I’m going to get worked up if I think about it too much, but the whole damn movie was snydered. All of it was tone deaf. Whatever worked, worked because he was unable to fully stifle the brilliance of the material.
Ultra-violence in the fights, because of Snyder, but clinical dryness at the NY event, when it actually called for shock. I didn’t mind the exclusion of the psychic monster, but they did a piss poor job with the replacement.
The aforementioned sex scene. Ugh.
Haley was great as Rorschach, but leave it to Hollywood to turn another Moore antihero into a straight up hero. No mention of Kitty Genovese (though out of consideration to the family perhaps?) or the screwed up reasoning behind him choosing his mask. Nope, just a badass driven by the murder of a child. Moore has admitted that he missed the mark (gave him too many good lines/scenes) but Snyder missed the point.
The ending. Argh. Dreiberg punching Veidt for “excitement” and “sort of good ending” when there should be stillness. Not giving Dr. Manhattan his final line. Not giving Dreiberg his final spiel. They hit most of the plot points (many of them unnecessary IMHO, considering time constraints) but skips over virtually every nuance in the book.
Finally, the Dr. Manhattan origin. It’s still one of the better parts in the movie, but only because the original comic is so goddamned fantastic. Again, misses out on the helplessness of being Dr. Manhattan, throws in the “Always too late” speech when it did very little to set it up.
So while it might not be kosher to link this here, I see it as good advertising. If you haven’t read the comic, you owe it to yourself to read at least this issue. I really think they should have just filmed it scene by scene from the comic.
http://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Watchmen/Issue-4?id=14883
(also, this deals with some of the themes form The Arrival, but better.)
I’m not usually such a fanboy about anything (I rather enjoyed Man of Steel! BvS was passable) but Watchman holds a special place in my heart.