I don't think the Dark Knight had the right tone. It was essentially an upbeat and hopeful movie with a Knights virtue. The tone was maybe a little darker, but nothing like Watchmen levels.
I haven't seen the actual movie though so I can't comment on the rest
I don't think I agree about The Dark Knight being Watchmen's adaptation, even if they share the "realism". Watchmen was about "if superheroes were real, they'd be flawed, messed up, crazy people". The Dark Knight was more about "could a superhero handle the responsibility he's chosen of defending the people" as well as about how being a hero has caused him to attract villains who want a challenge. The two both analyze "superheroes in the real world", but display very different themes.
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The problem with the Watchmen movie
A few years back, a movie came out that perfectly captured the realistic, gritty tone and character depth of Alan Moore's Watchmen, and that movie was The Dark Knight.
Okay, maybe not "perfectly" but certainly more that the movie Zack Snyder directed.
One of the major things that made the comic so influential and beloved was the level of realism and character personalities that were not present in most graphic novels at the time. This completely redefined what a comic book could be. It was dark, political, and relevant to the real world, despite having colourful costumed heroes.
What the movie tried to do was recreate the book, almost panel by panel, scene by scene, with Zack Snyder, who's good at that sort of thing. In the end, what we got were slow motion kung fu fight scenes, big yellow block letter credits, and surreal explosion dreams, set to rock music. Somebody should tell the filmmakers that a realistic comic book and a realistic movie are two different things, and recreating panels aren't realistic, even if the panels are from a realistic comic book. I hope that makes sense.
Anyways, I didn't think it was a terrible movie, but it was certainly a terrible adaptation, despite how claustrophobically close it followed the book. When you're making a film adaptation of something, you need to find out why fans of the source material love it, and work that into the film. Watchmen did not do this.