Best Watchmen Cut | Theatrical vs Director's vs Ultimate

Thank you this was so helpful. I literally just found a copy of the directors cut at some random pawn shop and I bought it because I’ve always wanted to see Watchmen. I just got home and found out about the ultimate cut and I got so mad wondering if that was the version that I heard was so good or if it was the one that I just got. This video was super helpful in answering those questions!

First cut I watched was the Ultimate Cut as I wanted to get the full experience the first time and not miss anything. Had to take a few Intermission breaks but I enjoyed the hell out of all 3 and a half hours of that movie.

I have all three. the best cut is Theatrical.

After watching all 3 version of Watchmen movie, if you are a new here I personally recommend the director's cut

My favorite version is The Director's Cut
I give this one a 5 to 5

you just saved me 15 bucks

Never realised I was a crazy fan. I prefer the Ultimate Cut head & shoulders over the others.

Director's cut is "good enough" for fans wanting the full amount if they don't care about the black freighter comic part. That's really the only real thing added in to ultimate cut.
Director's cut does a fine job on it's own as a final full viewing experience.

I watch the ultimate cut once a year on Christmas

Watchmen is the best movie. Period lol

I love the watchmen movie I never read the comics thinking bout directors cut idc if it animated I love animation
Ik they have ultimate cut on Microsoft

Of course he'll say the Director's cut is better.

I hate this comic book I hate this story I watch the movie and it really got under my skin not and a good way

PLEASE
Can someone tell me JUST ONE scene or line that exists in the Ultimate Cut, but NOT in the Director's Cut?

I like the Black Freighter as a standalone, but with the rest of the movie it feels kind of jarring.

Snyder himself prefers the Director's Cut.

I really think Snyder was going to a nice direction with the DCEU, he just needed to be more positive with certain characters, like Superman, I think Cavill should just being himself you know, not that serious, that's more of a Batman thing but he isn't sad either.

It isn't the best movies ever, but I really like them, and has really nice concepts.

I wish a cut would fix the ending. Instead of having the weird ending change with Manhatten being framed for destroying New York, it’s the actual comic ending with the fake Alien. It really doesn’t make sense. It’s such a masterpiece. Frame by frame exact representation of the comic on the screen, but then he just changed the ending. It really made me dislike the movie.

The Ultimate Cut is probably my favorite cut of Watchmen, since it's about as accurate to the graphic novel as you can get. 3 hours and 35 minutes is a beefy runtime, but I enjoyed every second of it.

I watched the theatrical cut multiple times. Loved it every time. Got hold of the Ultimate cut and did not enjoy the movie. As the director said, the freighter pulls you away from the story too much. It also makes an already long film, very long. I didn’t even realise there were extra things added apart from the freighter, so cant say for sure if those made it better or worse for me. I will be trying to get hold of the directors cut now, as I didnt even realise there were 3 versions.

My most underrated movie of all time

So hollis death isn't in the ultimate cut.

The lady saying her son is a cop...that's originally from the comicbook lol the comicbook is pretty vulgar & definitely edgy I just wished Snyder was really true to the comic...& Added the Octopus monster

Divisive not decisive

The problem with the Watchmen movie is that if they were gonna adapt it, it should've been a miniseries done in 2020. The reason for that is that Watchmen was released in monthly issues & because of that, the issues are cover lots of material but also are closed off so they can focus on only one thing like the history of the minutemen, Rorschach's philosophy/mentality, the origins of Doctor Manhattan, etc whereas film does centrally focused continuous stories well but that's not Watchmen. But also, the context of when it was written, it was a commentary on not just the superhero genre at the time but also the global politics. When Watchmen came out, superheroes dominated the comic book market & other genres were a minority in comics but also, it came out from 1986 to 1987 when it was still the Cold War & tensions between the US & Soviet Union were rising again to the worst they'd been since the 60s (which is why you constantly see things like references to nuclear war, namely little boy and fat man which is a reference to the nuclear bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki respectively or the Soviets invading Afghanistan) to the point to where it was a terrifying threat that a nuclear war would've started. When the movie came out, there were only 2 MCU films, 2 out of 3 Nolan Batman films were released, the Raimi Spiderman trilogy wrapped up 2 years prior, you had a couple others but superheroes were not the biggest thing in movies/television in 2009 nor was there any serious global event going on that everyone was afraid of destroying the world directly. However, in 2020, superheroes DID dominate movies & television, not to mention the "you know what" happened where people were terrified of the world ending because of it. So a Watchmen miniseries would have been more relevant 3 years ago now (my gosh how quickly time goes by) but would've had to be modified to fit today & comment on the state of comic book films then not to mention the tensions surrounding the "you know what".

