Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Watchmen: Director's Cut (1 Viewer)

[JonZ]

Travis, Yea the new Hollis scene is really great.

IMHO the Dir Cut definitely improves the movie, which I already liked.

Great PQ and audio. Nice disc.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Originally Posted by JonZ

Travis, Yea the new Hollis scene is really great.

IMHO the Dir Cut definitely improves the movie, which I already liked.

I agree that the new Hollis scene is great, but most of the additions just layer on lines of endless exposition. I didn't understand anything with the D.C. that I hadn't with the theatrical cut, so I'm not sure a few great moments are worth the extra time commitment. The breakneck pace of the theatrical cut was part of the fun for me.

 

[John Wielgosz]

'Watchmen' improved on my second viewing in the theater, and I liked it to begin with. My viewing of the 'Director's Cut' bumped it up even further.

Also, I usually don't bother with IME or PiP tracks, but the 'Maximum Movie Mode' is fantastic and a real step forward for this kind of supplemental material. Hope to see it used to this effect with other future titles.

 

[David Coleman]

Watched it tonight. Have to give it a NO as far as the film is concerned. I sometimes wondered what the heck did I just watch? I admit not being familiar with the graphic novel, then again I was unfamiliar with X-MEN when I saw that and loved it!! I just didn't find the characters or story compelling.

I'm not a fan of the stylized picture. I felt there were moments when we were robbed of the finest detail, however it was a fairly sharp picture, however I think that 300 had more fine detail than this film and that one was intentionally grainy. However i'll accept that the film is suppose to look that way and so no major issues.

I'm glad i'm not the only one who had to keep turning their volume knob up about 5dbs over my standard for DTSMA. I'm betting that Warner actually used the non-default dialnorm setting as i've never had to raise a DTSMA track this high before! However once I got a good level, the soundtrack had lots of punch. While the sounds can be very aggressive at times, i'm suprised by the lack of discrete effects and panning in this film. While well recorded, it didn't display the finest of detail to rank it as reference. However I will say that no one will be disappointed with this track.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

I remember reading that the PS3 video game "Watchmen: The End is Nigh" was going to be included on the Blu-Ray. I see no evidence that this happened. Did that get scrapped, or maybe it's a future BD-Live update?

 

[Brian Borst]

Got to watch it on Sunday, and I though it was pretty good. The added bits really help the film (Hollis' scene, for example) and I wasn't bothered with the changed ending. It made sense. Although I did get the feeling that making a copy of existing material isn't necessarily better than adapting it. The film sometimes felt a bit shallow, in my opinion. I don't know if that has anything to do with Snyder's skills as a director, but that may be just me.
Now I didn't had to turn up the sound, or anything. It sounded great on the normal volume I always have. But for some reason the second half of the movie seemed louder to me. Anyone else had this experience?
I'm also a big fan of PiP modes (as long as they don't rehash the same stuff you can find on other stuff on the disc) but this one really set a new standard.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt

The breakneck pace of the theatrical cut was part of the fun for me.

That was my only real gripe with the theatrical cut. Even at its fairly long run time, it just seemed to move too fast but I do understand why they'd wanted it to move along fast.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Well I know going in , that it's not a film for the wife, I'll just have to try to get a spare three hours when she's not around to try to get it in, which will be difficult. I was a bit surprised on the gore aspect because my remembrances of the novel was that it wasnt all that "Graphic" per se. I wish the theatrical was included on the Blu Ray and cannot understand why it was'nt. I'd have to watch the DVD to get that and that would be a bit dissapointing to try to watch first.

 

[Carlo_M]

Especially when the graphic novel moved so...slow...

I am being serious, it took me forever to get through it, and I put it down several times for extended periods before being motivated to pick it up again.

It's funny that Adam says "but most of the additions just layer on lines of endless exposition" because that's exactly how I felt when reading the graphic novel. And no, I'm not averse to reading (I love long novels) but sometimes the graphic novel was so long on exposition that I thought "shut up and just get on to the next panel already!"

Still looking forward to seeing the DC. My Amazon copy should be in today's mail.

Kind of hesitant about the gore (not that I mind gore, I loved Kill Bill and Reservoir Dogs) but the graphic novel contained very little of it to my memory.

Originally Posted by TravisR



That was my only real gripe with the theatrical cut. Even at its fairly long run time, it just seemed to move too fast but I do understand why they'd wanted it to move along fast.

 

[Brandon Conway]

The novel had plenty of gore, from prison scene, to the dogs and the little girl, to some of the murders.

 

[Jefferson Morris]

Originally Posted by Jeff Cooper

I remember reading that the PS3 video game "Watchmen: The End is Nigh" was going to be included on the Blu-Ray. I see no evidence that this happened. Did that get scrapped, or maybe it's a future BD-Live update?

I believe that was only going to be part of a special bundled package that would cost more. It was never going to be included with the standard blu-ray. I scanned Amazon for the bundle but can't seem to locate it. The game is also downloadable, and available as a standalone retail disc, I believe.

I watched the DC last night, and I think my home theater collection has a new crown jewel--it looked great, sounded great, and the extra material makes a great movie even better, IMO. It's dense, demanding stuff--like the source material--but the rewards are there. Tonight I'm going to re-spin it with the supplements turned on.

