
Warner Bros.
Nothing says the holidays like a dystopian conspiracy story about the faults of humanity.
Just in time for gift-giving, Watchmen: Chapter II now available on 4K Blu-ray.
If you haven’t seen Watchmen: Chapter I stop what you are doing and go watch it now because:
a. You need to see Chapter I before viewing Chapter II. They do not exist as standalones films. They are 100% a continuous story broken up into two installments.
b. It’s currently the best adaptation of the comic book and absolutely worth the time commitment to see both. Marathon it.
c. If you saw Chapter I and loved it, then you’re in for a treat because Chapter II is all the same creative team and continues the story without missing a beat.
Beware: beyond here, there be spoilers!
In Watchmen: Chapter II we pick back up right after Chapter I’s equivalent to the mid-season cliffhanger finale. Our characters’ lives are turned upside down. Rorschach, unmasked and revealed to be the loner Walter Kovacs, is in jail after being framed for the murder of a “former” villain. Dr. Manhattan is in self seclusion on Mars, believing he caused the death of former colleagues. His exit weakens the world view of the United States military strength when they lose him as a protector. This acts as the catalyst for escalating pre-war tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The world moves closer to doomsday.
After Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth, his former lover Laurie Juspeczyk (aka the 2nd Silk Spectre) is reduced to couch surfing at Dan Dreiberg’s (aka Nite Owl 2.0’s) lair after the government forces her to vacate the home she shared with Manhattan. Laurie begins an affair with Dreiberg.The two return to masked crime fitting, but it only steers Dreiberg to keep picking away at Rorschach’s conspiracy theory. Laurie and Dan break Rorschach out of prison to help solve the mystery. Meanwhile Veidt seems barely bothered by his brush with an attempt on his life, and seems more involved in the conspiracy than originally thought.
Straczynski’s adaptation stays true to the original comic book both in story and feel. It’s the magic mixture of noir crime story, super hero tale, and day-time soap opera all wrapped up in a sardonic bow. Straczynski nails Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbon’s world. Moore subverted the traditional superhero story, making his “heroes” fallible and human.
He put under the microscope what is “Justice” and what is “Right”. Veidt ultimately brings about world peace, but is what he did “right”? Not even the all knowing Dr. Manhattan can answer.
Watchmen: Chapter II also continues the story of The Black Freighter, the comic book being read by a young kid at the newsstand which is interwoven concurrently with Watchmen’s events. The 4K Blu-ray lets a viewer soak in the different animation styles of the two stories. The Black Freighter leans into the old school comic book style to separate it from Watchmen’s main storyline style giving it texture and an authentic comic book feel. The Blu-ray also lets the viewer see all the details that the animation team added into the backgrounds and continue to be fed little Easter eggs of the story. The sound in this version is stellar. Cris Mertens’s Blade Runner-esque soundtrack works well in this world.
The only real detraction for me was the animation style of the “current day” Watchmen. I grew up on Batman: The Animated Series, Disney, and a ton of Japanese Anime ranging from Hayao Miyazaki and Hadeki Anno. There is a fluidity and expressiveness in the animation that I yearned to see in Watchmen that just wasn’t there. A lot of the character movement felt like an animatic placeholder waiting to be fully rendered.
It’s not a mistake. It’s not a budgetary restriction. It’s a clear choice. And it’s an odd choice that at times hamstrings the actors’ performances. Matthew Rhys and Titus Welliver gave dynamic performances that the animation just didn’t reflect in expression or gesture. Katee Sackoff’s Laurie has a lot of subtle moments that were reduced to almost blandness because of the lack of expression in the animation. It came to a point where I shut that part of my brain off and just accepted the animation style because the story is so good.
Extras include featurettes.
Watchmen is one of the original comic books that challenged the genre. Since its publication, many comic writers have taken their cue from Moore. Watchmen: Chapters I and II are a great opportunity to immerse yourself into this comic classic.


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