The Blu-ray Blog » Watchmen

Blu-ray Picks for the Week of November 10

Brenden — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:24:19 +0000

Clip from UP bonus short feature, Dug’s Special Mission

I wasn’t going to do these weekly pick articles anymore. Every site has got one now. And it just seemed like this was the least interesting or original thing I could offer. And then my good buddy, editor of the popular celebrity gossip site Egotastic.com, bought himself a Blu-ray player (it’s about time!) After pressing me for details on the best Blu-ray discs he could pick up to show off his very impressive new home theatre system (60″ Pioneer Kuro! So Jealous!!!) he asked if I still publish a weekly list of new releases. Umm…

So here we are. A new picks column. Just for you buddy! Now get out there and grab a copy of UP before they’re all gone!

NEW BLU-RAY RELEASES FOR THE WEEK OF NOV. 10
Clicking an image will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about the Blu-ray disc:

UK to finally get Watchmen: Director's Cut in November (UPDATED w/ Disc Details))

Brenden — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:39:50 +0000

What?! Huh?! While we’re set to get the Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut 4 Blu-ray disc set on November 3rd here in the US and Canada, the UK will only see the Watchmen: Director’s Cut finally hitting store shelves November 30th?! Are you serious?! Wow…I feel awful for fans of this film on the other side of the Atlantic…

DVDActive is reporting that Paramount will ship a new 2 Disc Special Edition set in the UK priced at around £26.99 but doesn’t yet have any details on the release. Is it possible that Paramount, as the British distributor of the film could be at the mercy of Warner, producer and owner of the film and its elements, when it comes to available cuts of the film? Is Warner only doling them out to Paramount UK as transfers become available? Warner offered up this Director’s Cut to North America in July as, at the same time Paramount was only able to offer UK fans the Theatrical Cut. While the UK version contained some featurettes that we missed out on (all of which will be on the Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Blu-ray discs. Details here…), the Warner version contained a wealth of exclusive bonus content, the most amazing of which could only accompany the longer Director’s Cut of the film – the Maximum Movie Mode!

Will Paramount’s edition of the Watchmen: Director’s Cut feature the Maximum Movie Mode or is it a Warner-only extra? Will the disc have all the other special features the UK initially missed out on? And what about the Watchemen: The Ultimate Cut Blu-ray that ships to North American stores in November? Will the UK ever have the opportunity to see this complete, much longer version?

So many questions…

UPDATE: We just got a hold of the disc details. NO MAXIMUM MOVIE MODE and a NEW commentary! Here’s exactly what you get:

Disc One

2.40:1 Widescreen Transfer (1080p)
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Audio
New Commentary from Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons

Disc Two

The Phenomenon: The Comic That Changed Comics
Real Superheroes, Real Vigilantes
Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World
Video Journals (Webisodes): Minutemen; Sets & Sensibility; Dressing for Success; The Ship Has Eyes; Dave Gibbons; Burn Baby Burn; Shoot to Thrill; Blue Monday; Attention to Detail; Girls Kick Ass; Rorschach’s Mask
Viral Videos: 10 Years Of Dr. Manhattan (1970: NBS Special News Report); The Keene Act & You (1977: US Public Service Announcement); Who Watches the Watchmen? (1983: Celebrity News Feature); World in Focus (1985: British Late Night Discussion Programme)
Music Video: My Chemical Romance, Desolation Row

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Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Announced and Detailed

Brenden — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:17:44 +0000

We found out about this bad boy ages ago but now Warner has unleashed the official details of the Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut 4 Blu-ray disc set. Hitting shops on November 3rd, this set features the long awaited cut of the film that includes everything but the kitchen sink. You get all the footage missing from the theatrical cut, the extended and deleted scenes and the animated Tales of the Black Freighter woven into one 3 hour and 58 minute “Ultimate” cut of the film. I’m not sure if I can sit through all of that but I’m willing to give it a shot, at least once! Details and images below:

WATCHMEN: THE ULTIMATE CUT
215 minutes (vs. 162 minutes for Theatrical Cut and 190 minutes for Director’s Cut)
Video: 1080p VC-1
Audio: 5.1 Dolby TrueHD

Special Features:

Disc 1:

Disc 2: Over 3 Hours of Special Features

Disc 3: Digital Copy of the Theatrical Version

Disc 4: Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics
BD-Live

Via: DVDActive

Blu-ray Picks for the Week of July 21 – Watchmen: Director's Cut (Review)

Brenden — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:00:22 +0000

WATCHMEN: DIRECTOR’S CUT (2009, Blu-ray released July 21, 2009 – MSRP $35.99)

It’s two in the morning and I can’t stop watching the Watchmen Blu-ray disc. I got home late from work. Totally bagged. Ready to hit the sack minutes after kicking off my shoes. I had been seriously committed to sleep before finding the Watchmen disc in my mailbox. And now I’m done. I can’t tear myself away. Zack Snyder has me held enthralled, talking at me from the blackened studio of his Maximum Movie Mode, unveiling the secrets of his violent, masked universe.

