The opening credits and the Comedian's death were amazing; for me the first hour of the movie was solid. Also, Zack Snyder's attention to every last detail of the GN was quite impressive. Let it be said that I dislike Zach Snyder (I hated the 300). Constant slow motion shots took me out of the film (which is really my dislike of Snyder's style). Random acts of violence that were added into the film were gratuitous and confusing in light of the fact that Snyder tried so hard to recreate the GN. I felt that the prison fight scene in particular was Zach Snyder acting out his need for gratuitous violence. I really thought most of that sequence was unnecessary. Ultimately, I was thankful that he toned down his "style" so much for Watchmen. I guess I shouldn't count "toning it down" as a success, but I sort of did.
The sex scene between Nite Owl and Jupiter unnecessarily slowed down the pace of the movie - the song choice was horrible and the whole thing just went on for a painfully long time. Did it really need to be that long? (Speaking of music: I loved "The Times They are A-Changin" for the opening montage - that was my favorite song choice. I either loved the music choices or hated them - but none were as bad as that Hallelujah-love sequence song choice. PLUS, it needs to be said that the sound mixing was incredible).
Most of the actors were v. convincing - Sally Jupiter wasn't my favorite, but she didn't ruin it for me, like she did for some people. In my opinion, she could have flicked her hair around less, but some of the guys I saw Watchmen with apparently really dug her hair swishing.
But I think the characterization of Veidt was my least favorite part of the movie. I think they missed the point. He was supposed to be a Captain America-type and instead he came off kind of small and sniveling. *SPOILER ALERT* I really wish that Snyder emphasized Veidt's moral reasoning for his mass murder. The film seemed to overlook his obsession with Alex the Great. Also, a friend of a friend noted that the film suggested that Veidt seemed to gain from the mass murder financially, which was not his motivation at all. I think they missed the fact that he really believed in his cause. He really believed that the ends justified the means and that killing millions to save billions was the right thing to do. That's part of why he kills his lynx, because he is willing to sacrifice everything for this (they included that moment but I don't think they captured the reasoning behind why he did that). They made him out to be the villain, when really, he's just another hero with an arguably f'ed up way of looking at the world and morality.
Altogether, I still enjoyed the movie. I was sold after the first hour. But my friend Philip summed it up best when he said "the Watchmen film worked as a strict recreation on celluloid, but didn't quite hit the necessary notes to make it a good film." It doesn't stand on its own. But as a compliment to the novel, it's worth seeing.
