Watchmen: Midnight

The first time I hear about Watchmen I was handed the graphic novel and asked if I was interested in reading it. I said 'yes' and borrowed it with the intention of making it all the way through. Unfortunately, for me, I was bored and only made it about halfway through. When the movie was being released I went with a group of friends and still felt underwhelmed by what I saw. There just seems to be something missing from the story to really get me excited.

With that said, I gave it one more shot by watching this edit of the movie with the interviews with Hollis and the Black Freighter sequences inter-cut with the Ultimate Edition of the movie. While this cut doesn't always flow perfectly it is a far superior version than any of the previous cuts released to the public. By taking out a lot of the superhuman abilities (slow-mo) and focusing it more on the personal stories between characters I connected with it better than anytime I tried watching it before. I believe that this is the best version that can be constructed for the fans of Watchmen.

Thank you Flixcapacitor for taking the time to put this together. You have changed my mind on how I feel about the material presented. This is a more grounded version of the material and it really makes it so much stronger.

This one is really brilliant and convinced me that there's something to like about superhero movies other than goofball parodies like Kick Ass.

Living in a country (Germany) where US-style comic books were never ubiquitous, the genre was hit for six when the first over-hyped Nicholson Batman movie was released back in the 90s. In comparison to European comics like "Lucky Luke" and "Asterix" the prejudice was confirmed to many that superhero+movie equals superdumb. Alas, subsequent batman incarnations didn't manage to counter this perception - until Nolen's Dark Knight, that is.

However, having access to this re-graded and re-edited Watchmen I keep watching it again and again. The pacing might be too slow and the runtime too long for the big screen, but the documentary and comic interlacing hits the spot. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but the mood of the costume heroes looking back on their origins with the embedding in the Nixon era gives this movie depth beyond a pure action flick.

I cannot recommend Watchmen:Midnight 2014 highly enough, just a small points deduction for the lack of an audio commentary which I've come to love from editors like Hal 9000 or Last Survivor.

And one point less enjoyment because "life" seems to consist solely of humans, personally I'd find more than enough reasons to save the planet just for the sake of all the wildlife which doesn't have any part in building hopping malls or oil pipelines as Dr. Manhatten criticises. But then again, this isn't the fault of this edit and the stance is probably true to the comic book source.

O U T S T A N D I N G ! ! ! !

I could stop there......but I won't

If you have seen Watchmen (any version namely, Theatrical, Directors or Ultimate Cut
THIS EDIT IS FOR YOU !
If you only read the graphic novel, buy a legit version coz
THIS EDIT IS FOR YOU !!
If you ain't seen Watchmen coz you think its another superher namby pampy flick - WRONG - Buy it coz
THIS EDIT IS FOR YOU !!!
So lets dig in
________________________
I have had the extreme pleasure of watching version 1 and 2 of this back to back this week and I'm knocked out. All comments refer to either edit unless noted.
AV Quality -
Yes its DVD (and an HD revision is coming), but its flawless
Visual Editing -
Flawless. I will expand however. I have not seen any version for a few years. I have no clue where any changes were made since I do not read cutlists until after my viewing, and I can attest that this is as good as any professional job (in fact better than many pros) as you will see. aesthetically version one has the chapter captions over black, version 2 over the movie. I preferred version 1's approach here...but that is my preference only. Importing them from the DVD comic is genius and allows and frames the restructure. The removal of nearly an hour from the ultimate cut is just un-noticeable. I did not miss a thing, and I have recently read the graphic novel twice. Truly bravura work!. The gratuitous material that was excised just does not need to be there...and its an improvement...I'll come to that. I have nothing more to add.
Audio Editing -
Flawless; however, and this is now personal comment and not criticism, I would have carried over some of the ambient sound or music over some of the chapter captions for a more natural flow, but that is no biggie. The music replacement was breathing taking in timing, choice of music and in re-setting the tone of the piece PERFECTLY. It just grounds the whole darn thing where it needs to sit. This is a dark world, flawed characters on the brink of annihilation. The music in the official versions is often out of place, at best a distraction or cute, at worst appallingly misguided (Vietnam) and Flix C nailed it - BRAVO
Narrative -
Get the F**K outta here!!!
This could not follow the source material more closely unless you reunited the cast and shot additional material. The intermingling of Under the Hood and Matting into Holis Mason's TV is again, GENIUS. This is pur bonus and I'm STUNNED that it was not done for the official versions. It frames the plot, fleshes out character and further grounds the tome and mood of this tragi-hero epic marvellously. I'm jealous that I did not see the potential and that's coz in theatres I enjoyed the film, but was not knocked out. NO I AM. Personal choice; I was ont a fan of the Black Freighter in the Novel, and I'm not here either. FlixC does redeem it with its structure, but for my taste version is superior (and would be even better if some of the other tweaks in V2 were in V1 sans Black freighter)...So I'm doing that for myself since its an nice puzzle to unpick (I won't be releasing it since I do not tread on other Faneditors toes). Also I prefer the opening to V1 from a music and narrative perspective. I understand FlixC reasoning in V2 to move the opening credits to the end, but film is a different medium, and framing the backstory for the new viewer must be in a filmmakers mind..but that's my POV - Nothing to add. 10 here too.
Enjoyment -
TOTAL, ABSOLUTE and Complete.

Final Word
I literally would have stopped above the line but I'm so impressed and so enjoyed this I wanted to share the joy and some personal preferences for viewers and FlixC.

If you only see one fanedit in 2014,
WATCH THIS ONE....TWICE.
W
(now, where's my BluRay Ultimate cut and butchers knife) ?
PS
Thank you for the detailed cutlist

i am a huge fan of watchmen.
i first read the graphic novel at school and then did a 2000 word essay on it.
when i saw that they had finally made a movie after years of problems.
i had to go see it, i saw the directors cut and loved it, it was not a perfect scene for page of the graphic novel, but was a lot closer than a lot of other movies based on a graphic novels.
i had been looking at this edit for a long time, when i saw a version 2 and what had been changed from version 1 i had to see it.
im glad i did i love this edit it was perfect, the songs i hated are all changed and replaced perfectly, i love the changes to bring it closer to the graphic novel and they all worked in seamlessly.
its amazing just how close Zack was from making a perfect movie.
i will still watch my directors cut and this fanedit as they are just so good.
thank you so much Flixcapacitor for this awesome edit and i 100% recommend this edit to any one who liked the original cut.

Wow. This is a great edit. Removing a lot of the songs and adding score helped by adding to the tone of the edit. The Under the Hood segments also add another layer as well. Plus it's nice to see more of Hollis.

I'd have to say that this and Watchmen Legacy, both, are my definitive go to of Watchmen. Highly recommend this.