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List Price: $34.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 741
Released: July 21, 2009 |
| Our Price: $14.38 |
| Used Price: $13.01 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 07/21/2009 Rating: R
Description of Watchmen: The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition):
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. --Robert Horton
Also on the disc
The extended director's cut restores 24 minutes of connective tissue to the 162-minute film, most significantly the last scene of Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl. Other elements help restore and fill in details that had been in the graphic novel. Fans of the film will be glad for the extra footage but there's nothing momentous that will change anyone's basic like or dislike of the film.
The second disc has the documentary "The Phenomenon: The Comic That Changed Comics," 29 min.), which looks at the original graphic novel and its themes, and interviews artist Dave Gibbons, DC Comics executives Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz, and cast and crew, illustrating its points with scenes from the movie, panels from the graphic novel, and parts of the motion comic. There's also My Chemical Romance's "Desolation Row" music video and the 11 video journals that helped stir up excitement leading up to the theatrical run. No longer available is a Digital Copy of the film (compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media; download code expires July 21, 2010)l. --David Horiuchi
Watchmen: The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition) Reviews:
We can breathe again -- they didn't screw it up! 
2009-11-11 - This is one of those films that -- if you read and re-read the book as so many have -- you look forward to with both anticipation and a bit of dread. Because they could so easily have screwed this up. But I'm pleased, and a little surprised, to find that the film follows the book pretty closely -- in all the important ways. Because the book isn't really about superhero crimefighters. It's about people, both good and bad, and how they fit together. And the film pulls it off very well. The character of the uncompromisingly absolutist Rorschach, the most interesting character in both the book and the film, is very nicely rendered. Even Dr. Manhattan, the least "human" character, is portrayed in multiple dimensions. I think they made a good decision in not giving any of the roles to a headlining actor. No Nicholas Cage, no Gwyneth Paltrow to steal the scenes. You can pay attention to the roles the actors are playing, not the actors themselves. And, yeah, there's a lot of gore in this film, . . . but that's a human thing, too. Even the fight scenes are more explicit than you would expect (this is definitely not a kids' film), but that's to make a point. Because there's also a morality tale here about how things can so easily go wrong with society. The world is facing nuclear annihilation and it's largely because the forces of violently coercive conservatism are in control -- typified by the Comedian, who kills women and children without batting an eye, and by the fact that Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as president. Even Dan Dreibeg and Laurie Jupiter, the putative Good Guys, are out there on the right wing somewhere, trying to make the world their version of a "better place." This take on the 1980s is not the Good Old Days that might have been. And, of course, there's the overarching question: Is it right to do great evil in the successful pursuit of even greater good? The film actually seems much more explicit than the book about the "alternate universe" aspect of the story, right from the outset in the credits -- which do a very nice job of summarizing the back-story, incidentally. But let's face it, a lot of people went to see this flick for the special effects, and those are great -- and without getting in the way of the live action, which is quite an accomplishment. Especially everything surrounding Dr. Manhattan. There are lots of great quotable lines, most of them directly from the book. My favorite: "None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me." The choice of `80s songs for the soundtrack also is very interesting; most of them fit the atmosphere of the story, even the actual plotline. (Except for "99 Luft Balloons": What in the world is that doing in there?) All in all, an excellent screen version of an excellent book. I expect to be revisiting both of them at regular intervals in the future. I do miss the giant alien squid, though.
Fantastic!!!
2009-11-10 - Sensational job, best transfer of a graphic novel/comic book to film I've ever seen. Enough's been said in other reviews here. Looking forward to the ultimate version.
The greatest graphic novel turned into one of the best comic book movies ever
2009-11-10 - First let me say I've read the graphic novel and it's perhaps the best comic book story ever written.
So you'd think a movie based off of it would have to be a let down. It's not, Watchmen is the second best comic book movie second only to The Dark Knight. It stays true to the graphic novel, with hardly any changes.
For those who haven't read the graphic novel, the story is amazing, the action is reverting, the acting by unknown actors is great, the visual effects are stunning, and the music is beautiful.
So it doesn't matter whether you've read the graphic novel or not, you'll enjoy this movie.
Biting, grim, almost nihilistic, satire/black tragi-comedy
2009-11-09 - ...I think I gave away my entire take on "Watchmen" in the title of this review. In any case, don't watch the film if you want to believe that people are basically Good or Decent. The movie makes a powerful case that that ain't so. But if you have a hunger for a phenomenally entertaining peek at the Dark Side of Life/Society/Power, then, by all means, DO NOT hesitate...
Great movie and blu ray
2009-11-08 - I bought it from france coz we don't have the director's cut on the french blue ray. It's really worth to have this blu ray.
