Superb.

Rating: 9/10 (30 September 2010)

First off, during my first viewing of Watchmen, I hadn't read the graphic novel beforehand. A big mistake on my part, but I thought the film was great anyway. I watched it twice more and my opinion hadn't changed, even after both the mix of overwhelmingly positive feedback and the negative backlash. I know a lot of people complaining about how "boring" the movie was, and how much they couldn't get the infamous blue penis out of their mind. Their opinions didn't phase me, they had no appreciation for true cinema. I mean, these are the same brainless automatons that gave praise to X-Men Origins: Wolverine and 2012. One day, whilst spending time with my girlfriend at the mall, I stopped at Borders to check out some novels, comics, and manga. There I saw it, amusingly enough, adjacent to V for Vandetta (another comic that had a film adaptation I really enjoyed). I bought the graphic novel and was amazed how thoroughly the movie adapted the comic (for the most part).
The casting is extraordinary, its like the characters stepped out from the comic, into live-action. Major kudos goes to Billy Crudup's performance as Dr. Manhattan (of course named after The Manhattan Project which gave birth to the A-BOMB), and Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. Silk Spectre II could honestly be played by numerous actresses, she isn't very deep, I was glad that she was a little more cheerful for the film, whereas in the comic all she did was complain. Patrick Wilson was great as Nite Owl II, not much to say besides that, and Matthew Goode gave a surprisingly solid performance as Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) despite his (lack of) physique.
Of course the movie had to take out certain elements, but to be honest, some of those elements weren't necessary for the film (i.e. The Tales of the Black Freighter, the "alien"). The only major disappointment to me was the exclusion of Hollis Mason's murder by the Knot-Tops. I also wish Veidt had more screen time than he did. Though I understand why certain things were cut to meet demand. But wait! There was a solution to that issue anyway, after I read the graphic novel, I bought The Ultimate Cut on DVD. I was astonished by all the things they included that were missing the first time around. I mean, the original cut was about 2 hours, 42 minutes. The Ultimate Cut however, is about 3 hours, 35 minutes. The Tales of the Black Freighter subplot, the Knot-Tops, Hollis Mason's end, and overall a lot of extended scenes helped the overall impact, and The Ultimate Cut is the true film in my opinion. Watchmen is the "Citizen Kane" of comic book films, in competition with The Dark Knight and V for Vandetta before it. This is also competing with my choice for favorite movie of all time.