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Can "みたい" mean "want to see", or does it always mean "looks like"/"seems
like"? If not, how would "want to see" be expressed?

Specifically, assuming it has both uses, it would seem ambiguous to me here:
なんだか違う映画みたいだなあ

Would that be "I want to see a somewhat different movie", or "That seems like
a somewhat different movie"?
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2011-07-03T21:35:17.933
1716
2011-07-03T21:44:33.760
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question
definitions
Can "みたい" mean "want to see"?
"That seems like a somewhat different movie" would be

> なんだか違う映画みたいだなあ

Whereas "I want to see a different movie" would be

> なんだか違う映画をみたいなあ

So to answer your question directly, yes, "を見たい" means "want to see" -- and
you'd use the kanji "見たい", in most general cases. (There's no だ after みたい in
this case.)

When you want to say "is like", you'd say "みたい" without a particle in front,
and without kanji.

Though "見たい" is the most general kanji for "want to see/look", you can use
more specific ones:

"診たい" -- want to examine, as in examine a patient.

"観たい" -- want to watch, as in sightseeing or watching a movie.

"看たい" -- want to look after, as in looking after a patient, from 看病 （かんびょう） --
not too common.
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2011-07-03T21:44:33.760
1717
2011-07-03T21:44:33.760
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1716
answer