This is one of my favourite films! Watchmen starts with a really nice and cool introduction and that’s only the beginning.
For a hero film, this is really a professional one, one you must see! Much better than the Spiderman movies for example.

There’s been a lot of negative writing here. “The talk is a bit heavy”, “interminable”, but in fact this movie should have the acclaim in the fantasy/fantastic area that the dumb Lord of The Rings took, with its remedial dialog and total lack of character depth. Then there’s the pathetic Spiderman movies, with apparently absolutely no thinking behind them. Ditto X-Men etc. Matrix was the best superhero movie before this, which isn’t saying a great deal, with its cod-philosophy and Keanu.

Watchmen brings the brilliant words of the graphic novel comic in its detail and perception, its thought on the nature of humanity; and excels in the graphics to bring it alive. So the dialog is necessarily comic book style, but gladly so, being smart and witty without being glib. The characters have depth, their flaws being fleshed out for once in a superhero movie. And for once in the superhero genre, here is one of them for a lover of film, rather than a childish lover of fantasy or super powers.

What a movie, I saw this in the Cinema when it first come out and this directors cut edition add that little bit more i was looking for. At over 3 hours this film is brilliant, not the regular Superhero film.

Recommended for those who want that little bit more from a film of this genre.

Stylish and exquisite, gritty and brutal is the best way I can describe this movie.

5 Stars for sure!

I bought the US-edition DC 3-Disc version of this on Blu-ray (which is not region coded) from Amazon.com not knowing anything whatsoever about ‘Watchmen’, so have viewed the film with no ‘baggage’ and hence a completely open mind.

NB that despite the UK now having the DC available on Blu-ray, the US DC-edition is superior as it has a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, instead of English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, and offers a ‘BD-Live’ feature which doesn’t appear to be on the UK edition (although when I tried it nothing related to ‘Watchmen’ was offered, only unrelated film trailers could be downloaded – this seems to be a trend since other Blu-rays of mine have the same limited ‘BD-Live’ offerings. I get the feeling it’s essentially a sneaky way for the film companies to get your details on registration for the service…). It would also appear that whilst the US edition has a so-called ‘Maximum Movie Mode’ feature-length multi-format ‘graphical’ feature/commentary, the European edition instead has ‘just’ an audio commentary….. I explain more of this VERY impressive feature later on.

*** It should also be noted that the DC is not ‘simply’ a case of it having extra scenes, there are also a multitude of changes (ranging from just a frame or 2 to several minutes !) to scenes throughout the film.

There is an excellent website which details VERY comprehensively the differences between the Theatrical and Director’s Cut. As Amazon reviews cannot include Internet URLs, I’ve added it in a post in the ‘Discussion’ section which is located at the base of this item page – it is dated 21 Dec 2009.

I enjoyed the film very much, especially the ‘challenge’ of understanding what the story is all about as the environment it occurs in and the nature of the characters are unusual; the presentation of the film is superb, with a wonderfully sharp/vivid image and that thumping DTS soundtrack to reproduce the wide-array of special effects and sounds/music.

It didn’t take me long to realise that not everything was ‘normal’, so after only 20 mins or so I felt compelled to do a quick check with Internet reference sources to confirm I had correctly grasped the general concept about what was going on. The Amazon ‘synopisis’ sums things up pretty well, with the first part being the most significant: “Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society”. My only disagreement with that description is that it is clear the superheroes WERE part of society but are now largely discredited and actually banned under US law (a bit like all the superheroes in the fantastic Pixar/Disney film ‘The Incredibles’). I think it is also worth observing that save for 1, all the ‘superheroes’ are actually really nothing more than costumed and masked vigilantes, although they do appear to possess great strength, agility and are very good at fighting !

[I think it is interesting to note that of all the DVDs and Blu-rays discs I own, this 'Watchmen - Director's Cut- Blu-ray is the ONLY one which has no explanation of the film on the reverse of the case !]

After an opening dramatic scene, the way these characters featured in the American way of life (including in their original incarnation of ‘Minutemen’) is portrayed, during when the opening credits to the film are presented, in what can only be described as a mesmeric and beautiful montage (lasting some 10 mins) of significant moments in their recent history – all accompanied by the classic Bob Dylan track ‘The Times They Are a Changing’.

