Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

ThurstonHunger ...as this pretty much proves the essential nature of comic books. Not having the pieces integrated puts the movie(s) at a decided disadvantage . This DVD also included an excruciatingly overlong Culpepper Minute...although I do like the irony of it being called a minute and lasting an eternity, perhaps it was named the same in Moore's Watchmen. I don't recall...I will say Stephen McHattie as Hollis Mason was outstanding in this.Anyways, to me the Black Freighter story here ends up coming across hackneyed, and hack-kneed (and twisted-head, snapped-off-arm, etc...). The shocking gore piles up, and the story in my opinion is just not strong enough to stand on its own. While I'm at it, the Watchmen movie was alright, but reading the whole piece, in episodic installments, truly was a better way to enjoy it.So Moore is right in that his art-form was superior, despite the clearly loving attempt at a cinematic treatment. And yet, many folks will just not pick up anything that is book like (even if candy bars came with pages and a spine, I sense people would flee), so having the Watchmen and related items released is not such a heinous crime. Better than writing greeting cards to supplement one's creative pursuits.Anyways, if you watched the movie, and have not read the book, I'd only seek this out if you truly dig the graphic dark side of human behavior, but you'd be better served by exploring the graphic novel side that holds it all together.Thurston Hunger 3/10

movieman_kev A sea captain (Gerard Butler, 300 and RockNRolla) is the single person to survive a slaughter upon his ship by savage pirates aboard a black freighter, this 25 and a half minute animated adaptation of the secondary story in the Watchmen comic mini-series tells the macabre, heart-wrenching tail of his journey back to the Davidstown before the pirates can arrive there to pillage his homeland. While using a somewhat minimalistic animated stylization, the story as well as the visualizations work triumphantly and one can't help but be drawn into both. Not so much a companion piece to "Watchman" (although the case for that has been made ad nuaseum) as much as a brilliantly conceived piece that can indeed stand on it's own.My Grade: A DVD Extras:Under the Hood (a 37 and a half minute faux news interview with Hollis Mason about his book) a 225 minute featurette on the making-of; the first chapter of the Watchman motion comic, a first look at "Green Lantern: First Flight"; a prerequisite ad from Blu-Ray; and trailers for "Terminator: Salvation", "Watchmen" & the video game adaptations of Terminator & Watchmen

tseng808 I regard this more as something stand alone than something that accompanies The Watchmen. It is the perfect example of an animated short. The entire plot is chilling from start to end especially with Butlers sterling performance as the Sea Captain. The animation i was quite surprised how much i actually liked it as i did not expect a great deal of detail- but it looks extremely effective. I can only hope in the directors cut of Watchmen that it makes an appearance between the film as it did in the graphic novel. Though it is unfair to constantly relate this back to the film as it is its own work and has its own merits.For me it is exactly what i wanted it to be, a haunting exploration of the inner mind.

necron99-5 So I haven't seen The Watchmen yet, nor have I read the graphic novel.This was a very cool, well done little piece of psychological horror.In the vein of Hitchcock or The Twilight Zone with copious amounts of blood and gore, and with pirates. There is a very nice sense of tension throughout the story and there are more than a few shocking moments.Even though animated, I still found myself unintentionally cringing at some points. The animation is done well, I'm glad its not done in an Anime style. It reminded me a little of Ralph Bakshi which was nice and the twist or climax at the end left me satisfied.I will definitely be recommending this to everyone I know. Especially the ones who enjoyed The Watchmen. I was planning on seeing it soon and this has certainly added to my anticipation. But whether Watchmen turns out to be awesome or not, this is a great piece of animation and absolutely stands on its own. Even if you didn't like the movie this was extracted from you should check this out.