"Who watches the watchmen? At least one satisfied fan.
"
Johnny blaze was wrong.(gasp!)
Now for those of you reading this and gasping of shock. (Please pick yourselves up from the floor and ill explain)
Now when I first watched watchmen at the midnight showing I was less impressed then Adam Sandler's wife on there honeymoon (take that Sandler! and your crappy over advertised new movie!)
All kidding aside I look back on it now that I judged this movie to hard. It wasn't until I watched it a second time on DVD in director's cut form that I truly appreciated what director Zack Snider was putting into every detail of this visual masterpiece.
Now that's not to say this is the best comic movie out there (relax fanatics an ill tell you why.)
First off the source material is a bit well.... text heavy. Now before the hate mail begins I must state that I have READ the graphic novel so hold the explenitives until after the review.
Its here where Snider attempts to jump the Grand Canyon, in other words attempt the impossible by creating his next big budget blockbuster from a graphic novel that is light on action and heavy on dialogue, seriously the story has more text then the English dictionary.
Snider's attempt is bold, but unsuccessful as he try's a little to hard to "fit" everything into this movie hence the extra long running time only to outdo himself yet again by adding even more of what we love (more Rorschach! more newsstand guy and kid reading comic book!) And more of what we didn't love (more Dr. M giving even longer boring monologues that would put an English professor to sleep)into the Director's cut, but over all this edition helps smooth out some of the edges that rubbed fans the wrong way.
Story wise every comic fan worth his custom made utility belt knows this novel like Paris Hilton knows an STD. It follows the story of a group of retired (one not so retired) superhero's enjoying there lives outside of fighting crime until one of there own is murdered in his own apartment. Conspiracy and tension abound in a dark and corrupted alternate 1985 where costumed heroes are banned, America won in Vietnam, and Richard Nixon is president five times running! Guess Forrest Gump forgot to call about those lights keeping him awake.
Visually the movie is gorgeous and a true feast for the eyes, especially when Silk Spectra is on screen in full costume..... And out of costume. (:O)
Watchmen the novel is about as deep as a Jim Morrison and Beatles acid trip. The movie however takes a different approach in trying to create an amalgam of political metaphors and over the top action. That will and has split fans.
Every character is played to a tee as Snider breathes new life into these 24 year old characters. Night owl two is a likable wuss, Comedian is a cant help but love bastard, Osama... whatever the heck you spell his name is pompous and ambiguous, Dr. Manhattan is eerie and well.... naked, Rorschach is and always will be the best character heck id give this movie five stars if it squarely set on him as his bad cop/good cop partnership with Night owl is the highlight of the movie, aside from Ackerman's sex scene of course. (hey im a guy)
Great acting from all involved overall.
Now onto the director's cut scenes:
As ive stated earlier theirs not so much "added" scenes as mostly we see extra longer scenes that help round out certain plot holes that left the UN initiated in the dark. One example we learn where Spectra gets the gun she uses towards the climax instead of just appearing randomly out of thin air (it doesn't work trust me ive tried it whenever my mother in law comes over)
Most of the scenes are cannon fodder and nothing real spectacular except for one scene towards the climax that was sorely missed in the theatrical cut that involves Night owl 1 (YOU know what scene im talking about) We also see more Rorschach in jail freaking everybody out (yah!) as well as Dr. D giving more dialogue to his drab monologues (yawn).
Overall a good investment as you get a lot of movie for your buck (over three hours!) just makes sure you pack a lunch before you attempt to watch it. Nuff said.
The Good: Superb acting, a dark and twisted story that makes The Dark Night look like Batman and Robin. Silk Spectra 2 as she gives Princess Leah some competition as one of the hottest women to which nerds build shrines to. Finally being able to see Rorschach on the big screen kicking butt and showing how to truly use a dark creepy voice for an anti hero, seriously if they ever get around to making Batman 3 I vote for Jackie Earle Haley to voice over all Bales bat scenes!
The Bad: The ending. C'mon you guys ya gotta admit it sucked when ******* died and ******** got away Scott free? I call bull****.
Again Dr. D's overlong speeches nearly put me to sleep! I don't know if it's Billy Crudup or the bland character himself but his over long scenes and complete lack of feelings towards anything really slows down the movies pace thankfully God invented the fast forward button.
The Ugly: Dr. D's gratuitous man junk scenes seriously I haven't scene this much male nudity since watching a Will Ferrell movie!
DVD Release Dates
3 Comments
17 Comments
Releasing a UE of this is actually surprising, but it doesn't sound like whatever lucrative pricetag I imagine they'll charge for it will be worth it.
As 4 where i got well... Wal mart....YES i do shop there.... Also Webs the reason i didnt add the second disc is because its such a rip when you consider they packed everything into the "other collectors" edition which i was taken aback by, il stick with this edition as i liked it but diidnt love it.
The "Tales of the Black Frieghter" that'll be on the 5 disc ultimate edition in December will extend the flick to almost 3.5hrs, but I myself didn't care for that comic too much. Good ending of course, but it wasn't worth dragging the book on and tearing away from the story unneccessarily. If there was an underlying message to that in relevance to the main plot, then I failed to pick up on that too. And from what I can predict, 3 of the 5 discs will consist of the same three discs on the blu-ray edition, plus 2hrs of bonus material and whatever else to finish filling that disc and a whole other one as well. (and it is a real 'fuck you' to us fans to advertise the UE in the DC case).
The fact that the GN was so "text heavy" as you put it is probably what qualified it to be considered a real novel which is still on Time Magazine's Top 100 Novels list.
Lastly, where did you get your copy of this dvd version Blaze? I went to Target, Frys, Best Buy, & Costco this past weekend and they all had a surplus of the ws&fs dvds, along with plenty of blu-rays, but no director's cut dvd like this one. My friend ordered it online for me on Sunday as a gift in lieu of not being able to locate it at any of those aforementioned stores either.
Good review. I won't be buying this. Especially after I was dragged by my buddy to go see this, lost my ticket in the mall, had to repay for a second ticket, just to sit through a three hour borefest with Dr. Manhattan's dong all over the place. Seriously, sometimes this guy wears a speedo thong, sometimes he's just nakedly blue. Can he make up his mind already? Okay, was that for the ladies, Snider? Seriously, like this film is marketed towards ladies, right? I never read the source material, and glad I didn't from what you state about it. I hated this movie.
good review though.
An Wolf the Silver surfer trick would have worked but then ya'd have some fans screaming about him being a ken doll.
An buff ol bud this is pretty much the same movie jus expanded, dont think itl change many viewers who were soured by the theatrical but still more mmovie for those who loved it.
Thanks everyone for your comments! :)
Great review though. A nice read and very informative. Great job as usual.
And Dr. Manhattan's added monologues are probably ripped from the source material. So you can probably match up the dialogue easily. Point being that it's making the adaptation more faithful. To me however, I liked Snyder's less talky version more. Some of the monologues by multiple characters seemed to drag on too long.
Was the Veidt Dome thing included? ya know, the ecological preserve at Veidt's arctic getaway?
And no word on the disc 2 extras in your dvd review?