The only problem is that the montage is so entrancing that you are at risk of missing the detail in each of those ‘mini-scenes’. It includes information relating to the foundation of the story, the associated ‘politics’ of the superheroes, their personal relationships and their ultimate demise. If you don’t watch it properly you might still be trying to work things out later in the film when you really should have done so much earlier !

Assuming you’re ‘tuned-in’ the plot that subsequently unfolds is not that complicated but, as it is interspersed with flashback scenes outlining the history of pertinent situations or how specific superheroes came to be, it is not surprising the film is so long – with this Director’s Cut pushing it over the 3-hour mark ! I don’t wish to give too much away about how things develop, but my earlier comments about how the Superheroes have become discredited is pertinent and that how the world seems to be striding towards an inevitable nuclear holocaust, despite the one ‘Watchman’ with truly extraordinary powers being in the employ of the US Government, is the real driver behind the overall story….

Despite the overall simplicity I’ve alluded to, aside from the unusual characters and setting there are a number of other factors in the film production which contribute to it being such successful entertainment (and strangely believable !): Firstly, the qualities of that opening montage are, as I’ve mentioned earlier, reflected throughout and really make it a visual and aural ‘feast’; secondly, only one of the cast (Carla Gugino) was familiar to me, which I think helps the ‘outlandish’ nature of the story to be more ‘acceptable’ and lastly the marvellous soundtrack is notable for the inclusion of many well-known original songs from that period, so it really promotes everything that occurs rather than being just background music.

Finally, it’s worth observing that there a lot of very impressive and energetic action scenes, which include a lot of hand-to-hand fight sequences, plus a range of alluring filming techniques to heighten movement of people and objects; however, there was nothing I had not already seen before in other films….

If it’s any help – If I were asked to say if this film was like any other, I would describe it as unique but what might result if the films ‘Dr Strangelove’, ‘Batman Begins’, ‘Blade Runner’, ‘The Matrix’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ were blended together to create a new film !

One thing that needs to be mentioned is the featured violence/gore; it is frequent and often very gruesome, hence the ‘R’/’18′ certificate for the US/UK respectively….

And now more on that fantastic ‘Maximum Movie Mode’ feature :

If selected, it loads as a completely new ‘film’, with the various features running throughout the film and works in several ways. At it’s most simple, it ‘injects’ either small views of the original graphic novel associated with the present scene, storyboard views, picture-in-picture mini-featurettes (with a slight muting of the film soundtrack) or displays pertinent events on a timeline comparing the ‘Watchmen’ world with our own. Things get more flashy when the option to temporarily leave the film are offered and you can ‘visit’ fullscreen either a related featurette or behind-the-scene views of the present studio set. Finally, there are (mandatory) temporary visits to a studio where we are hosted by the film director, the film remains playing on a screen behind him and he either points out small details that are showing or uses another screen to delve into related production matters more deeply.

The whole thing works very well and extends the total duration of the film by about 30 mins I would say; you can also select the individual featurettes separately via the Main Menu. The feature appears to be quite ‘demanding of the player’, as many reviewers on amazon.com complained of problems playing both it and the disc in general; my player, a Philips BDP3000, coped perfectly well with it all and I presume issues occur if you haven’t got the latest firmware update for your player….

Disc 2 has a load of featurettes and Disc 3 a DVD digital-copy of the film (which as it’s a US-edition may not be convertible in the UK – I’ve yet to try it !).

So, in summation I can say thoroughly enjoyed this film and was especially impressed by the special features which really help you immerse yourself into the ‘Watchmen’ world and also see in great detail how the film was made.

—
Whilst my review is of the US-edition DC 3-Disc version of this on Blu-ray (which is not region coded) bought from Amazon.com, I have included it here in the UK-edition as the film is obviously the same and the DC is apparently the same on both versions…

NB That despite the UK now having the DC available on Blu-ray, the US DC-edition is superior as it has a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, instead of English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, and offers a ‘BD-Live’ feature which doesn’t appear to be on the UK edition (although my limited experience of this feature has left me distinctly unimpressed with what is on offer…).

It would also appear that whilst the US edition has a so-called ‘Maximum Movie Mode’ feature-length multi-format ‘graphical’ feature/commentary, the European edition instead has ‘just’ an audio commentary…..I explain more of this very impressive feature in my review (Dated 19 Dec 09) of the DC Import Blu-ray :

Watchmen – Director’s Cut [Blu-ray] [2009] [US Import]

—

I viewed this film with no ‘baggage’ and hence a completely open mind as I previously knew nothing whatsoever about ‘Watchmen’ !

