I found the movie to be really close to the book with a few missing aspects of the book which didn't affect the way I felt towards the movie. The stuff they left out (like Tales of the Black Freighter, Rorshach's origin) was stuff I would've liked to see but didn't alter the movie in anyway good or bad. I found some of the gore to be unnecessary but I didn't really mind it much.
I thought the choreography of the fights as well as many of the scenes were great. They did a great and careful job at choreographing the movie. The score was nice. I thought that putting regular tunes of like, say Bob Dylan was a nice touch in the movie. The effects were great and they did as best as a job that they did with Dr. Manhattan, though it obviously was CGI. The rest of the effects were well made. The story stuck well with the book in the end and did not disappoint or leave out the most important parts of the books. They should have put in more origins of the heroes though. I felt that this movie brought out more emotions than the book did. And the ending, by the way, did not make me feel any different. In fact, it made me feel the same way that I did when I first read the book. EIther ending would not make a difference to me.
Well, on to the actors. I will agree with everyone and say that Jackie Earle Hailey IS Rorshach. I felt that Rorshach in the movie was the same Rorshach that I read in the book. I think it's safe to say he was the star of the movie.
Billy Crudup was one of the weaker actors in the movie. I really liked him as Dr. Manhattan. He was perfect as Dr. Manhattan. But when he was Jon Osterman before the accident, his acting was kind of dull.
Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre II/Laurie Juspeczyk) I feel somewhat indifferent about. Sometimes she didn't seem to put enough effort into her role but she was shining during the scene when she was on Mars. I loved how she played out the role throughout the second half of the film though.
Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl II/Dan Dreiberg)was not good but not bad either, though he didn't seem to have much chemistry with the other characters at some points. But what really made him stand out was near the ending of the film. The acting at the end was great, I loved it. Adding him to the end was not a bad move. It added to the intensity of emotions I was experiencing at that point of the film.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan was honestly as good as Rorshach. The way he was throughout the film really brought out the true Comedian we know from the books. Even adding extra cussing (by choice) to the character was a good move on his part. I don't think anyone could play Edward Blake as well as he did.
Finally, there's Matthew Goode. Matthew Goode was honestly not bad as Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt as everyone was saying he was. The first half, he was okay. The second half was as if he was Veidt from the books. He even had the look of Veidt. So, if you're reading this Goode, someone DID like you!
All-in-all, I honestly don't think any of these characters were truly bad as their comic book counterparts. They were these characters in some way.
In conclusion, I find that Watchmen is a piece of art in it's own way. This is how comic book movies should be made, but it doesn't have to use slo-mo all the time. I'm guessing that's gonna be Zack Snyder's signature in movies (like Michael Bay and his damn explosions). Even though the unfilmable was filmed for audiences to see, I find that this movie is a gift to all Watchmen and graphic novel fans. I don't think that anyone can do a better job than Snyder did with Watchmen. And I'm pretty sure a remake will be in the works 30, 40, maybe even 50 years from now which most likely won't be any good. Thank you Zack Snyder for bringing us the unfilmable.
Who watches the Watchmen? I do. And I'll bet I'll be watching them over and over for the years to come.
10/10
P.S. I cannot wait for the extended scenes. I wanna see Nite-Owl II go crazy!