Let me explain: During the scene where Veidt has the meeting with the heads of the auto industry (you know, the scene where Lee Iacocca gets capped), Adrian explains his belief that war is propagated due to the lack of renewable cheap/free energy sources. OK, I’ll buy that….I can only think of two reasons people go to war: 1) religious fanaticism and 2) coveting another countries’ resources. But if Veidt DOES have the energy tech available to him, even if it’s not quite perfected, doesn’t it make more sense to start rolling out that technology to stem the tides of war? Rather than option b) murdering millions of innocents. Veidt was never an overly violent man during his time as a crime-fighter (unlike Rorshach), and I think, given his character, he would have used the Dr. Manhattan gambit ONLY as a last resort. Lets face it, if that thing could produce enough energy to wipe out that many cities, it surely could be used to simply provide power to those cities and more.

I suppose they changed the ending from the original ‘Alien Invasion’ hoax to simplify the plot, and keep running time shorter. After all, they would have had to build up the whole thing about the missing writers and artists, etc. But for my money, I would have preferred a 4 hour Watchmen movie that kept the original ending from the graphic novel.

That said, all in all, I was impressed with the movie, and how faithfully they adapted it (’cept for the ending).

Also I have to disagree with the assertion the Russians would have launched their missiles 3 seconds after their city blew up- why launch nukes if it appears Dr. Manhattan has returned? Isn’t he the whole reason they didn’t launch a long time ago? As for the “how could they tell it was Manhattan and not a nuke” rant lets suspend disbelief and/or use our imaginations and just guess their was no mushroom cloud + city gone = not a nuke.

I do agree the graphic violence could have been toned waaaaay down. A few broken bones in the gang fight, Rorschach simply burning the building down (and leaving out the ‘here, have a saw’ part because people will think of Saw), and slightly less gruesome remains from the exploded people would have detracted from the story less and probably won the movie more supporters.

In the book there is not huge structural damage, just lots of dead bodies including a weird alien looking one in the middle of the chaos. It is pretty obvious where the governments should put the blame, and even if someone were brought in to investigate what are the chances that the smartest man in the world would not be in charge? Everyone else who knew was dead. That holds water for me.

A giant bomb going off and them being able to tell that it was not a nuclear weapon due to its energy signature though? Really? I am guessing since getting close enough to use their tricorders would be dangerous due to the radiation they would expect to be there thinking that they were nuclear so they must have scanned from their starships. Seriously, not only could they magically tell that these were not nuclear weapons but that they were Dr. Manhatten fast enough to keep Nixon from hitting the retaliation button just did not make sense to me. That would have to mean that they knew, more or less instantaneously, that it was not a nuclear weapon. Perhaps they would have that kind of tech having worked with Dr. Manhatten for so long, but it just did not jive with the world as I thought it was supposed to be.

On a side not, when all the buildings being rebuilt had Veidt written on them, did anyone else feel like it was making it appear as though getting the rebuilding contracts and reforming the world in his image was the reason Veidt did it? I know in the book that was not the case, but then again in the book he was not a flat out villain like he was in the movie.

The difference for me was, none of this ruined the movie for me. The music nearly ruined the movie for me, but overall I still found it good. Not great by any means, I will not pick up the DVD, but I do not regret seeing it and it does not tarnish my love of Moore’s second greatest achievement (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is just better in my opinion). It could have been a LOT worse, especially with Snyder at the helm. But I think that he has finally made a movie that gets a passing grade.

I certainly wasn’t intending to drive folks away from seeing it. My hope was to have folks see where I said ’spoilers’, and go watch the movie, and then come back and give me their take on it.

I’m just too close to the source material to be objective about it, and I’m glad that it stands well on it’s own.

My only quibbles are with small things that seemed more like they just didn’t have time to properly explore. The portrayal of The Comedian in the movie left you wondering why anyone ever had anything to do with him.

The scene where Dr. Manhattan discusses “miracles” wasn’t the crowning moment of awesomeness that it should have been, in my mind. Huge point in the comic became a blink and you missed it.

Veidt’s presence in the world was too understated, as was his power (until the end, making it seem kind of like an “ass-pull” at that point).

There are more, but these are what spring to mind.

Too much emphasis on the sex and violence of the comics, not enough on the things that really made the comic revolutionary. Still a very good movie overall.

I really cringed when the Comedian showed up in Moloch’s room and didn’t mention the island at all, because at that point we really find out that the ending would be changed I’d made my husband read the graphic novel the week before we went to see the movie, so he’d know what was going on, and he was really disappointed in that.

I’m glad they kept Bubastes in the film, but it doesn’t really make sense unless you know what Adrian was doing. I agree… Adrian was *completely* wrong. The rest of the movie was well cast (I’m glad they didn’t pretty Rorschach up for the camera), but I kept thinking that the scrawny guy playing Adrian must be related to the film maker or casting director somehow.

I am a huge fan of the comic, grew up with it. For the same reasons as Pookie, I expected the ending to change, and I’m not that dissapointed with the ending. It’s not great, but it did hold together the thread through the “event”, which was important.

I left a little disappointed, only because the books were so great. Then I refelcted back on it.. and it was great. It captured most of the characters, the tone, the story, visually it was awesome, the soundtrack was perfect….

Just for Rorshach’s story alone, it was a great movie. The violence fit perfectly with how awesomely they did his story and character. I mean, just Rorshach was worth going. And they got the Comedian right on.. Dr. Manhatten they got mostly right even, which I thought we be really tough. Only thing is, he was a tad too emotional except for the part where he’s really supposed to be, and then he wasn’t enough, IMO.

They didn’t get Viedt down well, disapointing. But still, compared to most of the drek they put out, this was a great movie.