A while back, director Zack Snyder promised fans that the DVD/Blu-ray versions of Watchmen were going to be packed with extras, including a director’s cut of film which would run almost thirty minutes longer than the theatrical version.
Well, The Blu-Ray Blog has gotten hold of the details regarding the forthcoming release of the Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray. For those who still care are keeping track, feel free to take a look and see how closely the Watchmen Blu-ray is living up to Snyder’s promise.
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Who watches The Watchmen? Facebook, baby. According to The Blu-Ray Blog, the Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray is going to push Blu-ray’s BD-Live function to new heights, by allowing Watchmen watchers to synch their Facebook friends network with BD-Live, “allowing for interactive community-screening and commenting.”
Now, as someone who doesn’t actually own a Blu-ray player (just constantly mooches off his friend’s PS3 for his Blu-ray thrills), I’m not sure if this BD-Live/Facebook hookup means that you’ll be albe to watch Watchmen simultaneously with people off your Facebook account who also own Blu-ray players and copies of Watchmen The Director’s Cut; or if you (owner of the Blu-ray player and Watchmen Blu-ray) will be able to stream the movie for your Facebook friends to watch online. If I had to guess, I would guess it’s the former (they sell more Blu-rays that way).
Tech geeks, can you help us out here?
Other than the BD-Live/Facebook feature, here is a spec list of what you can expect from the Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray:
WATCHMEN: DIRECTOR’S CUT
190 minutes (vs. 162 minutes for Theatrical Cut)
Video: 1080p VC-1
Audio: 5.1 Dolby TrueHDSpecial Features:
• Maximum Movie Mode (BD exclusive split-screen, on-camera commentary)
• Watchmen: Focus Points
• The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics
• Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes (BD exclusive)
• Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World (BD exclusive)
• Music Video: Desolation Row (My Chemical Romance)
• Digital Copy (theatrical version)
• BD-Live
Ok, so, elephant in the room: This “director’s cut” of Watchmen isn’t the rumored 205-minute “ultimate” cut of the movie, which is said to have footage from Tales of The Black Freighter spliced into the film. If you remember correctly, Zack Snyder said a few months back that the “Ultimate Cut” of Watchmen was going to be hitting stores in the Fall of 2009 (though I’m betting on early 2010 myself).
That means this “director’s cut” is only going to be a stepping stone. If you want to get the full and total Watchmen expereince, you’re going to have to wait until the “ultimate” cut hits stores (Warner Bros. is really milking this film for all it’s not worth).
However, if you can’t wait for the ultimate cut, or you’re just interested in seeing the director’s cut for the sake of some deleted scenes, the Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray hits stores everywhere on July 28, 2009.
Are you ready to re-live the awkward, head-scratching experience that was Watchmen? Will you be checking out the director’s cut? Or are you going to save your time and money for the ultimate cut?
Source: The Blu-Ray Blog
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84 Comments
@ Christopher P
There’s really no way to determine what you are asking, as VHS at one point was supposed to last forever as the standard, but got swept by DVDs. Blu-Ray player price is one reason I bought a PS3, because at least it can be used for games if not movies. And if u dont like PS3 uc an buy a Crap Box or Wii and a Blu-Ray for the same amount of a PS3 and still use the Blu-Ray player for regular DVDs.
I just dont get it, really, i live in mexico and the majority of my friends has hdtvs and ps3 or bluray players. It’s clear there’s a huge diference betweent the 2 formats.
I’ve assumed that in US blurays was a common thing nowadays like here.
I have around 22 blurays and near 300 dvd’s. I’ve only get dvd’s when the movie is not about special effects or great audio cuz there are so cheap right now, but if i want the full experience i go for br, no doubt.
Some dvd’s look like crap in HDTV’s, even upscaled. For example X-men dvd looks damn good, but x2 looks horrid.
X2 looks just fine in DVD format in fact any movie after 1998 looks great on DVD still. I’m not sure what your talking about. Of course the Blu Ray is gonna look better, but the DVD still looks good. This is coming from a person who buys Blu Ray by the way. It’s clear that Blu Ray is a better picture, but that is no reason to bash the DVD format. 3 Years ago you would of been saying X2 on DVD looked great now it looks horrid though because suddenly the new kid on the block is around. DVD is still a very acceptable format. I like the picture of the Blue ray and will usually buy it though sometimes I go DVD for the special cases because Blu Ray is really generic when it comes to cases which kind of feels like a rip off when some movies come out in these really bad ass DVD cases and you get a little tiny plastic thing for the Blu Ray and it costs just as much if not more than the bad ass DVD case.
Daniel F, you missed the point, i mean x2 dvd IN HDTV. Obviously 3 years ago i haven’t even notice any flaw cuz i was using a regular television. But put X2 in a HDTV and it looks like crap, not the case with others dvd’s, like the original xmen for example.
And i buy blurays because of the quality, im not defending the format cuz i owned some, it’s the other way around.
I’know some dvd’s looks good, really good now and i’m still buying some, like old movies that really don’t differ too much for bluray versions and tv series that dont justify the extra bucks.
I hope you get my point now.
On a 60″ 1080p HDTV you can definitely see the difference. Big time.
