The Movie
A former roommate of mine was a special edition laserdisc producer, and had a reputation for covering his topics in-depth. One particular title was a phenomenally popular musical from another era, and after overhearing all of his interviews, the lesson I took away was that a major motion picture requires countless decisions, the odds are of course against making them all correctly, but if you do, the results can be magic.
And that might ultimately be the problem with Watchmen: With so many choices; from costumes to casting to music to what to cut/keep/change; the task might have been too great even for the extraordinarily gifted Zack Snyder, one of those amazing young über-directors who seems to successfully embrace every detail of modern moviemaking. Don't get me wrong, I know as many people who were positively overwhelmed by the film as were disappointed. I tend to be in the latter camp, although I found my Blu-ray screening for this review to be downright mesmerizing at times, and not just as I noted the additions made for this "Director's Cut," the restoration of much-missed bits totaling 24 minutes, now pushing the final running time past the three-hour mark.
As that figure suggests, Watchmen is a comic book epic, based on the twelve-issue "maxi-series" written by Alan Moore, drawn by Dave Gibbons and published by DC in 1986, considered the turning point as comics became known as "graphic novels" and the entire art form entered The Modern Age. There's no short answer to "Why is it so great?" except perhaps, "Everything." It is a masterpiece of its medium, perfectly suited to static, sequential panels, owing a debt to all that came before while defying convention in ways no other creative team was doing at the time. The story is mind-boggling, contemporary when first released, now a period piece as Richard Nixon is continuing to fight The Cold War against the Russians, untouchably popular since he won The Viet Nam War with the help of Dr. Manhattan, a God-like but emotionally, intellectually distant superhero, essentially America's not-so-secret weapon. His former super-team, mostly middle-aged brawlers with fancy costumes and gadgets, has been forced into retirement, but when one of the toughest is brutally murdered, the investigation uncovers a plot far more frightening, more dangerous than the world has ever faced.
Also, do check out the particularly excellent theatrical Watchmen review by our own Joe Lozito, who shares my enthusiasm for the original comic.
The Picture
Perhaps more than any recently-in-theaters title released on Blu-ray thus far, Watchmen depends upon the specificity of color possible only in this format, as such pains were taken to capture the look of the comic book, down to John Higgins' then-unconventional "secondary palette," although the 2.4:1 frame is a stark contrast to the vertical tradition of funnybooks The special effects are ubiquitous, and nothing short of extraordinary, all the more so as they serve to ground the story in a sense of sub-conscious realism, not the graphical hyperbole of Snyder's last film, 300. The disc authoring is outstanding, with a gorgeous clarity even in the more mundane shots.
The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 packs sick (happily so) amounts of bass but never at the expense of detail. In realizing these incredible scenarios with as much gusto and ambition as Moore and Gibbons themselves, Snyder now wisely seizes opportunities for some stunning home theater moments. Not once but twice, vast amounts of glass come crashing down all around us, a brilliant exercise in bass, treble and surrounds all at the same time, the first time at two-and-a-half hours in, on Mars, and again at roughly the 2:46 mark, down in Antarctica. Another hold-onto-the-couch jolt occurs as the Owl Ship bursts out of the river, bound for further adventures.
The Extras
Warner's sophisticated new approach to Bonus View has been dubbed "Maximum Movie Mode" and is one of the best implementations of the technology I've seen, hosted on-camera by Zack Snyder. The Picture-in-Picture elements include pages from the comic book, still galleries, storyboards and a helpful timeline to help disseminate real history from Watchmen history. Also accessible here are brief, pre-assembled featurettes organized by both specific aspects and themes.
Disc 2 is dedicated entirely to extras, all in HD not surprisingly. "The Phenomenon: The Comic That Changed Comics" (29 minutes) is a blend of informed reverence and real insight into the evolution of this seminal work. "Real Super Heroes: Real Vigilantes" (26 minutes) reveals the contrast but also the shocking similarities between the movie world and our own, while the 17-minute "Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World" delves into the quest for an extra level of scientific credibility. The music video for My Chemical Romance's cover of "Desolation Row" can also be found here (three minutes).
Disc 3 is a DVD with a Digital Copy of the theatrical cut of the movie for iTunes and Windows Media Player.
If you think that's a little lean for a movie of this genre and this magnitude, you're right: Warner has announced, with a $10 coupon in the package, a five-disc (no, I'm not making this up) Ultimate Collector's Edition, boasting an even longer recut of the film that should make fans of the comic happy, a new commentary by Snyder and Gibbons, although some of the promised content appears to be repurposed from previous disc releases. Look for my review of the UCE in December.
Final Thoughts
Impending UCE aside, this is still a terrific day-and-date new release edition of Watchmen, one of the most anticipated comic book movies of all time, even if none of my non-geek friends knew what it was. If nothing else, it is a high-definition, multichannel tour de force, and the extras here will surely satisfy, not just whet our appetite.
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