What I Liked About Watchmen
1. Short Rorschach. Perfect. Ugly as I wanted him to be too. Jackie Earle Haley was always just enough, but not too much-unless the scene required too much. It was obvious he was the only one on the set who'd read the book and wanted to play the part (I imagine a lot of this took place on set: "So, this guy is like Batman, right? No? Blue Beetle? Who the fuck is Blue Beetle? Ah well, it's a paycheck.").
Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Comedian was perfect as well. And wasn't that a beautifully choreographed fight at the beginning? I think so, and I've watched a lot of screen fights.
2. Not enough Moloch, but Matt Frewer was spot on.
3. Extended scenes for the Silhouette, who looked fantastic. I was always intrigued by this side character. As I said on Twitter, if Wolverine can have a spin-off movie, why can't the Silhouette? Weimaresque lesbian crimefighter? Mama, buy me one of those.
4. On-the-money Nixon and Kissinger. All the other lookalikes were hardly above theme party quality.
5. Sorry, Alan, but the movie's ending made more sense. But then again, your ending worked as far as the comic goes.
6. Film Nite Owl's outrage over Ozymandias's actions is far more believable, given the basically decent nature of the character. In the comic, I always thought Rorschach's refusal to go along with the plan was the only sane response. Did the rest really think the peace would last? Seymour's potential inclusion of Rorschach's journal in the New Frontiersman's pages was the least likely catalyst for folks realizing something wasn't right.
Addendum: "NOOOOOOOOO!" WTF? Isn't there a law banning the anguished "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" from movies yet?
7. The violence was honest, but always only to a point. I can buy Ozymandias being a combination of Bruce Lee, and Jet Li, and the Comedian's technique was completely believable, but Rorschach, Nite Owl, and the Silk Specter were too... balletic. Also, having them kill a couple of the the knot-tops in the alley seemed out-of-character. Beat the tar out of them, yes, but kill? No.
8. As far as CGI acting goes, Billy Crudup was right up there with Andy Serkis as Gollum.
9. You can't have everything. And thank God for that, because my butt couldn't handle a shot-by-shot version of Watchmen.
10. I think a lot of folks were less bothered by seeing Silk Specter naked and more disturbed by seeing Nite Owl naked. Deal with it, fanboys. That's as close to a naked girl as many of you will get. Or to a naked guy, as the case may be, who's not yourself.