Watchmen: Chapter II: A Flawed, but Faithful Conclusion That Sticks the Landing (Blu-ray)

The Film:

Just three months ago, director Brandon Vietti and screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski gave us the first half of their new adaptation of Alan Moore's beloved graphic novel "Watchmen," which may have had a couple of weak spots in the voice cast and in the choice of what material to include, but was ultimately a very faithful iteration of the source material, told with an intriguing visual style. Now they're back with the remainder of the epic tale with "Watchmen: Chapter II," where we'll see if they were able to stick the landing and keep up the same level of quality in terms of adhering very closely to Moore's classic story.

Picking up where "Chapter I" left off, Rorschach (Voice of Titus Welliver) is in jail after having been framed for murder, while Dan (Voice of Matthew Rhys) and Laurie (Voice Katee Sackhoff) try to figure out their next move. Feeling rather helpless as the world teeters on the edge of WWIII, they decide to got out on patrol like they used to, first saving several people from a fire, then opting to go spring Rorschach from jail. Once they've completed their task, Dr. Manhattan (Voice of Michael Cerveris) appears to take Laurie to Mars for an important conversation about humanity, leaving Dan and Rorschach to continue their investigation, which eventually leads them to a rather startling discovery.

Right at the top, my apologies if this ends up sounding very similar to my review of "Chapter I," but in this case, that ends up being a rather good thing. "Chapter II" maintains the high level of faithfulness to Moore's graphic novel, following every plot point very closely right through to its incredible conclusion. In fact, the only change I noticed was a remarkably small one in which Dan and Rorschach uncover a vital clue on paper rather than on a computer as in the book. It's an odd little change in detail, but one that changes absolutely nothing in regards to the progression of the plot.

On the negative side, as they had in the first film, they unfortunately continue to include the irrelevant "Tales of the Black Freighter" comic, which is basically a story told within the story. Just as it was in the source material, it ends up serving no purpose but to pad out the narrative (in one of the extras, illustrator Dave Gibbons admits that they had to pad out the story when they had to fill 12 issues instead of just six, so this was undoubtedly added for that very reason). Again, one of the best decisions Zack Snyder made in regards to his outstanding 2009 live-action adaptation was to cut this, and his version ended up being all the better for it.

As far as the voice acting goes, it's still a pretty good collection of performances. Titus Welliver still leans a bit too much into Batman for his Rorschach voice, but he doesn't talk nearly as much in this half, while the also-iffy Rick D. Wasserman as Edward Blake is almost entirely absent. Instead, this half mainly concentrates on Matthew Rhys' Dan, Katee Sackhoff's Laurie, and Troy Baker's Adrian, all of whom give fine vocal performances that bring these characters to life quite well.

The animation itself continues the same gritty style, which comes off as a little imperfect, but as mentioned last time, this is taking place a few decades ago, so it looking a little blemished here and there actually adds a lot to the mood & atmosphere of the film. If it looked bright and cheerful, it would only hurt the narrative and cause it to have much less of an impact.

Taken all together, "Chapter II" ends up being on the exact same level as "Chapter I." I would still lean heavily towards Snyder's live-action adaptation as the superior version, but this animated telling is a fascinating alternative for those looking to see this story told in another medium. It's certainly got its flaws, but if you're looking for an iteration of the popular graphic novel that follows it almost perfectly, then it's one that's definitely worth checking out.

Video/Audio:

"Watchmen: Chapter II" comes to Blu-ray in a 2.39:1, 1080p High Definition transfer of excellent quality. The film looks perfectly sharp & clear throughout its 90-minute duration, highlighting the intriguing visual style of its animation. Likewise, the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is fantastic, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in outstanding quality. Overall, just like they did on "Chapter I," Warner Bros. has done a marvelous job on the physical home debut of the second half of this animated epic.

Special Features:

Dave Gibbons and Watchmen: Endgame (7 Minutes): A featurette in which illustrator Dave Gibbons and others discuss bringing the epic graphic novel to an end.

The Art of Adaptation: Building to the Final Act (10 Minutes): A featurette that focuses on bringing the second half of the graphic novel to life.

Designing Watchmen (22 Minutes): A featurette that focuses on the designs of the Watchmen universe.

Conclusion:

"Watchmen: Chapter II" ends up on the exact same level of "Chapter I" in that it remains a remarkably faithful adaptation of Alan Moore's beloved graphic novel, featuring the same mostly-decent vocal cast and gritty animation, while also continuing to make the same mistake of including the pointless story within the story. Taken all together, it becomes a strong iteration of the tale that sticks the landing remarkably well, ultimately making for a decent conclusion to this animated epic.

Score: 3.5/5

Available on Blu-ray starting tomorrow.

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