Question: “Who Watches the Watchmen?”
Answer: I do, so that I can write this review of Watchmen Chapter 1 4K UHD.
The Production: 4.5/5
Who killed the Comedian? On its face, this is the central question in Watchmen. Edward Blake was the alter ego of the Comedian, a brutal superhero with an ironic name who was the first to be murdered by what may be a serial killer of superheroes.
Watchmen is much more than what appears on the surface. On its face, it is a modern-day dystopia (set in 1985) in which Richard Nixon is still President and Vietnam is the 51st state after superheroes helped to win the war against North Vietnam. Beneath the surface is a complex subtext that wrestles with heady questions such as why a good God allows bad things to happen and the question of whether the rules of the Universe are governed by free will or fate.
Watchmen Chapter 1 is an animated adaptation of the first 5 issues of the 12 issue comic series created by artist Dave Gibbons and the English writer too awesome to be named because he is too modest to take credit for creating a brilliant work of fiction; he is also known as Alan Moore, even though he declines to be credited any longer. (He may not be accepting royalties on this any longer either, but I cannot say that for certain.) Watchmen won a myriad of awards upon its release in the 1980s including a Hugo Award and an Eisner Award.
Watchmen Chapter 1 is extremely faithful to its graphic novel source material. The animators have made an admirable effort, and succeeded wonderfully, in bringing Dave Gibbons’ artwork to life in animated form. I particularly admire how the producers began with CGI as a basis and then added fine linework over the computer animation to mimic the art style of Dave Gibbons in motion on the screen. Watchmen Chapter 1 is well paced in a screenplay adaptation by J. Michael Straczynski(Babylon 5). The fine cast of voice actors include Troy Baker, Corey Burton, Phil LaMarr, Adrienne Barbeau, Kelly Hu, Katie Sackhoff, Dwight Schultz, and Matthew Rhys.
Watchmen Chapter 1 is almost as good as reading the book, which is high praise. There are artistic flourishes on the page that do not translate over to a film in motion, like the story design of Chapter V of the series, which was entitled “Fearful Symmetry”, and which closes out this first half of the 2-part adaptation. This film succeeds in being entertaining and leaves me wanting to see the second chapter, even though I already know the story. If it has the same effect on other viewers, then it comes highly recommended so long as you are not one of those unfortunates with an aversion for superhero stories. For the record, though, Watchmen is not a typical superhero story.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
Watchmen Chapter 1 appears on 4K UHD in a 2.35:1 screen aspect ratio. The 2160p image has no flaws. The color scheme is limited but deliberately so in an effort to follow the style of the original artwork from the graphic novel series. The creation of this animation beginning with CGI and ending with a coverage of colors and fine lines that mimic the art style of Dave Gibbons is beautiful to behold.
Audio: 3.5/5
Watchmen Chapter 1 defaults to English DTS-HDMA 5.1 audio. The rousing music compositions by Tim Kelly(Race to Witch Mountain, Animaniacs) are served well in the audio, perhaps too well. There are moments in the narration by Titus Welliver as Rorschach when you can almost hear the narration. I have no issues with the music, which suits the mood wonderfully. The music should be dialed back in relation to the dialogue at some points, and it is not. This is not enough to spoil the presentation, but some viewers may want to rely on subtitles at certain points in the presentation. This is a terrific film, so I hope this is corrected in Watchmen Chapter 2.
Special Features: 2/5
Special features include the following featurettes:
The Art of Adaptation: Introducing the Story(9:02): Artist Dave Gibbons and producers demonstrate the challenges of adapting the series into Watchmen Chapter 1.
Dave Gibbons and Watchmen Chapters 1-6(9:50): This focuses more on the original creation of the comic book series but also discusses aspects of the adaptation.
The special features have an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 as opposed to the 2.35:1 aspect ratio for the feature film.
Also included is a paper insert with validation code for digital copy of Watchmen Chapter 1 via the MoviesAnywhere app. Although not pictured in the product photograph in this review, the review copy came with a handsome slipcover.
Overall: 4.5/5
Watchmen Chapter 1 is an ambitious and successful adaptation of the graphic novel into an animated film. The video presentation on 4K UHD is sublime; the audio presentation is not terrible, but has some room for improvement as an audio mix. Although the special features are minimal (less than 20 minutes), they make for interesting viewing and are much more than mere filler included on many other releases. As noted earlier in this review, Watchmen Chapter 1 is almost as good as reading the book. When the book is that excellent, you cannot go wrong with this adaptation. Bring on Watchmen Chapter 2!
Timothy has worked background in theatrical features and television, just for the fun of it, in films directed by Peter Segal and Christopher Nolan. His favorite film star is Bugs Bunny, and Timothy has discovered that most of the problems in life can be solved successfully (strangely enough) by asking “What would Bugs Bunny do?” Timothy has been involved with the Home Theater Forum since 2007 and has reported from Comic Con, interviewed Bruce Campbell and Danny Trejo, and reviewed classic animation and new theatrical releases on disc.
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