Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical: Cruel & Unusual & Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd
Levin
Blu-ray: Warner Home Video
Disc:
Region: All
Runtime: 325 min
Chapters: 12
Size: 50 GB
Case: Standard Blu-ray case
Release date: March 3, 2009
Video:
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: VC-1
Audio:
English Dolby TrueHD 5.1; English Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subtitles:
English
Extras:
• Watchmen Theatrical Video Journal with Dave
Gibbons (2:47)
• Sneak Peak at DC Universe's Animated Wonder Woman
(10:46)
• Disc 2: Digital Copy
The Film:
Let's get this 2-disc thing clarified right off: the
second disc is a Digital Copy disc. Period. This
means the entire 5 and a half hours of feature
content is managed on a single dual-layer Blu-ray
disc. The question is: To what extent is image and
sound compromised? The short answer is: they aren't.
Moving right along. . .
Watchmen is often talked about in comic book dens as
one of the great literary works of our time,
reflecting as it does contemporary existential angst
in the context of a paranoid thriller about the
systematic elimination of costumed
avenger/vigilantes, with asides about the space/time
continuum. Now, that's a mouthful. The original
collaborative work was published as a 12-part
limited series, created by writer Alan Moore, artist
Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins between
1986-87. A live action feature film, directed by
Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead) is opening in
theatres as I write this.
The video, over which Dave Gibbons' name appears
prominently, is a quasi-animated version of the
complete comic: that is, every frame and text
ballooned and narrative comment is reproduced, while
the camera moves in a kind of Ken Burns fashion
through the frame, as parts of images move within
those frames: an eyebrow is lifted, a hand raised, a
head is turned, someone walks (more or less) toward
or away from their original position, a vehicles
drives across the frame, a body falls through space.
Except for the fact that there is not a great deal
of variation to the dynamic rhythm of the movement
from frame to frame, nor a compelling sense of an
arc in this regard from beginning to end of each
chapter (some are more effective than others in this
regard), the visuals are truly stunning.
A decision was made, however, to have the entire
comic read by a single voice – as if it were you or
I reading out loud to ourselves or as if we were
being read to by a friend while we were laid up in a
hospital. It's not that a Peter Sellers would have
brought it off better, but that a single voice isn't
really what we hear in our imagination, no matter
how well inflected. And it's not just a matter of
there are male and female characters for a single
voice to deal with. Tom Stechschulte is moderately
competent, but he doesn't rally have the chops for
this project even given the intent of the
restrictions. I found him too entirely
self-conscious: as if he wants to make it very clear
that he's doing noir now. And there are many scenes
where, if it weren't for the direction of the
balloons, I wouldn't know which character is
speaking. It's simply too much to ask of one actor.
On the other hand, Chapter 4 "Watchmaker" – a
fascinating episode on its own terms - is ideal for
him since it amounts to a monologue.
The Movie: 6
As "Watchmaker" illustrates so deliciously, Watchmen
enjoys examining concepts about the space, time,
imagination, constraint, possibility, belief and
responsibility. All of these are favorite subjects
of science fiction, and Watchmen has its own unique
way of working them into the plot and the art work.
The slow motion fades and pans that characterize
this animation are very effective
at underscoring intent of the comic.
The time line, then, takes us via an alternate
history from the days of the Manhattan Project that
gave birth to the A-Bomb and to the retiring
superhero who came to known as "Dr. Manhattan"
through our involvement in Vietnam and the Nixon
presidency through the 1977 law that drove such
costumes avengers underground to the then present
day of the mid-1980s. It begins
closer to the recent end of that time line with the
death of Blake, who is soon revealed to be the
costumed vigilante known as The Comedian. It seems
he was thrown out of his apartment window - not an
easily explained event, considering the size and
capabilities of such a man. Rorschach's independent
investigations into his death lead us through the
bramble of the social history of these superheroes
(of widely different talents), concentrating on just
a handful.
Image:
9/9
A work of well over five hours on a single dual disc
necessarily results in lowish bit rates – here
hovering around 11 Mbps. The question is: does the
lack of a dynamic grayscale or of movement in
general mitigate against what we might expect –
namely a loss
of integrity? The question contains the answer, for
I see no compromise that a higher bit rate might
have overcome. It helped that the Extra Features do
not eat up much space and that there's only one
uncompressed audio track plus another in DD 5.1, so
these don't take a big chunk either. There are a
couple of fleeting moments where I thought I noticed
some crawling lines as the camera pans across a
frame, but they amount to next to nothing of the
total experience.
Audio & Music:
7/8
The music score by Lennie Moore deserves special
credit, as it perfectly matches mood and narrative.
The music and effects are nicely balanced over the
5.1 surround mix, and there are no problems here –
except that I would have preferred better acoustical
differentiation between spoken dialogue and internal
monologue. The sound envelope is accomplished very
well here and it effectively draws us in despite and
because of Stechschulte's voiceover.
Operations:
7
Chapter One begins immediately after loading and a
brief encounter with the Warner Premier logo. Short
of an intervention on our behalf, the movie would
proceed as if on "Play All." However you can resort
to the menu at any time. There's not much to that
menu – it is simplicity itself.
Extras:
1
A major betrayal here: Nothing at all about the
comic or its translation to video. The so-called
"video journal" is so brief as to hardly deserve the
name and can be summed up in just a few words: "Wow,
was I impressed by what Zack did with my comic!"
Ditto for the EPK promo of the Wonder Woman movie,
where concepts and various artistic manifestations
the legendary Amazon are briefly examined. Cast
members talk about their characters.
Bottom line:
6
The visuals and the score are the high points here.
The story may or may not grab your attention, but
you probably already know where you stand on such
material. There are no relevant extra features
whatever. So the question comes down to how you feel
about Stechschulte.
Leonard Norwitz
March 7th, 2009