Just bought the ultimate cut five disc dvd set for $10, can't wait to see it in this version.

"Adrian Vaught, possible homosexual.. must investigate further."
- Rorschach, 1922

There’s moments in Watchmen that go too far. Pregnant Asian murdered and cock shots go too far.

Way too much CGI. The film maker cheated. He should have gone with more practical effects.

I've been watching the theaterical cut on netflix and realised that the one i first watched was the directers cuts purely because the line about the makerting boys and picking a symbol was cut from it

This was an EXCELLENT video!

I always start with Under the Hood, which I don’t think gets enough attention as an integral part of the experience. Then I sometimes watch the Ultimate Cut, but my preference is usually to go with Tales of the Black Freighter followed by the Director’s Cut.

When viewed all together like that, the nature of the source material is much more closely approximated, and its themes which are implicit in the film become much more explicit, thoroughly defying the prevailing criticism that Snyder missed the point.

What I didn't like about the directors cut is the interruptions by the director explaining some shit you don't care about, sometimes this is done over the movie it self ,In my opinion don't buy the directors cut.

Of course it has so many versions, just look who is the director 😂

Ultimate Cut isn’t just the director’s cut plus the anime stuff. It also includes the “homophobic” lines of dialogue like the theatrical cut has and the director’s cut excluded. So if you’re a fan of “homophobic” slurs and want the full experience of the watchmen story, then the ultimate cut is for you!

Are there any scenes from Director's Cut that aren't in Ultimate Cut? Did Ultimate Cut leave out any scenes? If so, I'm just going to get Director's Cut.

It’s the Ultimate Cut for me. I put off watching this movie for the longest time because of the mixed reviews. But being a fan of films, collector’s editions & alternate cuts, that big boxed set collector’s edition just kept calling my name. So I shelled out more money than I should spend and popped in the Ultimate Cut that night. I was blown away even with the animated film spliced in, it worked. It also made me a Zack Snyder fan. Loved his Ultimate Edition of Batman Vs Superman as well. His Director’s Cut to Justice League, while better, was still kinda boring though. And 300 is way too overrated.

But Watchmen Ultimate Cut is a masterpiece and one of my favorite superhero movies of all time. Up there with The Dark Knight and X-Men: Days Of Future Past.

The Directors cut is the best but if you collect physical media like i do the Ultimate Cut is the only version released on 4k , and Watchmen looks incredible in HDR, one of my best looking movies

There is a problem when I saw the movie it felt wide because I read the book but I liked the movie I give it a 9/10

Hot tip: if you get the Watchmen Ultimate Cut 4K with the Black Freighter cover it's a 3-disc combo including the Ultimate Cut in 4K and Director's Cut in Blu Ray + a special features disc

I have the ultimate cut which I like better then Directors cut which I had before that.

I've seen the ultimate edition once and it felt pretty long especially with the Black Freighter story edited in, it dragged on... My personal pick (and made me wish it was available digitally) is the director's cut

Director’s cut!

Thanks

Great edits

I just saw the extended version, and the part where Rorschach buys some right wing magazine turned me off from the character so much 😅

you missed the edited for tv version that tnt aired

I don't know why they couldn't have made the Ultimate cut disk have a seamless branching mode allowing you to choose which version you want to watch.

That said, I do like the Ultimate cut the best, but anybody not familiar with the comic will be completely thrown by why they're suddenly watching a cartoon, because the first Black Freighter segment starts without any introduction.

"who the hell is Steve Jobs?"