If you were put off by the violence in the TC, you'll be even more put off by the longer cut, which has a few choice bits of added brutality. I have no problem with the violence, generally speaking, although I am still a bit puzzled by the brutality of the street fight with the knot-tops. Dan and Laurie's dispatching of their clearly overmatched opponents still seemed somewhat excessive...although I suppose it does give the gang plenty of motivation for their later killing of Nite Owl 1.

--Jefferson Morris

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt

I agree that the new Hollis scene is great, but most of the additions just layer on lines of endless exposition. I didn't understand anything with the D.C. that I hadn't with the theatrical cut, so I'm not sure a few great moments are worth the extra time commitment. The breakneck pace of the theatrical cut was part of the fun for me.

That was my take when I reviewed the SD DVD as well. They added a lot of stuff that was interesting, but nothing that was really necessary. I would have preferred them as deleted scenes rather than cut back into the film.

Regards,

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway

The novel had plenty of gore, from prison scene, to the dogs and the little girl, to some of the murders.

Basically, I agree but I do think the movie is slightly more violent than the comic book. However, that "added violence" is no more (and maybe even less) than the profanity that was added to the movie from the comic.

 

[Brandon Conway]

I do agree that the film expands upon the violence, but it's based right from the novel.

 

[Carlo_M]

I guess where we're "agreeing to disagree" on the whether the gore is warranted from the source material is this: one or two frames of gore or horror on a graphic novel does not to me translate to anything "Tarantino-esque" onscreen. They may be sourced from the same scene, the same act or implied act, but seeing one or two drawn comic frames is often much less visually traumatizing as seeing the exact (or similar) thing fleshed out onscreen. A lot is implied in the novel but is rarely shown in its full, grotesque detail.

Now there are gory graphic novels (i.e. many frames depicting violence/gore and doing so explicitly, as in showing sexual assault, beheadings, brutal and graphic drawings of bodily injuries, etc.) but I don't seem to recall anything of that nature from the Watchmen graphic novel.

Now that said, I'm just going on what people here have said about the heightened gore of the DC, I have yet to see it myself. I have a pretty high tolerance of gore so I may end up watching it and thinking "hmm, that was much ado about nothing." Hoping to screen it this weekend.

 

[Citizen87645]

You summed it up for me Carlo. One thing I would add/clarify is that I found the "gorification" gratuitous from the start with the theatrical cut; I didn't notice it being particularly heightened in the director's cut.

In the graphic novel Big Figure has his lackey cut the other guy's throat rather than saw through his arms. Then he cuts through the bars with a cutting torch. I suppose you could argue Snyder needed to solve a logistical problem, but I'm still not convinced it needed to be so graphic.

The other changes I found unnecessary have to do with Rorschach's tracking of the child murderer. In the graphic novel the bone the dogs were fighting over did not have a shoe on the end of it. That really felt unnecessary to me, not just in terms of the visual but of having to explain the connection to me so blatantly. Also in the graphic novel R. set the house on fire and gave the murderer a saw to cut himself free. I thought the whacks to head with a cleaver was much less interesting and compromised the strength of that scene and what it represented for R.'s character.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Carlo Medina

Now there are gory graphic novels (i.e. many frames depicting violence/gore and doing so explicitly, as in showing sexual assault, beheadings, brutal and graphic drawings of bodily injuries, etc.) but I don't seem to recall anything of that nature from the Watchmen graphic novel.

Comics have gotten more violent over the years but I would imagine that parts of Watchmen were shockingly violent in 1986-1987.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Originally Posted by Cameron Yee

You summed it up for me Carlo. One thing I would add/clarify is that I found the "gorification" gratuitous from the start with the theatrical cut; I didn't notice it being particularly heightened in the director's cut.

In the graphic novel Big Figure has his lackey cut the other guy's throat rather than saw through his arms. Then he cuts through the bars with a cutting torch. I suppose you could argue Snyder needed to solve a logistical problem, but I'm still not convinced it needed to be so graphic.

The other changes I found unnecessary have to do with Rorschach's tracking of the child murderer. In the graphic novel the bone the dogs were fighting over did not have a shoe on the end of it. That really felt unnecessary to me, not just in terms of the visual but of having to explain the connection to me so blatantly. Also in the graphic novel R. set the house on fire and gave the murderer a saw to cut himself free. I thought the whacks to head with a cleaver was much less interesting and compromised the strength of that scene and what it represented for R.'s character.

I never really understood why the lackey had to be killed the way the graphic novel presented it. It seemed kind of pointless, as they just got around him anyway, even though he was still tied up there.

In the movie, it actually makes sense the way they need to get him out of the way.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

It's been awhile since I read it, anyhow I ordered the Blu ray from Amazon so it came bundle with an on demand viewing, being that I can do On demand on my Bravia I took advantage of it to watch the SD Theatrical cut. I liked the movie alot, they got right more than they got wrong. I agree that rorshack was great in this, His "Your Locked in here with me" scene reminded me of the scene in Batman Begins where Wayne gets himself imprisoned. I agree the characters are pretty dispassionette, yet thats not a negative for me. I can't wait to see the DC in Hi Def, but I'm glad I checked out the TC first.

 

[Jefferson Morris]

Originally Posted by Jeff Cooper

In the graphic novel R. set the house on fire and gave the murderer a saw to cut himself free.

Screenwriter David Hayter said he originally changed this in part because something similar happened in the first Mad Max film. He probably made that change circa 2000. Since then, the Saw movies have come out and made that situation even more cliche for viewers. The cleaver solution is perhaps not the most imaginative solution, but it gets the point across.

--Jefferson Morris