The Watchman Movie - (The Ultimate Cut is Three Hours and Thirty-Five Minutes.)

The Ultimate Cut is Three Hours and Thirty-Five Minutes.

Last night I watched a film called; The Watchmen. This was a second time around. I had enjoyed it some years back even though I did not entirely understand all of it. In parts, it was rather deep and dark but I think much of this aspect is what I liked.

Because it was a directed by Zack Snyder and he was in the Future Shock 2000 AD documentary that I had watched recently, I decided to give the movie a second shot.

I noticed there was an Ultimate cut. This was a mammoth three hours and thirty-five minutes on Amazon prime.

Therefore, I downloaded and did the goggle-box thing yesterday evening. I thought it was very alluring and loved the retro theme of the film. There were parts set back in this retro American 1940s and then on to episodes of 1959 and to the 1970s of an alternative President Nixon and Doctor Kissinger time.

The actual problem for our retired Superheroes is set in the mid-1980s when the former Soviet Union is in Afghanistan and we are moving towards an all-out nuclear war. Our superheroes are rather flawed which gives over to empathy for the viewer to indulge. We have a retired 40 something man whose name is Daniel Dreiberg. He was once Night Owl II, obviously a mark II from one of the retro heroes from the 1940s decade. We also have a woman who is called Silk Spectre II. Her name is Laurie Jupiter. Her older mother was a superhero and I’m presuming she was Silk Spectre I. (The original from the 1940s decade.)

In one scene, from this ultimate cut, Laurie Jupiter and Daniel Dreiberg wander down a side alleyway like Bruce Wayne’s Mother and Father once did. A group of street gang muggers come before them. Obviously, the gang does not know the civilians are retired out of costumed superheroes.

The fight scene was absolutely wicked and ferocious, to say the least. The woman, Laurie Jupiter (Silk Spectre II) it breaking arms and legs while Daniel Dreiberg is punching and slinging these urban villains all over the place. It was fast and brutal. I was sitting there thinking, “Oh my word.” I think they call it choreographing a fight scene? Well, they did it very well.

There are a whole host of other characters like Rorschach. A man that wears a white mummy type mask. There are pitch black stains that move around the front of the mask constantly changing all of the time.

Then there is this man called Doctor Manhattan. He looks like Silver Surfer but is a highly advanced atomic and quantum scientist who has become so advanced that humans are almost becoming irrelevant to him. His condition is because of an accident with a radiation blast back in 1959.

We have an old and blighted superhero called The Comedian. He is from the 1940s group but is still around in the mid-1980s as the story starts. A washed-up and past his sell-by date bloke who does not want to accept it.

Even though they are parading about in these outrageously strange outfits and are full of surreal personal problems I was compelled by it visually. The fight scenes are dynamic and rather violent. I can’t completely understand the entire film but I think most people can immerse themselves in it. I’ll definitely watch it again because I believe it is a story whereby you can learn extra things each time you watch it. Also, the Ultimate Cut version has a number of people and scenes edited out of the original film.