@Ethan_Hunt... The role of Nite Owl is very different in the comics, where he does exactly what you said he does in the movie. The small scenes in the movie where he is talking to the previous Nite Owl, and when he is talking to Ms. Jupiter in his basement show a much deeper char than what is shown in the comics, which is why I liked the movie.
***Spoiler Alert for Watchmen***
On the other hand, Dr. Manhatten took the blame for the entire strange explosion thingy in the movie, which was a bad move acc. to me. In the comics, there are no bombs in all the cities in the world, instead, a giant serpentine creature's body just goes through all the buildings and people in New York. The devastation in the comics is depicted in an amazing way, and it would have looked much much better on the big screen. The plot twist that deviated from the comics is in itself, something brilliant, that tied up the loose ends of the plot as well as the original storyline. However, there was this whole thing about a pirate story running parallel to the main story, which was shown only as a fleeting glance in the movie (the black kid reading a comic book, showed the pirate story). Also, the movie does not clearly explain why the mutated Lynx had to explode along with Manhatten. The comics themselves are very cinematic, with panes having something akin to transitions, if you read them, you'll understand what I am talking about. This was not carried over to the big screen. However, the "time" sequence of Dr. Manhatten came out pretty well, better than the sequence in the comics, and certain touches of Rorschach (asking the police what his face looked like) were brilliant. Rorschach is something that I admire in the comics, and his aura from the comics carried over to the big screen... making him one of the most celebrated chars of the previous year, but the movie made me really wake up to the brilliance of the other chars that I totally missed out on, the older Nite Owl, the older Ms. Jupiter, and Ozymandias, and of course, the Comedian.