Watchmen (Director’s Cut) (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray] (2009)

Watchmen (Director’s Cut) (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray] (2009), Everybody’s favorite graphic novel comes to the screen (after years of rumors and false starts), less a roaring work of adaptation than a respectful and faithful take on a radical original. Watchmen is set in the mid-1980s, a time of increased nuclear tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, as Richard Nixon is enjoying his fifth term as president and the world’s superheroes have been forcibly retired. (As you can probably tell, the mix of authentic history and alternate reality is heady.) Things begin with a bang: the mysterious high-rise murder of the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a masked hero with a checkered past, puts the rest of the retired superhero community on alert. The credits sequence, a series of tableaux that wittily catches us up on crime-fighting backstory, actually turns out to be the high point of the movie. Thereafter we meet the other caped and hooded avengers: the furious Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), the inexplicably naked Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup, amidst much blue-skinned, genital-swinging digital work), Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), and Ozymandias (Matthew Goode). The corkscrewing storytelling, which worked well in the comic book, gives the movie the strange sense of never quite getting in gear, even as some of the episodes are arresting. Director Zack Snyder (300) doesn’t try to approximate the electric impact of the original (written by Alan Moore–who declined to be credited on the movie–and illustrated by Dave Gibbons) but retains careful fidelity to his source material. That doesn’t feel right, even with the generally enjoyable roll-out of anecdotes. Even less forgivable is the blah acting, excepting Jeffrey Dean Morgan (lusty) and Patrick Wilson (mellow). Watchmen certainly fills the eyes, although less so the ears: the song choices are regrettable, especially during an embarrassing mid-air coupling between Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II as they unite their–ah–Roman numerals. In the end it feels as though a huge work of transcription has been successfully completed, which isn’t the same as making a full-blooded movie experience.

From the Back Cover

Someone’s killing our super heroes. The year is 1985 and super heroes have banded together to respond to the murder of one of their own. They soon uncover a sinister plot that puts all of humanity in grave danger. The super heroes fight to stop the impending doom only to find themselves a target for annihilation. But, if our super heroes are gone, who will save us?

Watchmen (Director’s Cut) Blu-ray features:

• Disc 1 (BD-50):
• Director’s cut of the film (186 minutes)
• Interactive “Ultimate Watchmen Experience”
• BD-Live
• Disc 2 (BD-25):
• The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics (30 min.)
• Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes (27 min.)
• Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World (27 min.)
• Webisodes (38 min.)
• Music Video: My Chemical Romance Desolation Row (3 min.)
• Disc 3 (DVD):
• Digital Copy – Theatrical version

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Watchmen (Director’s Cut) (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray] (2009) Reviews

