Watchmen - Director's Cut
I'm going to do something that doesn't happen very often and change my tune regarding Watchmen. I watched the director's cut last night (it's out there on the interwebs) which clocks in at precisely 3 hours with the credits chopped off (thank god for that anyway). In any case, I had a considerably more rewarding time watching the film this time around, though it could be from any number of reasons. Firstly, I'm not willing to give too much credit to the director's cut itself for bringing on this come-around. There's really only one new substantial scene if my memory serves, which is Hollis Mason's death. Speaking of which, it's pretty nifty, at least his killing itself and and added bit to the Night Owl/Rorschach scene following where Dan learns of Mason's death on the TV and flips out on some in the bar gangbanger. Aside from that addition, many of the other scenes are more fuller fleshed out, which is where most of the added 25 minutes comes into play. Most beneficial I think is the bit after Laurie and Dan beat up the thugs in the alley, and she returns to the military base to flesh out Manhattan's departure some more. That and it feels like the escalating nuclear threat has a greater presence throughout this cut than it did in the original, which makes the arrival at the big ending far more organic I think.
Overall, the new cut just smoothes out a lot of rough edges and makes the main plot thread more pronounced, which I feel probably makes it a more watchable movie in that sense. Of course there could be a number of other reasons why I enjoyed it so much this time. Part of it is likely just seeing it a second time. Now, I was just watching it for the hell of it, and wasn't really using my critical eye so much as the first time. However, paradoxically I found myself more intellectually engaged with the film here. Whereas none of the thematic material really resonated when I saw it in theaters, here I actually found the film inspiring my to ponder what's going on in this film world and how all the different characters mirror aspects of society. Also had me thinking about their different attitudes towards being a 'superhero', from Dan and Laurie returning to the game and becoming whole again, to Rorschach's ultra-conservative mad-man blind justice agenda, to Manhattan's divorced-from-humanity God-like perspective and of course Adrian's whole deal at the end.
Of course none of this is still explored with the finesse and depth to which it is in the comic book, but I think this viewing, further removed from all the release-chaos and from reading the book itself, revealed these things that really do exist in the film itself which I probably missed the first time around. However, it still suffers many of the same problems I highlighted originally, most of which stem from its faithfulness in adaptation. Many of the rhythmic beats and storytelling structures from the book simply don't play as well on screen, and I've actually turned around to a less favorable response to Snyder's amped up violence this time around. That didn't bother me the first time, but now I feel it's pretty distracting and a real misstep. On the other hand, many of the smaller scenes and musical cues that irritated me the first time don't really bother me much here. I still think The Sounds of Silence is terrible where it is, and I hated that one even more here, but all the rest either worked for me or merely didn't jar me enough to distract. Even the sec scene in the owl ship almost worked for me this time. I still think it's a misstep overall, but little details emerged here that I didn't catch on to before. For one, when the ship ejaculates fire, there's a shot from the ground (which may or may not have been in the original cut... it's hard to keep all the little additions straight) where the two guys see the light from behind the clouds and it carries a real foreboding connotation of bombs going off in the distance. That and for some reason this time that love scene better paralleled Laurie's first sex scene with Manhattan, and I really felt the contrast between what she's experiences then vs. here with Dan. Like I said, still a misstep tonally, but sort of works within the story. Nice.
The only other thing that really changed for me is perception of performances. For the most part I feel the same regarding the big players: Crudup is fantastic, Haley kills as Rorschach, many of the other leads do a solid if not remarkable job. However this time, Ackerman didn't bother me so much. Her line readings are still all flat, but her physical performance sells most of it. However, Carla Gugino is 10 times worse than I remember. I mean, it doesn't help that she has a lot more screen time in this cut, and I guess it just amplifies how terribly wretched she is here.
So, there's probably still more to say, but I'm pretty happy with this turn around. I'll say the director's cut is probably the de-facto version to watch from here on out, as it doesn't really alter anything major, just fills in some of the dings and scratches. And a more removed second viewing really did wonders for me, though I don't really feel bad about my initial reviews or anything, as many of the fundamental flaws are still there. I think it was just easier for me to overlook this time around. Overall, yeah, you're probably right. One of the best comic/superhero movies ever made, as low as that bar is set...
Maybe a revised 8/10