I enjoyed the film very much, especially the ‘challenge’ of understanding what the story is all about as the environment it occurs in and the nature of the characters are unusual; the presentation of the film is superb, with a wonderfully sharp/vivid image and that thumping DTS soundtrack to reproduce the wide-array of special effects and sounds/music.

*** It should also be noted that the DC is not ‘simply’ a case of it having extra scenes, there are also a multitude of changes (ranging from just a frame or 2 to several minutes !) to scenes throughout the film. There is an excellent website which details VERY comprehensively the differences between the Theatrical and Director’s Cut. As Amazon reviews cannot include Internet URLs, I’ve added it in a post in the ‘Discussion’ section which is located at the base of this item page – it is dated 21 Dec 2009.

It didn’t take me long to realise that not everything was ‘normal’, so after only 20 mins or so I felt compelled to do a quick check with Internet reference sources to confirm I had correctly grasped the general concept about what was going on. The Amazon ‘synopsis’ sums things up pretty well, with the first part being the most significant: “Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society”. My only disagreement with that description is that it is clear the superheroes WERE part of society but are now largely discredited and actually banned under US law (a bit like all the superheroes in the fantastic Pixar/Disney film ‘The Incredibles’). I think it is also worth observing that save for 1, all the ‘superheroes’ are actually really nothing more than costumed and masked vigilantes, although they do appear to possess great strength, agility and are very good at fighting !

[I think it is interesting to note that of all the DVDs and Blu-rays discs I own, this 'Watchmen - Director's Cut- Blu-ray is the ONLY one which has no explanation of the film on the reverse of the case !]

After an opening dramatic scene, the way these characters featured in the American way of life (including in their original incarnation of ‘Minutemen’) is portrayed, during when the opening credits to the film are presented, in what can only be described as a mesmeric and beautiful montage (lasting some 10 mins) of significant moments in their recent history – all accompanied by the classic Bob Dylan track ‘The Times They Are a Changing’.

The only problem is that the montage is so entrancing that you are at risk of missing the detail in each of those ‘mini-scenes’. It includes information relating to the foundation of the story, the associated ‘politics’ of the superheroes, their personal relationships and their ultimate demise. If you don’t watch it properly you might still be trying to work things out later in the film when you really should have done so much earlier !

Assuming you’re ‘tuned-in’ the plot that subsequently unfolds is not that complicated but, as it is interspersed with flashback scenes outlining the history of pertinent situations or how specific superheroes came to be, it is not surprising the film is so long – with this Director’s Cut pushing it over the 3-hour mark ! I don’t wish to give too much away about how things develop, but my earlier comments about how the Superheroes have become discredited is pertinent and that how the world seems to be striding towards an inevitable nuclear holocaust, despite the one ‘Watchman’ with truly extraordinary powers being in the employ of the US Government, is the real driver behind the overall story….

Despite the overall simplicity I’ve alluded to, aside from the unusual characters and setting there are a number of other factors in the film production which contribute to it being such successful entertainment (and strangely believable !): Firstly, the qualities of that opening montage are, as I’ve mentioned earlier, reflected throughout and really make it a visual and aural ‘feast’; secondly, only one of the cast (Carla Gugino) was familiar to me, which I think helps the ‘outlandish’ nature of the story to be more ‘acceptable’ and lastly the marvellous soundtrack is notable for the inclusion of many well-known original songs from that period, so it really promotes everything that occurs rather than being just background music.

Finally, it’s worth observing that there a lot of very impressive and energetic action scenes, which include a lot of hand-to-hand fight sequences, plus a range of alluring filming techniques to heighten movement of people and objects; however, there was nothing I had not already seen before in other films…. If it’s any help – If I were asked to say if this film was like any other, I would describe it as unique but what might result if the films ‘Dr Strangelove’, ‘Batman Begins’, ‘Blade Runner’, ‘The Matrix’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ were blended together to create a new film !

One thing that needs to be mentioned is the featured violence/gore; it is frequent and often very gruesome, hence the ‘R’/’18′ certificate for the US/UK respectively….

Disc 2 has a load of featurettes and Disc 3 a DVD digital-copy of the film (which as it’s a US-edition may not be convertible in the UK – I’ve yet to try it !).

