I really love and appreciate the Watchmen comic, and I felt that this movie captured much of the same feelings from the comic. There were many areas that were rushed, but I was constantly at awe over how similar the movie was visually to the comic books.

The one area that I’ve always found valuable about Watchmen is its ability to capture the essence of human nature through a set of superheroes. I constantly find myself debating in my mind, for example, over who is ultimately correct, Veidt or Rorschach, allowing killing for the greater good or taking justice for every crime. The movie captures many of these human elements and the superheroes’ persona from the comic. I feel that this movie serves as a great way to introduce new people to this fantastic story, who I can’t as easily persuade to go read a comic book.

I was disappointed with the movie changing the ending. I always interpreted in the comic book that Dr. Manhattan made the decision on his own to exile himself from Earth. All his life, he thinks he is forced to follow events since he already knows everything is predetermined. I appreciated how in the comic the ending is the only time when Dr. Manhattan cannot see the future and has to make a decision himself for the first time in his life. It is sort of a maturing of Dr. Manhattan. On the other hand, the movie completely removes this aspect. Dr. Manhattan is essentially forced by external forces to make the decision for exile, rather than coming to it on his own.

Overall, it is a great movie. Most of it is very fast paced because there is so much to cover. However, I feel that the product is close to the best that could possibly ever come in a film just a few hours long.