One of the worst movies, although not the worst. 3/10

This movie will forever be by go-to example of really, really bad directing.

Most other points of the movie were average and I thought the acting was actually GOOD so I apparently didn't hate it as much as Manchine. I give it a nice even 5/10 for most points being average and the Good acting almost canceling out the bad directing.

Agreed. I will never watch this movie again, man.

2/10

What the heck?!

I watched again today at work. TWICE.

I still can't believe so great much story can be tell with almost only 6 characters.

So close to the comic. One of the better comic movies ever.

I'd give it an 8/10.

I jjust got around to watching this. I haven't yet read the book, so I can only evaluate it as an action movie. But I liked it quite a lot. It was generally well done. Yeah, the violence is graphic but not inappropriately so. It could have been filmed less graphically, but so too could Underworld or Blade or any other similar film.
Laurie could use more character depth since the character is pivotal to the story's development, and Ozmandius isn't as impressive as he ought to be: I would have thought a more powerful and charismatic portrayal, not coming across as a yuppie geek. On the other hand, I could watch Jackie Earle Haley play a borderline sociopath all day (his Guerrero on Human Target makes the show).
For me, 7.5/10

I just re-watched this movie again recently, and I actually enjoyed it much more the second time around. Not sure why that was though?

I actually read the Watchmen TPB after watching the movie and thought they kept pretty close to the source material until the ending. Very gruesome and definately not for kids, but I liked it. Kinda wonder how it would have been if they split it into two different movies like they have been lately. 8 out of 10 because of length, It's hard to devote more than 2 hours to one movie these days.

I was at Half-Price Books yesterday, and they had Watchmen- The Ultimate Cut on bluray. After my 15% off coupon, it was only $25.49! The cheapest used copy on Amazon is $69 plus shipping. Haven't had a chance to watch it yet, as I'm prepping for The Avengers tomorrow at midnight. When I have four hours to spare, I'll check it out and do a review.

Okay, I'm a bit late to the party, but last month I reread watchmen and watched the movie. Here's an honest review after watching it a few times, and reading the books.

Going to break down into a few sections:

Acting, Visuals, Atmosphere, and Plot, then average them out for a score.

Acting:
I'll start with the casting. I believe that this was one of the best casted films in terms of accuracy of characters. The only character I felt was poorly casted was Matthew Goode as Veidt, because he just seemed too young and didn't carry himself quite the same way as the others in relation to their comic accuracy. The acting itself was fair for the book, but being so true to the source material allowed the actors very little room to breath and interpret scenes to add more feeling to them. I'm not entirely sure, then, I can fault or praise the actors too much as they were very trapped by the film in a sense. What room they had though was acceptable. They still conveyed emotion well enough, with some doing exceptionally well.
9/10

Visuals:
The visuals were literally amazing. The stylization of the film was unique and very much conveyed the feeling of a comic book drama. However, I didn't feel some parts were a little too over the top--even in a "no holds barred" movie like this. Particularly the gruesome breaking of a few bones, which added nothing to the film and was just there seemingly for shock. The sawing of Larry's arms really didn't need to be as graphic either, as it disrupts the tensions of the pacing and just leaves the viewer with a sense of disgust and nausea--however, it did make a little more sense as to why they killed him than the novels version.
I was particularly impressed with the cgi effects of Dr. Manhattan, who I feared would look horrible in motion.

8/10

Atmosphere:
There's both good and bad here. The musical intro really kicked things off (readas: nerdgasm) well, and at least the first two scenes kept up that pacing well. The funeral scene with the flashbacks helped very much to paint the tone of the Comedian, while giving the viewer a sense of him being the total dickhead that he was (or at least, how you're intended to feel about him up until then.) However, much of the tension seems non-existent from the visuals of the film. The only way you can really understand that there's supposed to be a lot of stress and whatnot through everyone from the war escalations is to be constantly told it's happening. Your atmosphere is poor if I need to constantly be reminded that everyone is tense verbally!
So this is really where the emotional impact of the film seems to fall through, things just kind of get stuck about mid way and there appears to be no clear direction or movement of emotions. Instead of feeling tensed and stressed the way the mid of the book gets you feeling, the movie just leaves the viewer kind of confused, trying to grasp onto what the frack they're supposed to be feeling.
5/10

Plot:
While a lot was cut from the movie, I think the original draft works pretty well there. The major change with the main Veidt plot was better for cinematic reasons--I don't think I giant monster alien would have really worked for a movie haha. However, many things that help the tension develop and be conveyed mid-film that were cut (killing of first Nite Owl, the guy murdering his two children to save them from the nuclear war, etc) really hurt the atmosphere. My only real issue of the film was the time dedicated to the sex scene... just unnecessary and boring and stopped the pacing of the film. I understand that sex sells, but zzz.
Ultimately, I didn't feel that Ozymandias was built up enough as a hero, or really explored as a villain to make the whole plot work, so it really flops in that sense. The changing of Rorschach's death being witnessed by Nite Owl seemed to work better for the movie as well, but Jon's real reasoning behind his actions aren't developed enough to make him seem like anything but kind of just a dickish guy. We never really feel how unattached to human aspect he is... how confused he is on how humans work, and how his realization on Mars changed his view of reality.
Plot changes helped the film work as a film, but the shortcomings really ruined a lot.
3/10

Overall, the movie is good, but takes a tentative watcher to really piece together everything. In the end, I think the movie just simply didn't work because of the time slot needed, and by cutting out all the little visual things and cues and atmosphere, the whole movie kind of dies off.
While I really loved the movie initially, and still do, it's mostly fan-girl-ism for the novel than a real appreciation of what the movie did.

Overall rating average: 6.25

Don't watch it if you haven't read it, you probably will dislike it or be left confused.