I was all ready to slam this disc. I admit, I didn’t care for Watchmen in the theatre. The film has, to my mind, too many problems to be considered a success. While a lot of my issues with the theatrical cut still exist in the Director’s Cut featured on the Blu-ray disc (awkward dialogue, wooden performances, horrific music choices) I’m delighted to say that this version works a hell of a lot better! Wow. Consider me shocked. Watchmen actually needed that extra 30 minutes or so to breathe. To be honest, I had to hit the internet after watching to figure out where most of the “new” footage was found. To my surprise, a good percentage of it comes from simple scene extensions, longer takes, fewer cuts. That’s why it plays a bit better. It doesn’t cut abruptly away from a character moment. It lingers a bit longer and allows the weight of its world to sink in. In this three hour cut, the Watchmen actually works.

On top of enjoying the film itself, I was drawn in by Warner‘s new Maximum Movie Mode, where the director literally steps into the picture to walk you through a sequence. This works brilliantly well (watch a preview over at our previously posted article here) but only pops into the movie periodically. This is a crying shame. I could watch the entire film over again like this. When Zack isn’t on screen Maximizing the Movie, the rest of film plays through with pop-up facts, timelines, Picture-in-Picture interviews, comments and behind-the-scenes footage and offers to zap you out of the film to look at other content. I’ve never cared much for that, you know. As much as some of these features might interest me, I don’t ever want to leave the film to see them! There’s some great stuff there too, you know: artwork, designs, photos, focus point videos (which you can thankfully access outside of the “Mode”.) I just don’t want to have to stop the film to experience them. You hear me, Warner?! Give me the same content but never stop the show. That’s what Maximum Movie Mode is for. To display lots of stuff while the film rolls on.

Oh yeah. Almost forgot. The 3-Disc Watchmen: Director’s Cut set has more stuff to appreciate too! There are a handful of featurettes and things on the second disc and they’re great. Really nice stuff. None of it is going to blow your mind but its all a nice compliment to the bounty of information found on disc one. There’s also a digital copy of the film, found on its own, on a third disc. Yeah. I know. Digital Copy. Who cares…

For a full run-down of the discs features, read our detailed article here: Watchmen: Director’s Cut Detailed, includes Facebook Social Media Connectivity

ANOTHER PICK – CORALINE

I can’t speak intelligently about this Blu-ray disc as the studio didn’t send me a screener but I can tell you that I’ll be heading out directly after work to pick this up tonight. I loved Coraline in the theatres. It was my first 3-D experience. Yes, I’m serious. No, I haven’t been living in a cave.

I was dazzled by the tech, the polarized-lens 3-D thing. I thought it looked amazing without having to sacrifice the colours of the film itself, as red-blue anaglyph 3-D does. Sadly, that’s the only kind of 3-D we’ve got available to us at home at this time and the Coraline Blu-ray disc provides a version in that style. I don’t hesitate to tell you that I’ll be avoiding that version, however and enjoying the film for the first time in standard old, flat 2-D. I wonder how it will hold up?

ANOTHER PICK – 300: THE COMPLETE EXPERIENCE

I’m not going to try to sell you on 300. You either like the film or you don’t. If you’re here, reading this review, you probably think the movie’s all right and are no doubt familiar enough with the story, so I’m not going to bore you with it. It is, at its core, a two-hour fight scene. It’s an amazing battle, and incredible eye candy to be sure. But really, this sort of action epic, light on story, heavy on special effects is either your bag or you’re going to look elsewhere for your cinematic delights.

That out of the way, let me say WOW! I love this Blu-ray package. What an amazing job Warner has done with this set. Double-dip be damned, if you care at all about this film and are the sort of person who enjoys bonus features on a disc (I know there are two or three of you out there who couldn’t give a Spartan’s spear about them) then it’s worth ditching the old bare-bones one in favour of this, the 300: The Complete Experience.

Read my full review here: 300: The Complete Experience Blu-ray Disc Review

[VIDEO] Wish List: Watchmen Episode of Prisoners Of Gravity with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Brenden — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:46:12 +0000

I grew up in Ontario, Canada. We had our own kind of PBS television station called TVO (TV Ontario). Still do, in fact. Outside of the excellent Magic Shadows and Saturday Night at the Movies, both hosted by Elwy Yost (father of Graham Yost, screenwriter of Speed) I didn’t really pay much attention to TVO, growing up until I discovered Prisoners of Gravity.

