Watchmen: Chapter II

I'm happy to report that "Watchmen: Chapter II" is just as good as the original.

I love the gritty, real-world feel of the animation: really atmospheric in a feature that contains a lot of brutal violence.

For the final DC Animated Universe movie ever - or so they say - they really went all out, getting Titus Welliver, Matthew Rhys and Katee Sackhoff amongst others to lend their talents to bring a good script and story to life.

The whole cast was great, but Welliver (of "Bosch" fame) deserves special mention for his turn as Rorscach.

If this is indeed the last DC animated feature, they definitely went out on a high.

The story for Watchmen chapter 2 was not what I expected and very well written.

This was one of the best visual styles in an animated movie this year and an example of this is the comic books scenes. Also, it makes it look like the comic just jumped into movie form

I loved the villain in the movie and I thought he was very menacing.

The scenes on Mars where a little boring.

I found all the characters in the film to be really really intriguing.

I love the way the mystery was ended.

The voice acting in the film was really really good and every character had a standout moment.

Rorschach had some of the best scenes in the film.

The animated Watchmen movies are the epitome of "let's just get it done". They're doing Alan Moore's Watchmen -- just about.

Nothing is egregiously erroneous here (no needless modifications to the plot; no misunderstandings of the characters vis-a-vis how "cool" we're supposed to think they are; none of Snyder's blunders, basically). It's just that everything is rushed through, the voice actors just sort of read the lines, and the cel-shaded animation, while it sometimes resembles Dave Gibbons' art to a T, is so stiff that it makes me miss the presentation of the Snyder film.

And that's mainly with regard to the characters; the backgrounds are often downright terrible (more noticeably so in this film than I can recall in Chapter I). There are moments where the CGI landscapes and models look more like something from Myst than Watchmen.

The MO of these movies is encapsulated in the scene where Dan "Nite Owl II" Dreiberg learns of the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason's death at the hands of the knot-top gang; we here expect the scene where he has a moment of weakness and beats up a random knot-top in a way that would've previously seemed more befitting of Rorschach.

But when Rorschach says the line that is meant to lead into that sequence, Dreiberg replies "We don't have time". And so the scene is skipped. If only there was a way to experience this story in a way where, much like in the eyes of the mighty Dr. Manhattan, time is no issue.

I am a big Watchmen fan read the book, watched the 2009 movie, watched the TV series, anyways this movie is great example for how to make a faithfull movie to a source material; there are some small changes like modifying some scenes either by cutting some of it or adding some or changing the timline of the story, but these changes are pretty small and doesn't effect on what the story meant to show, actually liked the art style here and how we see the art style differs whether it's in the present or a memory or from parallel story of the pirate; ofcourse like most adaptations it doesn't match the book quality, but it doesn't mean it's not worth watching, because I think that this is actually pretty great adaptation and the best that we actually had until now and I think it's one of the best movies of the year; my only complaint here will be that the animation quality just drops in some shots which was alittle bit disappointing, but that happened in few times and it wasn't that big problem especially that the animation quality was pretty great in the most of the movie. So yeah that is my thoughts on Watchmen Chapter 2.

The alterations in this variation of the Watchmen graphic novel was more extreme than in Chapter 1 & the 2009 film in some ways , taking some big liberties with the story structure & certain scenes. However it retained the basic story elements of the original source, which the film version altered notably at the end.

For me the structural changes & additions didn't improve the story at all & jarred a bit at first.

Then I began to appreciate the fact that the original source would be impossible to do justice to in such a short space of time, & the changes didn't distract from the momentum of the film.

So, maybe someone who is unfamiliar with the graphic novel may find it easier to 'work out'.

Everything about the production & design of this animation is great. The music is superb , except that it be occasionally overbearing - drowning out the actors voices a bit much for my old ears.

The animation itself is brilliant with many superb moments. Some people have complained about it, tho I imagine the same commentators wouldn't be able to watch any animation pre the CGI if their sensibilities can't appreciate the work on this. Animation is not meant to be solely 'hyper-realistic & ray traced', it is often about a 'broad stroke & impression' than seeing the texture of fabric on a CGI model. The animation should be in the service of the story, & here it does the job superbly.

It should be remembered that the graphic novels 1st animation, that told the story most faithfully to the original, was about 12 hours long , 3x longer than the combined length of these two chapter. So there is no way it could be adapted in a one-for-one manner & it would be unfair to judge it as such.

The changes in this version are noticeable, but it is also refreshing seeing how another writer (J. Michael Straczynsk -of Babylon 5 fame) would approach & handle the story without totally ruining it. Here he does a good job, that in places expands on some 'vaguer' moments in the graphic novel that are only more comprehensible after finishing the story.