, the issue of Silk's father isn't so much foreshadowed as blared out loudly roughly 7 or so times.
Overall? It's an excellent adaption, and might have been better with a little more subtlety, a little less teenage crowd attempts at pandering, but the cuts were good and done very well overall (it still clocks in at 3 hours). Definetly a good movie, and i'll probably buy the dvd if only for the awesome looking "Tales of the black freighter mini-movie". I just might have enjoyed it more if I didn't know Watchmen damn near by heart already, it felt either like seeing a movie adaption, or an inferior movie version in damn near almost every screen. (Though there were some good changes, the jokes, the New Frontiersman, this and that).
Feel free to lambast me for missing details, I'm writing this after a sleepless night.
.(Oh and my recommendation? Go see it. Seriously, even if you're not a fan of the comic. Which you should read, after the movie
).
