okay, to clarify. I am saying that if you are interested in art house films that focus on symbolism, sex, political and philisophical issues, etc. and make heavy use of metaphor and character to advance plot and you detest action flicks and extreme violence, you will not like this movie. If you like movies full of action and suspense that are quickly moving and focus on the plot, putting cool characters into needed roles to move that plot, you will not like this movie.
Only if you are interested in both of these things can you enjoy Watchmen. You have to be excited by very violent action sequences highlighted by slow motion and punctuated by extreme cgi explosions while simultaneously enjoying political and social commentary and even further enjoying watching very human foibles being projected onto very flawed superheros who choose badly or unwisely.
Most of the complaints I've heard were either from the people wanting a superhero flick (people for whom the wolverine movie will be PERFECT for--which, btw is not an insult, it looks awesome) were disappointed at all the talking and hemming and hawing, the sexual notes, the political commentary, the philosophical underpinnings, etc. they wanted it to move faster. On the other side of the fence, the people who were interested in the meatier aspects of the movie were put off by the violence in the fight scenes, the number of fights in the first place and the super-hero settings.
Obviously I'm simplifying. The biggest flaw of the movie was that the philosophy in the book is a pretty sophomoric one that ignores the complexity of the issues it's dealing with in order to tell a tale in a manageable amount of space and it has a far too pat ending with a far too idealized version of how things 'should' be that is frankly quite ignorant. However the other threads of the book manage take the weight off of this central plot and allow it to be silly while still being important and a little bit profound. The other characters are just as right in their flawed philosophies, they are simply too weak to implement them. Since the movie has to cut out a lot of the fluff (and it was done well, I might add) it essentially focuses on what are the simplistic thoughts of a second year philosophy student before he actually gets around to really reading. I'm blathering too much.
~Jason