![]() ![]() ![]() Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut ĭon’t miss a single recommendation. On DVD and Blu-ray and on SVOD through Amazon Video ( original theatrical cut and Director’s Cut ), iTunes, GooglePlay and/or other services. At this time, they are only available on disc and VOD. Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut weaves in animated sequences of the “Tales of the Black Freighter” comic book featured in the graphic novel (frankly, I don’t think it works in the context of the feature). The Director’s Cut, which runs 24 minutes longer than the theatrical version, delves even deeper into the characters and the culture of their world and is works well in the home video setting, where it’s easier to settle in to a longer experience. And for that it has earned its place in the comic book movie pantheon. ![]() Not even Snyder’s own subsequent Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or Justice League. It is not the best comic book movie ever-it is more compelling than exciting and lacks the urgency and passion and dynamism of Nolan’s Batman movie or the best of the Marvel universe-but it’s deep dish storytelling and offers a fascinating take on costumed heroes that no other big-budget movie has grappled with. In the age of big screen superhero spectacle, Watchman is still something special, a film that privileges mystery and conspiracy and deeply damaged or confused characters over endless scenes of CGI battles. Snyder streamlines the story, judiciously editing out subplots and side-stories, and he even dares to change the details of Moore’s original ending, twisting it with an insight so perceptive that one wonders if Moore would have done the same had it occurred to him, so beautifully does it wrap itself within the self-contained mythology and the character dynamics. It swirls with metaphysics and meta-storytelling but also digs into the psyches and complicated relationships between the characters. The story of costumed superheroes into the real world offers a visual spectacle to be sure, but it emphasizes the “novel” in graphic novel: narrative complexity, character dynamism, the density of fiction and history and commentary swirling together. There’s also Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), a fifties-style science hero with a veritable Batcave filled with his inventions, and Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) following in the footsteps of her mother (Carla Gugino), who was the superheroine pin-up of her generation. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), a scientist whose very atoms have merged with the universe and given him unlimited power and a god-like perspective on the world and the arrogance and false piety of industrialist gazillionaire Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode), aka Ozymandias, the smartest man in the world, whose show of suffering for all the souls he kills is a piece of theater he stages like a martyr. Snyder gets the schizoid conviction and moralistic hysteria of Old Testament avenger Rorschach (perfectly embodied by Jackie Earl Haley right down to his throaty, phlegmy “hrrrmmm”), a Batman-like character on the edge of insanity the vestiges of human emotion struggling with existential disconnection in Dr. Snyder, a comic book fan, is as slavishly faithful as possible to Moore’s original work, from the opening murder of the brutal, bloodthirsty Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to recreations of Gibbons’ artwork in key scenes. ![]() It wasn’t necessarily new when it was written in the 1980s and is certainly not now, but the execution of the graphic novel pushes every element of the conception to mythic and apocalyptic dimensions while acknowledging the psychosis driving so many of the characters. Moore’s story reimagines the history of comic book superheroes in the real world of global politics and complicated (and at times psychotic) psychologies and his original characters echo familiar icons of the DC Universe (right down to the “Justice League”-like team). Zach Snyder delivers perhaps the most faithful adaptation of Watchmen (2009, R), the landmark graphic novel by writer Alan Moore (uncredited on screen, as is his tradition) and artist Dave Gibbons, that anyone could hope for. ![]()
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