I knew before Watchmen was released in theaters about how Zack Snyder made this film. I was ahead of everyone. Already knowing what the creators of Watchmen the movie changed. Already knowing how violent it was. Already knowing how Alan Moore feels. Already read the original novel a few times. Already knowing that they shorten some chapters and they took out The Black Frieghter character for the theater release. The Black Frieghter will be released on DVD March 24th as a cartoon movie. Along with Under The Hood documentary. For this reason I highly doubt that The Black Frieghter will be on the Directors Cut of Watchmen. They also changed a few minor scenes. But I didn’t care. I was not disappointed by this movie. Its the people who do not research. Its the teenagers who will blame Snyder for changing the ending. I’m sick of these young children argueing about a movie who knows very little about life and has only been on this planet for a short time. Watchmen is not meant for them. Zack Snyder wants us to fill in the blanks. Its a thinking film. Snyder made it like this on purpose. Alan Moore was not mentioned in the credits for a reason. Watchmen the theater release was only a tribute but to me its the best tribute from one of the most respected Novels of all times. I know I can sound a little heartless sometimes but I do not care what Alan Moore says about this movie, I know how he feels. I know how everyone who respects Alan Moore feels. But most of those people are young! I maybe 20y, but at least I know the age difference. Not that I am saying anyone who gets dissapointed with the movie is a teenager, I know this movie is not for everyone for any age. I think both the Movie and Graphic Novel can be entertaining in its own genre. If you knew about the changed ending and did not agree with it before the movie was release then why still see Watchmen when you already know how its going to turn out?! I guess people still get cerious. So I don’t blame them. Some say the movie was unfilmable, and that Zack Snyder was going to ruin the movie. But when you think about it, its really as good as it gets for a movie like Watchmen, you want any other director to make the movie worse?! There are worst movies then Watchmen. Its not a super-hero movie to began with, it is a thinking film about every main character in the movie. Dr. Manhattan, Sally Jupiter, Luarie Jupiter (Silk Spectre 2), Blake, Dan Dreiburg (the Nite Owl), Rorshach and Adrian Veidt. Even Adrian Veidt will say “I am not a comic book villian.” So if you are looking for one of those heroes vs villians movie than Watchmen is not the film for you. One of my all time favorite qoutes that still inspire me to this day is in the Novel, its what Dr. Manhattan says, “Without Condoning or Condemning, human affiars cannot be my concern. I’m leaving this galaxy for one less complicated”… And you wonder why I don’t care how anyone feels about the movie. There has been some changes, after watching Watchmen the 2nd time in theaters, and reading threw the book. I noticed in Chapter 4 thats about Dr. Manhattan, they cut a huge chunk of that chapter out. Probably because it was too long. So they shorten it as much as they can. Chapter 6 they shorten a lot of the scenes when Rorshach was in prison, because in the novel, Mal the guy who talks to Rorshach in prison has a bigger role. But I guess they changed that chapter because of budget. Chapter 11, Adrian Veidt has a longer lecture about what inspired him to invent his plan. But since they changed the ending, I can see why it was shorter in the movie. I like both of the endings from the movie and the Graphic Novel the same. Chapter 9, they shorten that part of the novel from the movie as well. Dr. Manhattan and Luarie Jupiter had a longer talk on Mars in the novel. The movie was much shorter, but again I can understand. Its hard to fit everything in a 2 hour and 48 minute movie. I know its that long because I stayed threw the end credits the 2nd time I watched it. I added up the time in my head. Watchmen came out to be oproximatly 168 minutes. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, & 12 were fine to me even with the changed ending was good. But remember, I knew about the changes in Watchmen before the movie was released. I really do not care because the Graphic Novel is unfilmable. Zack Snyder did the best he could. There is going to be a Directors Cut in 4 months from now. I have no idea how long the movie will be once its released on DVD/blu-ray. The threatical release was only the beginning. Yes, the times they are a changing. I must admit, I really wasn’t expecting this. I had anticipated seeing yet another “superhero movie” and being visually entertained for a couple hours, but this adaptation of the allegedly legendary graphic novel Watchmen far exceeded my initial expectations. David Hayter, who last wrote the first two X-Men movies, really outdid himself in writing this epic 160-minute film. Set in the 1980s, Watchmen focuses on a handful of superheroes whose servitude to the world neither seems wanted nor necessary, with the exception of the enigmatic and omnipotent Dr. Manhattan. When one of the Watchmen is murdered at the beginning of the movie, it sets the stage for a jam-packed tale centered around questions of revenge and the human condition. Unlike other superhero movies I’ve seen in the past, not only do you have dazzling special effects and a multitude of action sequences, but the accompaniment of blood, gore, nudity, sex, and swearing. This, coupled with the dark imagery pervading the film, does a fantastic job of making the movie an adult feature, rather than a just torrent of guys and girls in tights kicking each others’ rear ends. Heavily emotive and extremely interesting flashbacks show the history behind the characters if you, like me, am not aware of the details behind the graphic novel (which I believe gave me a distinct advantage). The plot gives the feeling of a true crime type of movie, which further allows one to view the story as more of a tragedy than a simple action movie. The acting is particularly well done, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Jackie Earle Haley as one of the main characters (his last performance that I saw in Little Children made this role even more unexpected). The aforementioned special effects, though fantastic, don’t overshadow the movie itself, and the mysterious orchestral score adds suspense and trepidation. To further the impression of a dark drama set in the past, the score is peppered with songs from Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix, and others. Though the movie was nearly three hours long, I was never bored and yet was consciously aware of its length. All in all, I hope (and believe) that Watchmen will open the door for more mature and adult-themed superhero films with R ratings, and being the first one of its kind, does a damn good job of setting the bar for those of its kind yet to come. If you’re looking for superhero action mixed with Dark Knight-styled imagery and lots of extras, you simply can’t get any better than this.

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