'Other than to draw a bunch of perverts into theatres'?
Wow... cast moral judgment around much?

Since the sex scene (as DarkwingDuck pointed out) does indeed relate to the story, it's difficult to lump it in the same category as straight-up pornography. I think that since you've already implied that you're comfortable with pure porn (without the pretext of the movie), it shouldn't be too hard to accept sexual scenes, especially if they fit into a well-planned story.

but it's a two minute scene, it can't be anything but gratuitous, unless, there are so many significant things that happen during those two minutes, it is gratuitous.

2 minutes out of 162? Really?
I think this basically sums up the problem you seem to have:
"it can't be anything but gratuitous"
"gratuitous": 2. unnecessary, superfluous, redundant; causeless, unreasonable, groundless, unprovoked, unjustified.
Considering Dreiden's feelings of impotence when removed from his superhero activities and his seeming inadequacy before taking up the mantle of Nite Owl once again, I'd say that the scene is far from unjustified. I'd also say that in comparison to the running time of the movie, there's nothing wrong with the length of the scene in question.
But again, that's just me. And "gratuitous" is such a personal connotation that it's going to differ from viewer to viewer anyway. If someone enjoys the scene, then to that person the scene is no longer "gratuitous" anyway...the enjoyment is justification enough for a lot of people.
I don't think a happy medium is going to be reached in this thread. I am happy to agree to disagree, and wait impatiently for the director's cut to come out on DVD, which will hopefully be even longer and shrink the ratio of "gratuitous/non-gratuitous" footage even more. :)

So, is it any good? does the ending fail to capture the essence of the original?
I'm planning to go see it on Saturday with some friends. 4 of us have read the comic countless times and are quite intrigued to see how they managed it's movie adaptation. One of us is a watchmen "virgin", so we'll get some insight from someone who is hyped but oblivious to the source material.
I'll come back then and post my thoughts.
Regarding the infamous sex scene, if I recall correctly it takes about one page and is heavily implied(no graphical frames, save for a shaded boob when it's over). I'll see if it really detracts from the overall story or actually complements it in some way.
About the actors, so far the only one that strikes me as miscasted is Ozymandias. He looks bulky but mostly due to his costume. And perhaps Nite Owl should be a bit chubbier.
Just a bit of nitpicking I guess :-D

Here's what a buddy of mine said in an e-mail I got today:
He's not easily impressed, and I've known him for over 25 years, so from that I'm going to conclude they did a good job on the movie and I'll like it.

Well, I finally had the chance to see it and unfortunately it's not a good adaptation, I couldn't even say it's a good movie. Luckily we had the chance to see it in an IMAX theathre (the only one here :P) and it made some stuff like action sequences and wide shots a pleasure to see.
Great soundtrack, wonderful credit sequence, but not much more.
[SPOILERS]
It even fails in containing the original meaning of the book, wherein humanity's violence is routed to an inexistent threat from outer space instead of contained in a vague scenario of "dr manhattan will wipe you out if you even think of starting a nuclear war". Jon leaves because he sees he will be no longer needed, not because "the world hates him"
Unmasked Rorschach has the same tone and attitude than masked one, making his choice to die as Walter Kovacs an irrelevant one. And what the hell was Nite Owl doing out there?!
Silk Spectre I & II, Nite Owl and Ozymandias look like they got their acting degree from a do-it-yourself book, then went to validate it at the Keanu Reeves acting academy :-S
And you could see Ozy being the bad guy MILES away. Even the old couple sitting next to me were commenting about that "evil blonde".
[SPOILERS]
And the sex scene? yes, it's totally out of pace and adds nothing to the story. Its there so we feel unconfortable at the thought of a 15 meters tall ass humping around.
I wont even start mentioning the 4 mt tall blue dong either. I felt like when I have to deal with my vertigo; NEVER LOOK DOWN!!
I pity those who needed the subtitles, every time they darted to read them, they crashed full on with that wiggly digital thing xD
Edit: damn, tried to leave some blank space between spoiler tags, but it crops everything :(
well... try not to read any of that :P

The funny thing i found is that people said Watchmen (the graphic novel) was very violent and yet if you read it it's barely violent at all. Same goes for the sex.

The comparison was based around other comic books of the time (1986-ish). They were far more traditional superman/spiderman etc. type of things.

I had to write a review of "Watchmen" for school. I get it back tomorrow so I'll edit it and post it up on the web for those interested.

It does have it's share of violence, like shooting pregnant women, riot control with teargas and rubber bullets, all out bloody psyblast, death of countless innocents, things like that.
As Andy said; back when it was released, superhero stories were not like that.
I miss Dawn of the dead's Zack Snyder. He really nailed that one!
Nowadays its just this slow motion/fast motion fetish he seems to like :(

thanks McDondo!

I see what you mean, what with the Comedian/Silk Specter thing, but i meant more along the lines of quantitiy of violence versus level of violence.
Oh, and i know this is unrelated to Watchmen, but i just got Robinson's Requiem and Deus but i play my games on a tv set rather than a moniter and i was wondering if anyone knew how i could run my games in an 800 by 600 resolution.

Unless your TV is an LCD or HDTV its maximum resolution is 640x480. This is a technical limitation and there is nothing you can do about it.
If it is an LCD or HDTV you should be able to connect your video card to it via HDMI and/or DVI and then set the game to one of the supported resolutions. I'm not sure whether this works with VGA; you may need a video card that does DVI or HDMI (from there you can use an adapter to convert the signal to the format you need).

I saw this movie on Sunday.
Having not read the Watchmen comic books i knew nothing about it and it was just another movie to me.
I have to say it was pretty good. The two hours or so was over pretty quick and I didn't really see the ending coming.