I get the distinct feeling that Snyder didn't make the changes personally.

Like, I picture this going on: Snyder demands up and down to keep the movie as much like the comic book as possible. Writers change something. He demands they change it back. The one who's paying for the whole movie says, "Naw, keep it in, I like it," and Snyder's hands are tied.

Most he can do is damage control for PR and hope for the best.

That's what I think happened, anyway, don't quote me on that.

This change for some reason doesn't quite sting that badly for me. I'm not quite sure why.

I imagine the plot holes won't be as bad as we're worried they'll be. I'm sure there will be some sort of explanation as to exactly why this results in peace. It just won't be as good as Moore's.

Yah, it bothers me that Snyder goes on so much about being completely faithful, using the comic as a storyboard, changing as little as possible, etc etc, and then he changes one of the only things I really care about being changed.
If you're just going to copy paste the comic into movie form, it won't be a good movie, but this is just a bad change.

tl;dr: if it's not broken, don't fix it.

I don't know which interview I read it in, but Snyder has stated that the changed ending was already written before he was even attached to the project. If I can find it I'll link it...

I think it ties the story up neater. Manhattan really never seemed like the kind of person to react one way or another to Ozzie's plan. His reaction? "Cool. I'm gonna go away and play with making humans.

I found the alien stuff jarring when I read through Watchmen for the first time. "What the hell is going on?" went through my head whenever they cut to the Missing Artists Colony.

Using an apathetic god who we've seen in the story neatens up the plot threads.

So wait, am I understanding this properly? Oxymandias' plan to avert nuclear war now involves nuclear war? Or worse? Doesn't that sort of defeat the entire purpose?
There are several problems with this, starting with the fact that, as previously noted, Oxymandias knows that Squid monster is going to just wreak havoc and destruction in a single, contained area. For all Oxymandias knows, though, Dr. Manhattan could say "screw your plan" and, as an intelligent, autonomous entity, screw Oxymandias over. I'm not sure why Oxymandias, for that matter, would concoct a plan that singlehandedily relies on demonizing God. I mean Oxymandias of all people should know that blaspheming a deity with unlimited powers didn't exactly work well for the last Egyptian Pharoah who tried.

There's also the whole angle of Rorschach's perspective, and how Rorschach has a legitimate shades-of-gray greivance against Oxymandias in the original comic, because Oxymandias did in fact cause untold amounts of death and destruction with his squid from outer space. Here, either A: Oxymandias legitimately causes nuclear catastrophe, in which case, what the hell is the point, if nuclear catastrophe was what you were trying to avoid? OR B: Oxymandias simply uses the THREAT of Manhattan and nuclear devastation to unite the world, in which case nothing's actually been destroyed, and Rorschach just looks like a stubborn ass.

Either way, in the movie, Oxymandias or Rorschach's going to come out of their quarrel looking idiotic. The brilliance of Watchmen was that they both had legitimate arguments and it was difficult to "choose a side," as Oxymandias justified the slaughter of thousands if not millions and tried to cover it up, while Rorschach is a stickler for "truth" but telling the truth has lots of consequences and could lead to nuclear armageddon. The idea, though, was that Oxymandias knew that the worst-case scenairo of teleporting the squid monster was destroying a single city, without nuclear radiation contaminating everything, so in essence, he sacrificed New York City to save the world. That's very different from the threat of Manhattan going berserk and destroying the world, or whatever kooky vision this version has in store.

EDIT: Finally, part of the brilliance of the comic is that Moore refuses to give readers the slightest clue as to "which side Manhattan is on" until the very end, when Manhattan listens to Oxymandias' argument and makes his choice. This is sort of important because as a deity, we automatically essentially know that whichever side Manhattan chooses, if he even chooses a side, is going to "win." In the end, Manhattan kills Rorschach, thus suggesting that he'll at least go along with Oxymandias and refuse to expose him -- Manhattan agrees with Oxymandias, even if Manhattan sort of leaves him on a "downer note" and abandons the Earth entirely in the end.

So any movie portrayal in which Manhattan chooses willingly to work alongside Oxymandias, or even simply to accept Oxymandias' plan earlier in the script, hurts the integrity of the show because you know how it's going to turn out much sooner. At least with the comics, in the very last issue you were still wondering whether Rorschach, Nite Owl or whoever might disagree with Oxymandias and convince Manhattan that Oxymandias had to pay for his sins. Or, Manhattan could have simply left Earth to its fate, but not dealt with Rorschach, allowing Rorschach to "expose to the truth" -- or simply forcing Oxymandias to deal with Rorschach himself, in what would have been a "fairer fight."

So I'm not sure how this change doesn't really have a monsterous effect on how Watchmen ends and how the characters are portrayed.

Just sayin' Snake: Ozymandias.

Ozzy.

My biggest problem with the Ozymandias character is that, OK, he wants us to think of Ramses II, but Moore clearly has the Shelley poem in mind and Adrian is entirely ignorant of this poem, or what the meaning of it is.

I'll agree with that.

Other than that I can't help but feel like execution is going to matter a ridiculous amount in the end when the movie comes out. If they tweak some stuff that we're hearing about now in the end result that hasn't been announced yet - or hell, even if all of this is some bass-ackwards misinformation campaign - could change everything. I'm not saying it's very likely, but still.

Plus, we've got like four or five months left on the wait; I've been circling like a hawk over this movie, and my wings are getting tired.

Ozymandias, Oxymandias, whatever. Same thing. Not my fault Moore chose really long, unnecessarily convoluted names for his characters. What's wrong with superheroes with simple, memorable names, like Batman and Captain America?

This. Said it much better than I tried to do earlier.