Watchmen: Midnight

July 29, 2012 @ 3:10 am

Not sure why it took me so long to get around to watching this,
but I am glad I finally did!

The original WATCHMEN comic mini-series is considered by many as a seminal piece of work, forever influencing how comic tales are woven and presented. I read the Watchmen series when it was first released, and while I acknowledge it is an amazing piece of graphic literature, it never held a fond a fond place in my comic book library… its superhero world a bit too grim and gritty, too fatalistic and cynical for my personal tastes.

That said, the idea of translating it into a motion picture I found to be a fascinating one, and over the years I followed its many starts and stops in movie development with great interest. When Zac Snyder’s opus finally arrived on screen in 2009, I was there on opening night filled with curious anticipation. When the movie ended two plus hours later, and the lights came up and my buddies asked what I thought, I just sort of shrugged “meh”.

I did not hate it. I did not love it.

It had some great moments. It had some very dull moments. And some very “nuking the fridge” moments.

But mostly, it felt lacking in characters development. I never truly felt connected or invested in the characters’ journey.

So when reading Flixcapacitor’s intention was to try to improve the overall depth of the characters, I was very intrigued. And now after watching this epic edit, I think for the most part, he was very successful.

I very much enjoyed the new structure of the story with it’s chapter breaks and “Under the Hood” segments. For me, it gave the narration a more “episodic” feel, almost as though each chapter was an issue of the comic book. It also a lent a greater dramatic quality to many scenes, that for me, were lacking in the original.

I know much has been made of the music replacement in this edit. For me, 90% of the new music worked. But as some other reviewers pointed out, some of the music scenes could have played better if the editor had recut them tighter to time with the replacement tracks. Though the new version of the Archie love scene is a vast and superior improvement. For as much as I love Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, when that song played during the love scene, the movie officially “nuked the fridge” for me!

The editor shows a great talent for storytelling, as the restructured and added/deleted scenes all work very well and improve the over all viewing experience considerably.

The technical work is excellent. Picture quality is equal to the original source material. The audio work is very well done. All the cuts are clean. The only thing I noticed was one ghost frame of the Intermission title card.

So all in all, I found this edit to a significant improvement over the original version. It is still a flawed and shallow movie for me, but this is no fault of the editor, as he can only work with the material available. And while still not a “must see” movie experience for me, it is definitely my now preferred version of the story.

Thumbs Up.

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.

May 6, 2012 @ 8:10 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

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.

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