I may not like Zack Snyder's adaptation of Watchmen, but I do admit that he put a lot of effort into the details, which is why the movie is just perfect for the following Blu-ray feature. The Watchmen Director's Cut Blu-ray presents something called the Maximum Movie Mode. It's basically a visual commentary on steroids, featuring the director himself. As you can see from the video below, Snyder plays host to the film, bringing up behind-the-scene footage, comic comparisons, trivia, storyboards, and even pauses and rewinds the movie to point out certain things.
It's a really cool idea that implements the usual bonus features in a fresh way. It's much more captivating than audio commentaries or featurettes, because it's actually aligning the behind-the-scenes stuff with the corresponding scenes in the movie, allowing you to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how a movie scene evolves from concept to finished form. This takes advantage of the capabilities a Blu-ray disc can offer, which helps making the format more appealing than regular DVDs.
Take a look at how it works in this clip here:
One thing that I'm not so sure about is Snyder's physical appearance. It's cool that he's so involved in the presentation of his own movie, but at the same time it seems intrusive. I don't know, I'll have to give the whole thing a try. But wouldn't it add to the already long running time? That's like a 3-hour commitment just to give this feature a try.
While I like the concept and would love to see more films offering this in-depth of a look, I can't imagine that there would be a lot of directors willing to "host" their movies like this. Off the top of my head, I'd guess maybe Peter Jackson, Kevin Smith, Eli Roth, Robert Rodriguez, or Jon Favreau? Favreau is the most likely. The Iron Man Blu-ray was already insanely packed with behind-the-scenes docs on nearly every single aspect of the making of the film; I can see them formatting the Iron Man 2 features in this manner with Favreau hosting. However, I think a lot of directors still prefer to maintain an air of mystery, or let the movies do the talking, so I don't see this becoming as standardized as the Director's Commentary (most of which are inane chatter anyway).
Watchmen Director's Cut Blu-ray goes on sale July 21. You can pre-order from Amazon now. The new cut, which boasts an additional 25 minutes, will also be released in theaters on July 17 in Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis and Dallas. For one weekend only.
There's also another feature that's going to reward those who buy the Blu-ray on release day. On July 25 at the San Diego Comic-Con, Snyder will host a special screening of the Director's Cut in front of an audience. Those who are not attending the 'Con can fire up the BD Live feature on their players and watch the movie at the same time, allowing them to chat live with Snyder.
Me, I'm just really curious if the extra 25 minutes can make the movie more tolerable. At the very least, maybe the movie wouldn't feel so rushed.