Prisoners of Gravity ran five season from 1989 and was the brainchild of Mark Askwith (founding producer of Canada’s answer to The Sci-Fi Channel, SPACE), Daniel Richler (pop culture broadcaster and writer) and comedian Rick Green, who also hosted the program. Despite a lame premise that imagined “Commander” Rick stranded on an orbiting space station, conducting interviews with speculative fiction authors, comic book creators, filmmakers and futurists, PoG provided my young mind with juicy genre ideas and a list of must-read/must-see material. In the pre-internet age, this program was integral to my discovery of neat stuff.

You can’t really find Prisoners of Gravity on the air too much anymore but thankfully some fine folks have seen fit to upload some episodes to YouTube! Stumbling across a few of them today, I was reminded how great the Watchmen episode was and how amazing it would have been for Warner to be able to include it on one of their Blu-ray sets. I mean, I guess it’s not too late to fit it on the upcoming Watchmen: Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray but I wouldn’t count on seeing it. I imagine that even if Warner could clear the rights with TVO, Watchmen creator and writer, Alan Moore would nix it’s inclusion in the set. After all, it would suggest to viewers that he may have had something to do with the Watchmen. And since the author has gone to great pains to remove any evidence that the film was spawned from his work, we wouldn’t want that now, would we?

The Watchmen: Director’s Cut Blu-ray disc hits the shops this coming Tuesday, July 21st!

Watchmen: Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray Details Revealed

Brenden — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:28:49 +0000

You see what happens when I disappear for a couple of days? You see the kind of thing that crops up while I’m busy fighting a cold, sleeping and working on comics? Yeah, that’s right. More Watchmen news…

But this is the news you need. News that will help you purchase wisely. News that we knew was on our doorstep, just waiting to break. Warner has sort-of inadvertently confirmed via a flier in early review copies of the Director’s Cut Blu-ray, the coming of their Watchmen: Ultimate Collector’s Edition 5-disc boxed set. We all knew this was a possibility. Director Zack Snyder pretty much told us so. This is not a surprise.

The surprise comes in the details. I don’t know what to make of this, to be honest. The Watchmen: Ultimate Collector’s Edition is going to hit shops around the holidays at the end of this year and only be available until June 2010!?! A limited time only release. Urgh…That’s kind of aggravating. Assuming it’s available in large enough quantities, you’ve got a whole six months to save up and track a copy down, if your loved ones don’t see fit to grace you with one under the Christmas tree (or like holiday celebratory apparatus).

The Blu-ray set will feature the rumoured super-long full cut of the film, incorporating The Black Freighter animated short into the excessive runtime with very little carry-over of extras from previous available editions. Instead we’ll find the Under the Hood mock-umentary (previously available on the Black Freighter Blu-ray), the Watchmen Motion Comic and a new commentary track with Snyder and Watchmen illustrator, Dave Gibbons.

Uhhh…Now apparently this is a five-disc set. Your guess is as good as mine as to what we’ll see spread across the 250gb of storage space, outside of what’s revealed on the flier. Another cut of the film? The extras from the UK Blu-ray disc release?

What are your Watchmen plans, now that the Ultimate cat is out of the bag?

Via: The HD Room

Watchmen: Director's Cut additional and extended scenes described

Brenden — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:00:31 +0000

Yes, I know. It’s another Watchmen post. It’s not my fault! The news just keeps on pouring in and to be honest, it’s all sort-of interesting.

Ain’t It Cool News got a note from a reader who had a chance to see Zack Snyder‘s longer, meatier Watchmen: Director’s Cut (the one we’re getting on Blu-ray here, in North America on July 21st) and sent in a quick list of some of the changes and extensions he noted as he watched it.

Here’s a look at some of what you’ll find over at Ain’t It Cool:

1. At the end of Rorschach’s search of the comedian’s apartment. Two cops enter, he knocks one of the cops out and jumps out the window as the other cop is firing his gun at him.

2. Rorschach has more comic book monolouge, throughout the movie. Though I’m only going to mention it once. (nothing but the good stuff too.)

3. Dan and Holis’s visit is extended by seeing roschrach on TV. Hollis comments “It didn’t stop him.” (refering to the keane act.)

4. More scenes from the comic such as:

– Before they walk into the alley we are introduced to the scene by the news vendor talking to Seymour delivering his papers.

– When Jon says “leave me alone” everyone in the room disappears. Leaving him alone.

– Cut back to Laurie and Dan at the end of the fight.

– Laurie decides to go back to the military base and Dan meets with Hollis; they watch TV and learn of Jon’s departure. Dan says laurie doesn’t know. Cut to Jon on Mars and his story.

–The only major difference in this scene that I can remember is Jon talks about his symbol, slightly varied from the comic he says,”The boys in marketing wanted me to have a symbol. I said if I should have a symbol it shall be one I respect.”

