Product Description

Carla Gugino, Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson, Jack Earle Haley Directors: Zack Snyder

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1681 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-07-27
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Subtitled in: English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .30 pounds
• Running time: 162 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Everybody's favourite graphic novel comes to the screen (after years of rumours 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

DVD Description
A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the "Doomsday Clock"--which charts the USA's tension with the Soviet Union--moves closer to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion--a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers--Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past.

This limited edition 2 disc version comes complete with a 'portable' version of the feature film, which you will be able to easily transfer onto your computer, iPod, iPhone or any other compatable player (minimum 1gb of memory is required) so you can watch the Watchmen wherever you are. As this is a limited edition, once it's gone, it's gone.

Synopsis
300's Zack Snyder brings Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' critically acclaimed comic book WATCHMEN to the big screen, courtesy of DC Comics and Warner Bros. Pictures. Set in an alternate universe circa 1985, the film's world is a highly unstable one where a nuclear war is imminent between America and Russia. Superheroes have long been made to hang up their tights thanks to the government-sponsored Keene Act, but that all changes with the death of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a robust ex-hero commando whose mysterious freefall out a window piques the interest of one of the country's last remaining vigilantes, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). His investigation leads him to caution many of his other former costumed colleagues, including Dr. Manhattan, Night Owl (Patrick Wilson), Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), Sally Jupiter (Carla Gugino), and her daughter, The Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman). Heralded for bringing the world of superheroes into the literary world, WATCHMEN gave the super-powered mythos a real-life grounding that had been missing in mainstream comics to that point. The film adaptation had languished in one form of development hell or another for years after the book's release, with various directors on and off the project, including Terry Gilliam, David Hayter, and Darren Aronofsky, as well as Paul Greengrass, whose eventual dismissal stemmed from budget conflicts with the studio.

Customer Reviews

Directors cut review
I know a number of people are trying to decide whether to order the Directors cut from the states, or to make do with the British theatrical cut. It's a little hard to do when you've no idea which is better. Well thankfully ive been able to see the Directors cut version and here's what I think.

Essentially, most of the extra running time is made up of 5 seconds here and 10 seconds there. The most prominent additions are, a battle scene with the original Nightowl when thugs go to his home. This is superbly merged with flashbacks of fights from his heyday. As a result of this the bar scene with Nightowl and Rorschach is extended. I did enjoy this violent scene but I can see why it was cut, it didnt really fit in with Nightowls character at all, neither did Rorschach's reaction come to think of it.

There are extended/extra scenes of Rorschach without his mask as he watches his fellow Watchmen. He's much more prominent at the funeral and we see him taking his "face" out of a dumpster after watching Daniel. I imagine these scenes were removed as it takes away any mystique of who Rorschach is under the mask.

Laury has a few extra/extended scenes, and almost a subplot where the FBI are always keeping tabs on here to ensure Dr Manhatten is kept happy.

Also, there are a few moments of extra gore, which is always nice. We see more footage of the newspaper stand where a young man is reading the Tales of the Black Freighter comic. Overall though, the rest is mainly an extra line here and there. A few are superb, others not so worthy. Rorschach is certainly the main beneficiary of these added scenes, and seeing as he was most peoples favourite, thats not a bad thing.

Is it worth importing though? If your a Watchmen fan then yes, go buy it and im sure you'll love it, theres enough added there to make you happy. If your a film fan though? I wouldnt say the extra scenes made the movie any better to be honest, but I couldnt say they made it any worse either. While some of the extra moments were good, just as many felt out of place or unneccessary, not to mention the movie now runs over 3 hours long. I enjoyed it, but I could easily live with the Directors cut and the deleted scenes on a bonus disc.

Ive tried not to spoil the new scenes for everyone, but hopefully theres enough info here for you to make up your own mind on which version to go for.

Directors Cut Review....Intellectual thrills and blood spills
What a shame that people's frustration has led them to express it on the product review page and while I totally agree with them about being shorted out by the film companies, the swathe of negative star ratings are a drastic misrepresentation of the actual movie, which in reality is one of this years most stunning films. So firstly let me begin by saying that if you are considering buying this then order it from the states to get the directors cut with the added 24 minutes of footage that you wouldn't get in the UK version. The disc is region free so will work on UK players and after exchange rate it wont work out that different to buying here.

