re: Movie That Had Great Trailers to movies that ended up as bad flicks.

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(1) the scoring and direction of the Nite Owl II-Silk Spectre II sex scene

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It was awkward and kind of uncomfortable. It was more or less the same in the graphic novel. The use of Leonard Cohen’s version of that song was particularly grating but it didn’t ruin the movie for me.

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2) making Dr Manhattan the "common enemy" of the US and the Soviets

(3) to a lesser extent, VASTLY shrinking the scale and detail of Ozymandias' presence, essentially removing him from the narrative for 75% of the movie

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Manhattan was the more realistic fill in for the plot device used in the graphic novel, I imagine in some part because it was easier to film while in others because it wasn’t as jarring without making a two part, five hour film. In a lot of ways, I actually thought it was a clever improvement even if the HBO series did a pretty solid job of conveying the original vision of the incident from the novel.

Ozymandias’ relative absence in the movie seemed, again, to be the result of needing an entire mini series or multiple movies to actually portray and have a pay off for the portrayal akin to the novel. Plus, it made sense in the context of the film medium to make what was essentially the villain a more minor part of the movie until the end; there was just a lot more to focus on and it added punch to the reveal of his actual powers which went beyond mere super-intelligence (speed, reflexes, strength).

All in all, an audience reading the graphic novel is going to inherently suspend some disbelief when a giant squid monster shows up (also, they’re going to know who Alan Moore is and be much more accepting of any ideas he presents). By comparison, turning Dr. Manhattan into society’s Public Enemy #1 in the film was much more palatable for a wider audience that may not be as familiar with the source material.