I have and I want my 3 hours back.  There is nothing in Watchmen about a man avenging his parent's death.  There's nothing about a man doing everything he possibly can to save his city.

So, are you talking about themes or characters or what?  Because I've read Watchmen and watched the movie and I didn't see Batman in either.  I didn't see an intimidating foe (Ozymandias was more of a "Phantom Menace"), a hero lose everything and everyone around him, or a city lose everything,  in Watchmen.  Yeah, Watchmen was about a bunch of heroes coming out of retirement and one of them having a scheme to unite the world but to say it explored everything that DKR did is just wrong.

Who had to overcome physical limitations in Watchment?  Who got raped in Batman?  Who was the person learning to become a hero in Watchmen?  Was Silk Spectre going through the same things as Catwoman? 

And you're comparing the Batman movie to the Watchmen comic?  Does that mean I can compare the Avengers movie to the first few issues of the JLA 1997?  A bunch of unique heroes coming together to topple an alien invasion?  Maybe WAtchmen DID do some things that Dark Knight Rises did but do you honestly think that the story in Avengers was something new and original?  Also, Batman was created in like 1939!  When did Watchmen come out?  If anything, the "Superhero that isn't really super" was something that Watchmen got from Batman and not the other way around!  Yeah, Watchmen kicked off an era of grittiness in the 80's but......let me calm down.

You're free to like what you like more but don't judge one movie by one standard and judge the other by a totally different standard. 

No, Watchmen didn't have any Knightfall pwoerful moments, however it did have the heroes coming to terms with the fact that maybe, the world is fine without them. It also did have the moment where, hey maybe the world is not so fine without them and they have to face to come to terms with helping it it out. Also, if I am not mistaken, the physical limitation in Batman was secondary to his "broken spirit" of a hero, something which the Watchmen were all dealing with. (Though if you REALLY want to split hairs, I'd like to think that Dr. Manhattan had quite the physical limitation to become what he did). It all came down to the idea of a super hero being human. Having human limitations (except for Manhattan), having a human spirit, having to struggle as a human, and trying to coming through and doing something inhuman and saving ungrateful people, a huge chunk of whom shouldn't exist (alright that final part was only heavily implied in Watchmen, but it makes it all the more meaningful I thought).

You can't really compare Avengers across mediums, because the Avengers didn't really try to have any deep thought. It didn't explore certain cases of humans, it didn't try put forth questions. Unless you count "Are humans better off being ruled?" as a valid question, and even that wasn't explored too much. It's not trying to be some original work of art. It is what it is, and I thought I heaped enough adjectives already on what it was. What the Avengers was trying to be it did EXTREMELY well.

I did address why I judge Batman across mediums and Avengers not though, and hence different standards. I thought it was a valid enough point.

Batman beat Captain America in the DC vs Marvel crossover.

DKR wins.

Maybe it's jsut me, but I can't think of too many people who can't beat Captain America.

I can't agree about Dark Knight covering the same ground as Watchmen.  Watchmen was about humanity blowing itself up, and an entire Cold War angle, with one real superhero in it.  I am not going to do spoilers here, but maybe one can see things connect.

The entire Batman trilogy is about the ideas of whether or not to save current structures or let them burn.  It is focused differently, although both Watchmen and Batman connect to some degree.  Each of them stand on their own.

And I will say this though, while I find Avengers better than Dark Knight Rises, I believe Avengers as a series will have its work cut out to top the Dark Knight trilogy.  For me, the Dark Knight Trilogy is the best comic book movie series ever.  And I hold Dark Knight Rises as the weakest of the three, I still feel it fully fits the trilogy and brings it to a close.  It did its job.

both are great, but if i had a gun pointed at my head and told to pick one, it'll be dark knight rises

It may have been a few years now, but I could have sworn DR. M's entire plot and turnaround and everything was about exactly that. Except instead of jsut structures it was humanity itself.

The Avengers did a way better job on what it aimed at doing than what TDKR intended to do. It loved the way the series ended, but it's the other stuff that I didn't particularly enjoy. Definitely the weakest in the series for me.

I also found The Amazing Spider-Man better than TDKR.

let me make myself clear on my last statement.

i choose the dark knight trilogy, maybe the avengers trilogy might top it when they reach their final shoot