Vic
Vic it’s right.
But Daniel you’ve said something important, bluray cases are too generic, i own the godfather trilogy in both formats and the bluray one looks like any other cheap movie.
Actually, I’ll agree with that. I have a HDTV and when I played X2, even upscaled it looked bad.
I own an HDTV and X2 on DVD and think it still looks great. It’s no blu ray, but it certainly doesn’t look horrible. I can understand being disappointed with the quality in comparison to Blu Ray, but to say it looks horrid is way over board. It still holds up.
About the cases I regret like hell buying The Dark Knight in Blu Ray I wanted the big special case so bad, but I thought the beautiful picture would make up for it… It didn’t. However Iron Man on Blu Ray was my best Blu Ray purchase yet it looks great and had a decent case even.
To be honest, I have an LG TV which tends to have issues with contrast that other brands don’t, so that’s a contributing factor to X2 not looking so hot, but most of my other movies look great on it. I was amazed at how great The Matrix DVD looked on it.
Contrast and Bright scale can be tricky little buggers. I have other people come and configure my TV because I’m partially color blind. For the most part I can see the main colors-ish, but I have trouble distinguishing some of the more similar ones. Partial color blindness can be a bitch. I can see Red from Blue, but struggle with Blue and Purple or Orange and Yellow or in some cases even certain shades of Brown and Red or even Orange and Red if it’s darker orange. One of the most embarrassing things for me is when I’m doing something where you color something or choose a color theme and I accidentally pick a darker pink instead of red. I get made fun of a lot for that.
A guy I went to school with years ago had similar colour blindness… used to piss him off when teachers would change pen colours on the white board from blue to purple to make them stand out more as he saw no difference.
As for my TV, a few DVD’s that I have have features on them so you can configured the settings on your TV to the give optimum picture and sound (THX something or other). Didn’t really work for my new TV, the picture still seemed off after I’d done it so soon after we got the TV, I found myself in a shop displaying the same make and model of my TV and the picture on there seemed to be pretty good. I quickly grabbed the remote, went to the picture settings and then copied them down on my phone so I could set my home TV to the same thing. :p
I’m really down about my TV got some major image persistence. My ex wife decided to the leave guide open on the DVR for an entire night and it really screwed up my picture drives me insane.
I have a 46″ Panny Plasma and the picture looks phenomenal with a HiDef signal, but just average with a regular signal. I find myself barely watching regular channels anymore. SyFy NEEDS to get into HiDef so I can watch Dr. Who and Stargate in HiDef! LOL!!
I have a Pioneer progressive scan DVD player that I have hooked to my TV with Component video cables and the picture looks great on all the DVD’s I have played on it so far. I want to get a new receiver that upconverts EVERYTHING to 1080p and allows me to have one HDMI hookup to the TV. I’m thinking that the new receiver will happen before BluRay as to take advantage of the DTS sound and such.
I sersiously need to hit the lottery. LOL.
The Sci Fi Channel has had a HD version for quite a while.
Vic
Vic, I guess my cable company doesn’t carry it. I will have to call Time Warner.
I’m perfectly fine with watching regular TV. The HD is nice and all, but not really that important I can go with out it. I don’t wanna miss a good show just because it’s not in HD.Plus while I can see the different it’s not that huge for me from regular TV to HD TV. I mean I see it, but it doesn’t blow me away.
Newsflash for all you Bluray fans,,,
Today in the Hollywood Reporter,page 3:
“A team of Australian scientists has developed a data-storage technology that apparently can hold the equivalent of 2,000 dvds on a single disc and could be on the market within a decade (10 years). The researchers, from Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology, applied nanotechnology to pack in 1.6 terabytes of data, a giant leap from the 50 GB capacity of Bluray disc.”
(Imo) Bluray will have a short lifespan…
Well I had DVD for about 12 years so if Blu-ray lasts 10 that won’t be too bad. You can’t get much higher usable res and I’m sure new machines will be able to play Blu-rays just like Blu-ray players can handle DVDs.
Vic
@790
Are u serious? 10 years? that’s a lot to me and everyone else.
I starting to think you’re just jealous because you don’t have bluray capability. I hope im wrong.
JM, no I’m not jealous.
I admit that I have a issue with upgrading technology every other year as it seems like a waste and self perpetuates this cycle of what’s the latest craze that I have to have,,, but I don’t really need.
Technology is changing so fast that I’m just trying to say that Bluray won’t be the endgame of HD/dvd. You can invest in it, but don’t be too let down when the next digital medium makes Bluray look like VHS. And it won’t take 10 years. That was just what was in that article as I quoted it word for word.
Advances in video technology won’t stop until we reach the point where the next advancement over the previous one yields an experience that is indistinguishable from the previous leap in technology. Only at that point will we slow down and allow formats to have 20 or 50 year shelf life. We are a long, long way from true to life video reproduction so it’s best to get used to frequent technology upgrades for the foreseeable future.
I’m so ready to see the next installment of the watchmen… is there one coming?
i usually don’t buy the blu-ray, but i got this one. I saw this review and I thought it was awesome
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/products/watchmen-directors-cut-digital-copy-and-bd-live-blu-ray#reviews
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