ANI-MOVIES, *Watchmen: Chapter I & II

As if the various editions of the 2009 live-action film weren't enough, or that there already was an all-encompassing motion comic, as well as a live-action mini-series that acted as its own conclusion to the original source material, Warner Bros. along with Paramount thought that they'd squeeze one more drop out of the still-beating heart of the Watchmen franchise. The sad fact that this was the official ending of the DC Animated Movie Universe. Since the Tomorrowverse was concluded with the Crisis On Infinite Earths trilogy, there hadn't been any other direct-to-video animated films based on any DC Comics material. For the longest time, Alan Moore's Watchmen was a DC Comics title, but only within the last few decades has it been treated like yet another parallel universe to the regular DC Comics reality. Even though there have are several kinds of expanded media based on the 80's comic book series, including an original animated feature of the Tales Of The Black Freighter story within a story that was eventually spliced with the complete live-action movie to make the Ultimate Cut of the film which was released a while later. Instead of choosing an unexplored production based on DC's enormous library for potential stories, one of which was planned to be the long sought after Kingdom Come, Warner decided to just retread the already bare material just like they did when they remade Superman: Doomsday into a 2-part movie. This duology wasn't even animated within Warner Bros like the last two crappy Mortal Kombat cartoon films, as it was produced by Studio Mir who have an impressive record with X-Men 97 and My Adventures With Superman, however it was created entirely in 3D cel animation that makes it look even cheaper than the Battle Of The Super Sons debacle. There's is little here that any watcher couldn't have gotten out of the previous adaptations.

The two movies follow the original comic book series with a few additional touches. The Tales Of The Black Freighter is blended more into the narrative like someone actually reading a comic book along with the events of the main plot. Aside from this bonus, the only thing a past viewer of any other versions of this story is the fact that its animated and that it keeps the majority of the intended dialogue.

Watchmen: Chapter I and Chapter II would've made things easier if it was just initially released it as a single feature. Splitting this up into two separate release was just another act of corporate greed and absolutely unnecessary. This was such a waste of resources as the money spent on this prolonged production could have funded a better selection from the DC Comics library. So, the DCAMU ends not with a bang, or a whimper, but a click of the remote control, making this an even bigger practical joke than Ozymandias' plan.