I went to the midnight opening of Watchmen like most fans probably did and I tried not to have my expectations too high. I already read that the filmmakers changed the ending from the way it was in the book, but I was curious if their change would work.

I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone, so I’m just going to do a list of things I liked and didn’t like about the movie without giving the plot away.

Likes:

• Costumes. I thought they stayed true to the comic.
• Set decoration. Some of the scenes looked like they used a panel in the comic as the storyboard. Very cool seeing the comic come to life.
• The Comedian. Man, that guy was well-casted.
• Dr. Manhattan. I liked the special effects they gave him and his facial expressions (or lack of).
• Dan Dreiberg. In the comic, he’s clumsy and muted. The actor who played him brought it out perfectly.
• The ending change — kind of. I was dreading the ending in the movie because I thought it’d be bad, but it actually tied up the loose ends in the movie nicely. I still prefer the book’s ending, but it wouldn’t be possible unless they added a lot more content in the movie.
• Rorschach. At first I thought his scratchy voice would bug me, but it fit his character pretty well. And unmasked, he was the comic come to life.

Dislikes:

• Dr. Manhattan’s penis enlargement. Maybe he succumbed to all the spam in his inbox and decided to try some magic pills. Was it really necessary to make his penis so large in the movie? The first time I read the book, I didn’t even notice the peen until someone pointed it out. But in the movie? Definitely noticed.
• The soundtrack. It’s not that the songs were bad. I liked most of the songs. But they just felt so heavy handed with the scene they accompanied. It felt inappropriate.
• Gratuitous use of slow motion. Yes, the fight choreography was pretty to look at. That doesn’t mean I want to see everything in slow motion. The movie could be trimmed down by an hour if Snyder would just quit it with the slow motion.
• Scene transitions. Instead of a coherent story, some parts of the movie just seemed like a checklist of scenes they needed to put in the movie.
• Bubastis. There’s no reason for her to be in the movie if they change the ending.
• Sex-scene. Too long, gratuitous and most of the theater was laughing. I don’t really know what the point of that scene was.
• The actress who plays Laurie. Her bad acting was so blatant compared to the great actors: The Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, even Dan.
• The gore. Gratuitous again. I didn’t come to watch a gore movie. I don’t want to see blood spurting in every directly in the Watchmen.
• The long-winded explanation in the end. The ending felt like “Watchmen For Dummies.” I don’t need the master plan to be explained to me three times.