–Next scene is Laurie getting interrogated at the military base. They discover that Jon is on Mars and Laurie escapes and decides to go stay with Dan.

5. Rorschach has more dialogue from the comic with Dr. Malcom. Also in his story of the girl, the murder is shown as in the comic – walking outside, asking his dogs to bark, when they don’t he draws his gun and enters the building.

6. Rorschach and Laurie argue on the rooftop of the jail; Rorschach more or less calls Laurie a whore. They escape.

[VIDEO] Watchmen: Director's Cut Blu-ray BD-Live Maximum Movie Mode Revealed

Brenden — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:17:32 +0000

And Warner Home Video is crowned the winner! The champion! The only studio capable of figuring out how to make BD-Live special features truly awesome!

Wow! I wasn’t a big fan of the Watchmen film but I really can’t wait to check this out. Looks like a lot of fun. Watchmen director Zack Snyder walks you through every scene of the film in the Maximum Movie Mode (available exclusively on North America’s Watchmen: Director’s Cut Blu-ray disc…Sorry, rest of the world), talks in depth about the shots and even goes so far as to pause the film to give visual comparisons with panels from the comic book!

I could watch this type of special feature for hours. And it appears that the Watchmen: Director’s Cut will test my stamina as it’s three-hour runtime will no doubt be stretched to four or five with all the pausing and chatting and comparing.

Via: Slashfilm.com

Watchmen BD-Live Commentary, Director’s Cut Theatrical Screening Confirmed (UPDATED)

Brenden — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:27:09 +0000

A couple of pieces of Watchmen news coming late today.

The first comes from Collider.com, who confirm via an interview with director, Zack Snyder that his longer cut, the one North America will see released on Blu-ray July 21st, will be screening in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and Minneapolis for the weekend of July 17-19.

Seriously? Four screens? Three days only?! Is this in an effort to promote the Blu-ray and DVD or just to piss off the fans who don’t live in any of these four privileged cities?Perhaps the studio is just being sensitive to all the folks overseas who may never get a chance to see this longer version of the film at all, seeing as how they’re only getting the theatrical cut on home video.

The second bit of news is kind of a rumour. It’s something I overheard at last weeks Warner Home Video press event. One of the reps from the studio was speaking about the special features on the Watchmen Blu-ray and let it slip that Zack Snyder will make available an audio commentary track over BD-Live! I don’t know if this is anything to write home about, seeing as how we’re getting the Maximum Movie Mode with On-Camera Commentary. But extra stuff is extra stuff and I’m all for BD-Live finally delivering the goods!

UPDATE: Blu-ray.com has further details of the Watchmen screenings and BD-LIve features today.

“On July 25, there will be a “Live Community Screening” of the film at the convention, which will be relayed via BD-Live, so owners of the Blu-ray (which comes out on July 21) can watch the film along with Snyder and talk about the film.

Any viewer in North America will be able to watch the movie at the same time as the audience at Comic-Con, see and hear Snyder comment on the movie, and even ask questions. The screening will then be archived and will be available for future viewings.

“Warner Bros. is hoping to use the filmmakers of its movies to produce immersive home movie experiences,” said the studio’s VP high-def market expansion Kris Brown. “We’re lucky to have filmmakers at Warners that believe in that.” “

And regarding the BD-Live features:

“…something new this release offers is a “Director Walk-On” where Snyder will stand before the monitor talking about his favorite moments from the film. According to Joblo, “it feels like Mr. Snyder is right there in your living room.”

As previously announced, other extras include a timeline comparing the alternate history of the Watchmen as opposed to the real world; storyboard comparisons, focus points on a variety of topics and photo galleries.”

Seeing as how all of these features are directly related to the director’s cut of the film, it looks to me like North America is the only continent that will be able to experience them. What a shame.

Germany to get weird, Amazon Exclusive Watchmen: Rorschach Edition Blu-ray

Brenden — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:41:23 +0000

This is bizarre. It seems that Amazon.de is offering up their German customers some truly unattractive packaging for the Exclusive Watchmen: Rorschach Edition Blu-ray. This thing is f-uuuuuuuuugly! It’s some kind of flat, plastic head that, when you pry it open, reveals the Blu-ray discs in their plastic trays. From the looks of things, the black rorschach-test blots on the mask seem to change, maybe with it’s owner’s growing frustration at having spent good money on such a lame package. And I thought we had it bad with the Nite-Owl ship ornament.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that, like the UK, Germany appears to be stuck with the theatrical cut of the film. It seems to me that Paramount must only have the rights to distribute the theatrical cut of the film outside North America. Warner, however, as the creator and owner of the source material, can release and distribute it in any form they want, as long as it’s within the borders of Canada and the US. Just a theory…

Via: dvdlandschaft

The Blu-ray Blog » Watchmen

Blu-ray Picks for the Week of November 10

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