Watchmen: Midnight

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.

December 31, 2011 @ 10:12 pm

Just finished watching this last night, and I wanted to put in a few words about what I liked and didn’t like. Please don’t expect a review per se, I can only speak to my response to the fanedited movie.

First off, I did watch the original movie first, then the fanedit, so I think I got a good before and after look. I thought the original movie, while the most interesting and different superhero story I’ve ever seen, was about a B+ as a movie. Maybe a straight B. After watching the fanedit, I wobbled a bit, but eventually settled on B+ as well. It’s different, and much is improved, but some things don’t play as well too, so in the end, it kind of evened out.

Here’s the things I really liked about the fanedit:
1. The recut of the opening and further exposition during the movie. Brilliantly done, it was much better than the original.
2. The cuts to the sex scene and some of the violence. I couldn’t watch the original with my friend, as he has teenage kids who are too young for that kind of graphic sex scene, so removing that put the movie right back into their range. The exclusion of the extremely graphic arm scene in the prison was a great choice too, and the way you did it was perfect.
3. The added non-backstory footage about the original Night Owl. Why did they cut that? It was amazingly well done and one of the most powerful scenes in the entire movie. Kudos for putting that back in!
4. The additional dialogue and footage throughout the movie. I didn’t see anything that didn’t work perfectly well. I’m assuming it was all cut for reasons of viewing time and theater scheduling.

Now, here’s the things I didn’t like so much:
1. Not sure what you call them, but the black screen and white-letter messages that were shown fairly often seemed to me like “editorial comments”. They broke up the flow of the movie and (no offense) seemed very heavy handed, like planting a sign saying “BTW THIS IS WHAT THINGS MEAN RIGHT NOW, JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN”T CATCH IT”, when in reality, I think most people would have the sense of what was happening. Those dropped the movie one full grade for me :(
2. Not your fault on this, but the additional backstory provided by the TV set, while a great addition to the movie, had no means of connection to the movie. I didn’t realize it at first, but I found myself wishing those were in the context of a scene where a character were watching them, so the flow of the movie wouldn’t be interrupted. No points off though, it was a wash.
3. The removal of some of the action, in particular the all-out SS+NO vs everyone in their way scene in the prison, really stood out to me as a loss. Except for that, we never really see SS or NO as “real” superheroes, costume and all, going all out kicking bad guy butt, and I think that was an important scene. It just seemed to clinch the deal for those two as partners, as well as setting the bar for the future fight with the big O and being pretty exciting in its own right. Also, it seemed like some of the Big O fight was missing. Maybe just me since I only watched the first movie once, but I didn’t really get the same tension and suspense from the fight as I did the first time.
4. Back to the sex scene, while much improved as I said above, I did think that it came off as very rushed. The beginning of the scene, where the characters meet eyes and connect through the charge of the experience they just had, was a good moment and a defining one for their relationship. A more paced beginning would have been good, before the cutaway that brought the show into PG territory.

Those are my thoughts. I’d like to thank you for making this fanedit, it must have been an incredible amount of work, and I did enjoy it very much. Re the rest of the review ratings, here they are:

VIDEO PRESENTATION: Beautiful, couldn’t tell it from the original. (5/5)

AUDIO PRESENTATION: Perfect to me. I know music was replaced, but I noticed no distracting cuts and the music worked fine for me. (5/5)

EDITING: Technical perfection. Couldn’t tell a bit where things were added/removed. (5/5)

STORY PRESENTATION: Plus six of one, minus a half dozen of the other, plus .5 bonus points for the additional footage of the (major) story point about the original Night Owl. (4.5/5)

OVERALL RATING: WATCHMEN: Better than the original for storytelling and character development, but lack of context for the backstory footage and some directorial editing choices that didn’t work for me take it down two notches. (8/10)

Keep on editing and I’ll keep on watching!

W

Absolutely spectacular stuff. The 215 minute running time is perfect for the Watchmen story, the tone and structure are captured flawlessly, and you've managed to pull off the definitive film version of the brilliant graphic novel with flying colors. Jaw-droppingly good.

Watchmen: Midnight is masterfully done. The A/V quality isn't perfect, but this edit has breathed new life into this movie for me. Everything that needs to be said has been said already. If you love Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's masterpiece, this is the version for you.

I have never seen the original but I LOVE this edit!