Product Description
-------------------
Watchmen: Special Edition (Dbl DVD)
]]>
.com
----
Everybody's favorite graphic novel comes to the screen (after
years of rumors 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 ed 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
Also on the disc
The extended director's cut restores 24 minutes of connective
tissue to the 162-minute film, most significantly the last scene
of Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl. Other elements help restore
and fill in details that had been in the graphic novel. Fans of
the film will be glad for the extra footage but there's nothing
momentous that will change anyone's basic like or dislike of the
film.
The second disc has the documentary "The Phenomenon: The Comic
That Changed Comics," 29 min.), which looks at the original
graphic novel and its themes, and interviews artist Dave Gibbons,
DC Comics executives Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz, and cast and
crew, illustrating its points with scenes from the movie, panels
from the graphic novel, and parts of the motion comic. There's
also My Romance's "Desolation Row" music video and the
11 video journals that helped stir up excitement leading up to
the theatrical run. No longer available is a Digital Copy of the
film (compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media; download
code expires July 21, 2010)l. --David Horiuchi
P.when('A').execute(function(A) {
A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse',
function(data) {
window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100);
});
});
From the Back Cover
-------------------
Someone’s killing our super heroes. The year is 1985 and super
heroes have banded together to respond to the murder of one of
their own. They soon uncover a sinister plot that puts all of
humanity in grave danger. The super heroes fight to stop the
impending doom only to find themselves a target for annihilation.
But, if our super heroes are gone, who will save us?
See more ( javascript:void(0) )