I was pleasantly surprised. I really think the end result was the best anyone could hope for in a motion picture adaptation of the Watchmen. It was cool to finally see all these great characters live and in motion. I really liked it. The film had me captivated right away with the great opening credit sequence. It really caught the feel and look of that older style of comic art.
I was surprised at how giggly my fellow theater patrons were. They found Dr. Manhattan's blue penis funny. The laughed at Nite Owl II's rear end and when Dr. Manhattan was meditating on Mars. However, they gasped and were shocked at the level of violence. The opening when
Comedian gets killed was well done and everyone was watching intently.
Then the gasps kept on coming like when
Comedian killed the Vietnamese girl, Rorschach threw the oil on the inmate (very cool to see that on the big screen), they buzzsawed that fat inmates arms off, and when Rorschach hacked that killer's skull.
So it was kind of interesting watching it around people who had not been familiar with the Watchmen. I'm always interested to get the opinion of non-fans and how they reacted to the film.
I know a few of my relatives saw it and they were shocked by it and found it to be a bit too long. But I know they still liked as they did manage to grow fond of Rorschach and
were actually saddened by his death.