Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut – Blu-ray Disc Review

November 11, 2009 – 6:24 AM --- by: James Segars

Tags: BD-Live, Billy Crudup, Carla Gugino, Digital Copy, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Ackerman, Matthew Goode, Patrick Wilson, Stephen McHattie, Zach Snyder

has an average rating of 7.8 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 50gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
2 new commentaries & Motion Comic
–
– 2009
– 215 minutes
– Warner
–
This uses 41.0GB for the movie out of 41.3GB total.

Overall Verdict – A Must for Watchmen Completionists

Buy it for $30.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review by: James Segars & Justin Sluss—

Trailer:

— The Ultimate Cut, Reviewed —

So here is the moment fans and collectors have been waiting for, is the Ultimate Cut of Watchmen indeed “Ultimate” and if so, is it worth of a double dip a mere not-quite-four months later? I believe the answer to be a definite yes. However, there’s an exception to that definite “yes.” Allow me to explain.

This disc set, which is comprised of 4 Discs (detailed below in the Bonus Material section), contains an all-new cut of the film, bringing the running time up to 215 minutes (also making it one of the longest films to date to be released on a single blu-ray disc). This is achieved by integrating the entire (relatively brief) Tales of the Black Freighter animated story into the Director’s Cut, which previously clocked in at 186 minutes. As for the way in which the two tales are interwoven, the edits can be slightly jarring, and somewhat random at times, but I am told (by friends and the supplementary material on the disc) that this was much the same in the original graphic novel. As the viewer, or in the graphic novel’s case, reader, we’re meant to figure out what the parallel stories may, or may not mean with respect to one another, being stories within stories. I must admit that when the first jump to The Tales of the Black Freighter took place — having never read the Watchmen Graphic Novel, or seen the prior Tales of the Black Freighter Blu-ray release — I was thrown off balance a bit even though I knew it was coming eventually. I was nevertheless enthralled, however, and as the movie rolled on and more of the Black Freighter story was revealed to me, I felt that there were definitely connections and similarities to be discovered, but certainly not all in one viewing.

In retrospect, I can see why the Tales of the Black Freighter was omitted from both the Theatrical and Director cuts of the film. I don’t see it as a mere marketing gag, no, instead I feel that the re-integration of this material (the animated story) might only appeal to the die-hard fans, and not the general public. Had the film been released with this current running time of 215 minutes, complete with the Black Freighter story, I don’t doubt that many people would have been left scratching their heads, or worse, walking out of the theater entirely. This isn’t because the Ultimate Cut doesn’t work, it does, but instead because the average film goer has a very low tolerance for: a) long movies and b) movies that “don’t make any sense.” For these reasons, and others, I think it was a wise decision to trim down the Theatrical cut, and leave the Ultimate Cut for viewers and fans like myself who absolutely loved the film and wanted the complete experience on Blu-ray, which is an extremely rewarding one to say the least.

At any rate, I had said earlier that this set is definitely worth the double dip, but that there’s a catch, so here it is. If you happen to have purchased all of the current Watchmen Blu-ray releases, the Directors Cut, the Motion Comic and Tales of the Black Freighter (with Under the Hood) you are going to want to reconsider purchasing this set, at least for the time being, because all of that is included here. On the other hand, if you are like me and canceled your pre-order for the Director’s Cut Blu-ray back in July when word leaked about the Ultimate Cut hitting stores this fall, I can’t help but recommend this release enough. For fans, collectors and completionists alike, this title is a must own.

Truth be told, as great as this set is, there is still more to be done here. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the Watchmen Blu-ray incarnations. I can envision a set being released in a couple years that features all three cuts of the film (Theatrical, Director’s, Ultimate) along with the features included here on the Ultimate Cut release (Under The Hood, Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic, and the whole host of special features/featurettes), in addition to some new retrospectives and newly commissioned featurettes. Give the film the Blade Runner Ultimate Collector treatment, and I’ll gladly shell out the cash. Sure it may be a pipe dream, but there’s no harm in asking is there? Still though, there’s no point in holding your breath. If you’ve been waiting for the definitive cut of the film, look no further. This is it.

— Synopsis below written by Justin Sluss —
The Movie Itself is based on the popular graphic novel of the same title that DC Comics published in 1986 and 1987 originally as a 12-issue set, making it a graphic novel with essentially 12 chapters. The story was written by Alan Moore (even though he isn’t credited here) and Illustrated by Dave Gibbons (who is credited as co-creator) with John Higgins serving colorist. The film adaptation of this very popular story was Directed by Zack Snyder who’s previous film was an adaptation of yet another graphic novel, Frank Miller’s “300“.

The story here revolves around two generations of real-life “super heroes”, the older group called “The Minutemen” was comprised of the following: “Nite Owl” (played by Stephen McHattie), “The Comedian” (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan), “Silk Spectre” (played by Carla Gugino), “Hooded Justice“, “Dollar Bill“, “Mothman“, “Captain Metropolis” and “Silhouette“. This group of masked vigilantes were the first back in the late 1930’s to start taking crime-fighting into their own hands. They paved the way for another group that would exist nearly 40 years later called “The Watchmen“, from which we get our title.

