I went to see it yesterday; I had never read-or even heard of-the book, and went just on the reccomendations here on SDMB. I enjoyed it, tho I found it a little hard to follow in places, and there were things I didn’t understand… like the horned tiger-thing that just seemed to pop out randomly from nowhere…
And what was the 4 legged chicken reference? I heard it and wondered… WTF?
That and Rorschach’s line “Why are so few of us left active, healthy, and without personality disorders?”
There were some laughs at the interview with the prison psychiatrist, too. “You’re fat” and some of the fake answers to the inkblot cards.
Incidentally, even though my girlfriend hasn’t read the story and didn’t think much of the movie, she did find “I’m not locked in here with you. You’re locked in here with me!” pretty badass. I don’t think she’d put it that way, but she did. 
Seeing that onscreen, instead of delivered via narration, was a bonus.
Oh, heck yes. 
Dr. Manhattan was able to help advance the science of genetic engineering. Bubastis, the genetically-engineered lynx pet of Ozymandias’s, was another result.
I was slightly disappointed that more wasn’t made of Manhattan’s impact on the world, some mention of electric cars. In the GN you get a much better feeling how he has deformed American society just by existing.
By the way, I was confused about this in the GN. Apparently, they have the technology for ICBMs, but not for passenger aircraft? Is this really plausible?
I guess “confused” isn’t the right word. I was guardedly dubious.
I remember there are some zeppelins in the book, but I didn’t take that to mean there is no passenger aircraft technology - I figured it was a non-polluting alternative to passenger aircraft or something.
No, to my recollection they said explicitly that there had been failed experiments in flight. Sorry I don’t have the GN with me to look up a page number.
Wouldn’t help me much, since my brothers have my copy right now. But I’ll wait.
We see Air Force One and Two arriving at NORAD, and the freed Tehran embassy hostages getting off a plane with the Comedian, but those are the only jet aircraft shown, IIRC. There are helicopters at NORAD and in the skies over Vietnam, too. I always thought the dirigibles over Manhattan were just colorful background details, not something that was particularly well-thought-out.
It might be overly harsh to say that Dr. M. “deformed” American society. Cars are cleaner and the skies are less polluted because of him; genetic engineering has probably done some (a lot of?) good, although we aren’t given many details other than the four-legged chicken and Bubastis. The U.S. defense budget is less than it would’ve been otherwise.
I think the reasoning for ditching the electric cars was that it would dampen the whole ‘free energy’ aspect of Veidt’s cover story - if the dependence on (foreign) oil has been reduced, a lot of his argument goes bye-bye.
I don’t really agree with that, but I think that was the reasoning.
(It also would have made the world look less like the real 1985 - which I think would have been a good thing, but given that someone in this thread complained it didn’t feel like 1985 as is…)
Given that the Watchmen world doesn’t diverge from the real world at all until 1938, and doesn’t diverge significantly until the 1960s - not to mention Archie’s existence - this is something that would have stood out, and, despite reading the book multiple times since 1996 (when I first read it) I never did note it.
Saw it last weekend, and loved it. I NEVER say this about movies, but I actually thought it was significantly better than the book; I thought all of the major changes that were made served to enhance the story. I thought the acting was good enough for the material, the violence was not as off-putting as I’d feared (though, having read the book, I knew to close my eyes at a few crucial moments, and used Rorschach’s “origin” flashback as an opportunity to visit the restroom). I didn’t think Little Dr. Manhattan was nearly as prominently featured as some reviews had led me to believe. I was on the fence about whether I wanted to see it or not, and write to encourage my fellow fence-sitters to take the plunge.
I thought that Bubastis’ appearance worked very well, but I see that some people who hadn’t read the book were confused. I thought it would be logically apparent, given that he’d just given his speech and poisoned his associates, thus establishing himself as a bona fide Wealthy Mad Scientist, that he would have a weird genetically engineered pet to go with the role.
As far as the “Commies” thing, we don’t really know much about the politics of this reality, but the excerpts from Hollis Mason’s autobiography in the book tell us that he was quite right of center, so that may have more to do with his own skewed worldview than anything else. He may have been the sort of guy who today would call Obama a Commie. I thought Dan’s tone of voice in agreeing with him sounded somewhat strained, more like “trying to humor this old man whom I admire despite his strange political views” than actual agreement.
Plus you gotta show some respect. That’s the left hook that floored Captain Axis.
I’ve never read the comic and that’s pretty much what I thought when I saw the genetically engineered horned Lynx thing. “Oh, look, the Wealthy Mad Scientist has a genetically engineered pet. I would too if I was him.”
I really don’t get all the “It was confusing!” claims I’ve heard, but then I didn’t find the violence in the film that off-putting either, so evidently most people’s results vary from mine in that regard…
Nevermind. Forgot to click the next page link.
I didn’t find it confusing, nor was I disappointed. I guess maybe this stems from the fact that I never liked the GN all that much. I didn’t DISlike it, it just never grabbed me…not the way The Dark Knight Returns did. Actually, in that way, I liked the movie better than the GN basically for the reason one other person gave: the superheroes were more badass in the movie. I never bought SS or Nite Owl as vigilantes in the book…they both seemed like they would have got their asses kicked in their first fight. And Rorshach was only a badass because of his utter ruthlessness, which only works if you’re not up against someone even more ruthless.
I thought Jackie Earl Haley totally nailed Rorshach BTW…the guy is very underrated.
Finally got to see it this weekend, in IMAX. I loved it – as with The Lord of the Rings, I thought the changes and compromises made to bring the thing into filmable form (even at nearly three hours) were good and well-made choices. I missed the Big Calamari, but, if I had to go with a choice that could be explained and understood in thirty words or less, I’d probably go with their choice, as well.
As we walked out of the theater, a more0than-middle-aged woman exclaimed: “That was the worst movie I ever saw in my life!” But I think she’d have been disappointed in the Graphic Novel, too.
\A thought ran through my head – perhaps, in this alternate reality, Dr. Manhattan not only came up with World Peace and Cheap Electric Cars and all, but also came up with two long-running Off-Broadway shows. One was, of course, Blue Man Group, in which he played all the parts.
The other was
[spoiler] Puppetry of the Penis.
It was a Good show, until Mr. Fantastic did the same thing. He could do anything.
And then, of course, the Hulk’s copycat show Green Man Group bombed because he ended every show shouting “Puny Humans Laugh at Hulk! Hulk Smash!”
[/spoiler]