THE FILM
This is the story of a band of heroes far from their ideological peak, just as Harvey Dent in the Dark Knight once said, "You can die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain". Rorschach is the psychotic hero on the FBI's top ten most wanted list who reminds me of the Question from the justice league, his high intelligence makes him seem very paranoid but he's right more often than not. NightOwl is interesting as a hero who's completely unconfident while not in costume but gradually gives into temptation to don the costume again to kick some butt to get that confidence back. Ms Jupiter is probably the least intriguing of the group, she basically lives in the shadow of her mother, not the most unique angle. The comedian is the analogy of those power addicted people in the world we know who think they have a passport to do anything they wish and pretty much get away with it. Dr Manhattan is the only real super powered being, with a complete mastery over quantum mechanics that enables him to do virtually anything he pleases, are rare character who has such enlightenment that he bears no connected grounded feeling for such a tiny rock like earth relative to the whole of the universe. He brings in some spiritual perspective, yet another reason why this graphic novel was so beyond other material at the time.

Snyder has excellently transcribed this to screen in my opinion. I can understand why some people have found this film hard to get into, it's a story of parts attempting to be a single movie, you come away remembering it in bits as opposed to a single story. But if the producers had remoulded the story to a more fast-paced film-friendly linear story, imagine the backlash that would have been received by fans of the original series, so really there is no win-win situation for the producers. Overall the strategy to stick with the source material seems like the optimal route, and its great he did, all the witty dialogue remains, the action is brutal and feels even more exciting being well balanced with equal amounts of non action scenes. Imagine if Michael Bay had done this with his own butchered "re-envisioning" (as he did with transformers!)

While many newcomers to the watchmen theme complain that even the theatrical cut of this film was too long, I considered the bigger problem to be slightly jerky cutting, where the film overall comes off as bits and pieces stuck together and not a complete flowing story. This directors cut of the film remedies much of that, its not adding whole 5 minute chunks of story, but virtually a line here and a line there, with the longest single addition probably only lasting about a minute or 2. In fact watching it now after I last saw it in the cinema I could initially barely identify which bits were added, the point is that this is not necessarily essential plot but the extra glue, the film overall is much more cohesive, and a much cleaner idealised version of the film, as a result you wont feel like your watching a film that's 24 minutes longer.

BLURAY QUALITY
The Bluray quality on this is probably some of the best I've seen, particular highlights are Rorschachs cloth mask and Dr Manhattan's skin, both are very vividly textured and a stark reminder of what Bluray can offer that standard definition cannot. Around Dr Manhattan you can see all the particles of dust that are individually illuminated and it really does provide a sense of realism, despite the outrageous blueness. Also noticeable is the detail within Manhattans eyes, a sort of mini light source contained within the eyeball illuminating its surface, something probably unnoticeable on SD. Much of the film is set in dark places, and hence Bluray technology pays off here, everything is clearly defined, no overshadowing or inability to see something important moving. Dark scenes and light scenes are managed just as well and this being quite a colourful film there's plenty of colours to really test the Bluray output spectrum, real eye candy if your TV is good at handling this.

Sound is up to scratch and while some of the songs selected for this film were maybe not of the right mood, a bit too light and happy, they still fit in their own kind of `black-comedy' way. Sound effects are all great and detailed, Nightowl's craft always had my sub resonating the room and the sounds of battle impact were hearty and wholesome.

CONCLUSION
The best comic movie ever made? Quite possibly but I know that would not hold true with everyone and that's understandable given the interwoven non linear story style involved here. The heroes aren't fighting the straightforward evil that batman or the Xmen would fight, in fact the total lack of an arch-villain here is a testament to how unique this comic is. It's a sublime production of a legendary novel, and ultimately the sort of visual masterpiece that Bluray technology was made for.

Must have...
Of course I saw this movie also on the big white screen, awesome!
This is really a must have Blu-ray DVD, specially when you like comics.
Viewed on big plasma in High Definition is a joy for the eyes!
Take care, foreign buyers cannot use the digital copy. The copy is restricted to British citizens :-( which must be activated in the iTunes store or on a Windows Media site.
I'd expected a little bit more specials, though the available specials are great.