So, in summation I can say thoroughly enjoyed this film. As an owner of the US-edition I was especially impressed by the special features which really help you immerse yourself into the ‘Watchmen’ world and also see in great detail how the film was made.

When i first heard about the film Watchmen i was exstatic especially when i heard Zack Snyder was doing it. Seeing it at the pictures was a great experience and i was all hyped up for the Blu Ray release in England until i heard the Director’s cut was only going to be released in America. Considering the workforce behind the comic was pretty much all Brittish (Alan Moore is English, Dave Gibbons is English and John Higgins is English.) i would have thought Britain would have been included in the director’s cut release. Despite that the director cut is great the maxmum movie mode is a great substitution for a director’s commentary. The extra 24 minutes are much welcomed, many scenes are extended and several are added in such as Hollis Masons emotional demise at the hands of several Knot-Tops. The ony grieve i have with it is that i had to import it from america. Despite that minor annoyance the film sits happily next to my Tales of the Black Freighter Blu Ray and hopefully (Soon!) Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut.

So we’ve had the theatrical cut when America got the ‘Director’s cut’.

Now we get the ‘Director’s cut’ just as America gets the ‘Ultimate cut’

What the hell is wrong with film companies? I am sick to death of their attempts to rip us off with dearer prices and inferior extras. With this film they can’t use the BBFC as an excuse – it’s already an 18!

Five stars to the film, but a bunch of fives to the UK distributors for their ridiculous attempts to try to make people buy the film more than once.

I have deliberately resisted buying this yet. You should too.

… not the Blue Ray is what I’m outlining here.

Let me say that I’m not a comic book fan in general, and – with the exception of Dan Dare (obviously) – own no comics other than those by Alan Moore. So that should put my review in a little context.

Moore’s a genius, there is no doubt, but a pretty painful one to be around or work with, by all accounts. With the exception of V for Vendetta, I think all of the attempts to put his work onto the big screen have been fairly awful and so I didn’t hold out much hope for Watchmen (and – of course – Moore has famously distanced himself from all of these transcriptions [and for the most part, I don't blame him...])

But…

The film was very good. But the directors cut is much better. I for one don’t object to the Pirate material being removed and I think making a separate animation of it that you could watch on your lap top while you watch the main film on a big TV is a masterful decision. I also don’t object to the Alien Squid versus “It’s all Doc Manhattan’s fault” ending that the directors and writers substituted on this film – I think it works excellently and makes as much sense – if not more – than Moore (if you see what I mean).

I applaud the book and the film for being pretty uncompromising in terms of both violence and its overall premise. What a fantastic luxury nowadays, in a world of 12a movies used as creches for children to watch highly inappropriate films while annoying the few adults in the cinema while the film is on, to see The Watchmen with my partner and a financially crippling (in the short term) very few other people in the audience.

That this ‘adult’ film is then available – in an even more impenetrable and violent – and therefore even more ‘adult’ – version on extended DVD is to be applauded.

An excellent graphic novel and a great film with a superb directors cut.

well, to cut a long story short the Watchmen movie was my highlight of 2009, not just movie highlight, but highlight, full stop.
I ordered the US Director’s cut Bluray release – region free and plays fine on PS3.
And now finally it gets a UK release.
All in all it’s a great film, and there’s a ton of new stuff, Hollis Mason’s death scene and some new Rorschach voiceovers are of particular note.
I can’t help but think I enjoy the pacing of the theatrical cut more, though – it justs gets the job done, y’know?
Anyway you haven’t seen the last of this movie, Amazon.com has the Ultimate Cut due for release 9th Nov – Director’s cut but with Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood intercut. So I guess muggins here buys a third Bluray copy!
FIVE STARS for the movie
ONE for the marketing of 3 different versions
NO STARS for my own gullibility in buying them all!

I, like many, was disappointed to see that the European version was the theatrical release and not the directors cut. After a bit of research, I found out that the US version directors cut was region free, I was a happy man. For me, this was a superb film, not in the normal super hero mould. So if you are expecting clean-cut Superman style characters you will be disappointed. If you want to see something totally different from a world only a little different from our own reality, this could be for you. With many floored and all too human costumed ‘heroes’ trying to do what’s right in a world that seems to have gone wrong, this draws you into a world of what might have beens. With some great plot directions, moral dilemmas and twists I loved every minute of this movie. From a Blu Ray perspective, this was great sound, superb picture and with so many extras to go through this will keep me amused for a long time!