The second generation of “super heroes” we get is comprised of only one of the original members, “The Comedian” (a.k.a. “Edward Blake“) who this whole story really revolves around because of his murder that we witness at the beginning. The other members of the “Watchmen” group are “Nite Owl II” (played by Patrick Wilson), “Silk Spectre II” (played by Malin Akerman), “Rorschach” (played by Jackie Earle Haley), “Ozymandias” (played by Matthew Goode) and “Dr. Manhattan” (played by Billy Crudup). This group disbanded after a law was put into effect by President Richard Nixon (serving yet another term and not being impeached) in this parallel universe to ours where he had J.F.K. (John F. Kennedy) assassinated by “The Comedian“.

The law put into effect by the President outlawed masked vigilantes and hence our group disbanded, yet “Rorschach” still decides to do what he thinks is his job. A few years after the group has been apart, “The Comedian” (a.k.a. “Edward Blake“) is murdered. He’s thrown out his apartment building glass window and lands in the street many, many floors below. This murder triggers the remaining members of the group to think that a serial killer has picked former masked vigilantes as their prey. This causes our friend “Rorschach” to start investigating the murder and ultimately uncover the killer of the masked heroes.

Overall, “Watchmen” is very true to the graphic novel and pays a lot of great close attention to detail in every scene of the film. Director Zack Snyder did an excellent job bringing this from pages to the big-screen in this film adaptation. Fans of his previous films like his adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel “300” are going to absolutely love this; but with that being said, this film is NOT going to be loved by everyone. It’s by no means a “superhero” movie like even the very dramatic and at times disturbing “The Dark Knight“. This film is more dramatic, more disturbing and just flat-out a harsh dose of reality that some of us need but will likely ignore and dismiss the film as “bad”. I’m sure that all comic fans will agree with me that it is a shame that the original author Alan Moore wasn’t involved, or better yet credited in this adaptation but it is nice to see the original co-creator/illustrator Dave Gibbons was very closely involved with the film.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the VC-1 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

Seen here for the first time in its entirety, The Ultimate Cut looks transparent to the previously released Director’s Cut. This is at once meant to reassure readers that nothing went wrong in the process of integrating the Black Freighter story, and also to curb the anticipation that the film itself might look better — if only slightly — than its previous release. That being said, I absolutely love the look of the film, and I especially love the way it looks on Blu-ray. The deep blacks, somber blues, punchy yellows and putrid greens that populate the Alt-world-Manhattan and dominate the hooded heroes’ disguises are presented to perfection. Fine object detail is exceptional for the most part, although I’m hesitant to say that it’s some of the best I’ve seen recently. Film grain is preserved and presented faithfully, and while some people might object to the occasional “noisy” image, I can’t help but love it.

As for the shortcomings, there were times when I thought I detected some stair-stepping and feathering, particularly on the animated lines within the Black Freighter segments, but these moments were fleeting, and not terribly distracting. However, they are there, and fairly noticeable should you look for them. As for the rest of the film, I don’t think there’s much to complain about, or any glaring misuses of digital enhancements or image post processing, I simply don’t think that Watchmen is a perfect video presentation, at least not in comparison to some of the most recent 5-Star video presentations. Nevertheless, the film boasts a spectacular image, and it should be considered demo material all-the-same. As such, it receives a “4.5 Star Rating” for overall video quality.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1.

Keen eyed readers, or those with exceptional memory recall, might take notice of the lack of a DTS-HD: Master Audio mix (WB’s first, in fact) that accompanied the Director’s Cut Blu-ray back in July. This is not a typo. Instead, we’re presented with an identical Dolby TrueHD mix on this release. “Why?” you might ask. Well, our guess is that Warner opted to go TrueHD because of the integration of the Black Freighter film which features a TrueHD mix on its standalone release. Of course, we think it might have made more sense just to encode the animated short in DTS-MA in order to make everything equal and consistent audio-wise, but it would appear that it was easier or cheaper to go this route, and naturally, the end result is the same. Lossless, is lossless, is lossless, but we thought it was worth explaining nonetheless.

If you haven’t heard Watchmen yet, you’re in for a real treat. The lossless mix on this film kicks some serious ass. From the opening fight sequence, to showering shards of glass, to the concussive jets of the Watchmens’ Archimedes, to a nuclear explosion (not a spoiler, by the way) and beyond, the mix on Watchmen will absolutely blow you away, whether by incredibly delicate sonic details, or explosive LFE force. Even the animated segments from the Black Freighter story carry a great deal of auditory weight, and splendid detail. Better still, nary a line or word gets lots in all of the ensuing sonic brutality, which is a huge plus. I myself, set the dial once and didn’t move it again until the film had ended. In other words, everything is perfectly balanced, complete with an extremely wide dynamic range that should have nearly everyone grinning ear to ear. I had the opportunity to catch this one in an IMAX theater, and while (sadly) my home theater can’t quite compete — even with dual subwoofers pumping — I was positively thrilled with the results. Simply put, this presentation is demo material all the way and it easily earns itself a perfect “5 Star Rating” for overall audio quality.

Bonus Materials are ALL presented in full 1080p High Definition video quality using the VC-1 codec with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound.

Disc 1 includes:

• BD-Live is included on this Warner Blu-ray Disc release which allows users on a “Profile 2.0” capable Blu-ray Disc Player to access online content such as connecting your Facebook account with your BD-Live account to reflect your status. This is something new on this release and it does contain the other things you’ve come to expect from Warner’s BD-Live experience such as live community screenings, the ability to record your own commentary tracks, index your library of Warner Blu-ray titles, access trailers for upcoming and current releases and much more.
• Two All-New Commentaries by Director Zach Snyder and Graphic Novel Co-Creator and Illustrator Dave Gibbons – Looking to fill the void left by the disappearance of the “Maximum Movie Mode” (presumably due to disc constraints) — previously found on the Director’s Cut Blu-ray release — we’re served up a duo of new commentaries that more or less placate our need for supplemental information. However, while these commentaries will suffice for now, in the long run, if there were ever to be a “Definitive” or “The End Is Nigh” Edition, one would hope that everything could be included, somehow. Personally, while I enjoy commentaries, I happen to prefer the IME (In-Movie Experience) or Maximum Movie Mode features more. Of course, it’s nice that these commentaries are brand new, and not recycled material. In that way, I imagine that die-hard fans would certainly like to get their hands on them as they are very worthwhile and informative.

Disc 2 is comprised of the following:

• “The Phenomenon: The Comic That Changed Comics” (28:46) takes a semi-in depth look at the original graphic novel and the impact it has made on comic books over a decade later.
• “Real Superheroes, Real Vigilantes” (26:17) is a featurette that focuses on the real life “vigilantes” out there that exist, be it people in funny outfits or real people making a difference like the Guardian Angels.
• “Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World” (16:49) takes a realistic scientific look at how realistic the original graphic novel actually is and such.
• “Under the Hood” (37:36) is a live-action/CGI bonus feature included which is a fictional interview with the original “Night Owl“, “Hollis Mason” played by actor Stephen McHattie. The TV interview is hosted by fictional character “Larry Culpeper” played by Ted Friend and includes some of the actors from the film reprising their roles here. This proves to be very much worth the watch to fans of “The Watchmen” film and/or graphic novel. Sound quality here is in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 & Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps.
• “Story Within a Story: The Books of Watchmen” (25:01) takes a look at the two “books” featured in the original graphic novel, “Tales of the Black Freighter” and “Under the Hood“. Also discussed is the connection between the stories to the main story and similarities between characters and such. Interviews with the cast of the live-action Watchmen film are included, such as Jeffrey Dean Morgan who portrays “The Comedian“. Interviews with the filmmakers and behind the scenes footage on the set are also included here. Overall, this is a very informative and entertaining featurette that is sure to leave fans extremely pleased — as well as anticipating the eventual Blu-ray Disc release of the film.
11 Watchmen Video Journals are included and are as follows:
• “Minutemen” (3:33)
• “Sets & Sensibility” (3:54)
• “Dressed for Success” (3:03)
• “The Ship Has Eyes” (4:20)
• “Dave Gibbons” (3:21)
• “Burn Baby Burn” (2:12)
• “Shoot to Thrill” (3:14)
• “Blue Monday” (2:59)
• “Attention to Detail” (2:53)
• “Girls Kick Ass” (3:03)
• “Rorschach’s Mask” (3:38)
• My Chemical Romance’s – “Desolation Row” Music Video (3:15) is included. This song is featured on the film’s Soundtrack and has a “Watchmen” theme to the music video but I can’t really see much other than that it has to do with the film itself, aside from the very convenient fact that the band just-so-happens to be on the studio’s record label.

Disc 3 A full, separate elite cased copy of the Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic retail release is packaged within the outer casing of the Ultimate Cut box. All twelve episodes combined clock in at 352 minutes. It’s great to see WB included this with the set, and even better that I managed to curb my urge to purchase this in stores when it was released earlier this year. I plan to watch this in its entirety at a later date, with a separate review to follow. Stay tuned.

Disc 4 contains a Digital Copy of the Theatrical Version — strangely though, the digital copy is labeled as 186 minutes on the disc, the running time of the Director’s Cut — of the film which is compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media, both Mac and PC. This is offer is set to expire on November 3rd, 2010.

Overall, the bonus materials we get here are extensive and generally fantastic, assuming of course you haven’t seen the materials before. With over 8 Hours of bonus material to sort through — not counting the two new commentaries or the theatrical digital copy — fans who have been holding out for this purchase will be presented with more than enough material to whet their appetites. As for the people that are looking to double dip, it really comes down to whether or not you want to have the Ultimate Cut (and the two new commentary tracks) or not, as they represent the only new exclusives. If you already own the other Blu-ray releases, I’d recommend holding onto your Directors Cut disc while trying to sell (or gift) your Motion Comic disc and the standalone Blu-ray release for The Tales of the Black Freighter in order to help offset the cost of the Ultimate Cut release. Any way you slice it though, this is an exceptional package, and Warner deserves all due praise. You’ve done an excellent job.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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