Rant: With Watchmen we find out Double Dipping now starts even before the first version is released

With Watchmen’s impending release I have been reading some stuff that has upset me about the release of this film. You know I consider myself a movie buff and as such I used to buy quite a lot of DVDs.Trust me a lot is putting it lightly. The key word here is “used”. See somewhere along the line we forgot why the DVD was invented in the first place. DVD was originally the replacement for the Laserdisc(showing my age here quite a bit) and Laserdiscs were once the only place to not only find a widescreen version of the film, but also commentaries and deleted scenes as well. Because they were once actually a FEATURE not a requirement. Commentaries were not something every director had to do before they wrapped production, they were usually enlightening and thought provoking. Where now they are standard on all releases and about entertaining as paint drying on a wall, well most are. Once the directors had to lobby for a Laserdisc release and the budget to put together a commentary track. They also had to track down the footage from deleted scenes and alternate endings for the release. Now this is all standard and all this content is produced in conjunction with the film.

Now DVDs like Laserdiscs were meant to be the DEFINITIVE  version of your film. The one with everything on it that pertained to your film, a COMPLETE version mind you to sit on your shelf for years to come. Somewhere, someone figured out, probably at Lucasfilm “if we release one version of the film with no extras and release another version about a year later with maybe one or two new features people will still buy it again” and “double dipping” was invented, thanks George.  This practice that once was reserved for big titles has like everything else trickled down. Now even sub-par, better left forgotten, action movies like Daredevil are victims of this practice and people still surprisingly buy them. Much like the constant stream of remakes and re-imagines people are still putting down their hard earned money for product they already own, so they can hear about the director’s struggle to get the lead actress to do a nude scene to better show the vulnerability of her character.

Sometime around 2000 when this became really bad, I stopped buying DVDs altogether. To me it seemed stupid to buy a movie and then have to re-buy it because the studio wanted to try and recoup their money because they used a subpar script only to try and appeal to a larger demographic. Sorry, not my fault. Then came the “Unrated”, “Uncut” or the “Director’s Cut” gimmick. See – once upon a time that made sense, the director had one vision for the film studio had another, the studio released their version of the film and the director needed the public to see his artistic vision in its truest form – somehow the director’s cut of Bloodrayne not come to mind. Now with movies like Terminator Salvation, you know they are releasing a highly edited version of the film to the theater market to assure their PG-13 rating only to “double-dip” theater patrons by releasing the real film they planned to release onto DVD and calling it either an Unrated version or a Director’s cut. Because of this, I decided to stop wasting money on going to see the movies in the theater on their first run because I would only have to re-watch them when they were released to DVD in their “True” form wether it be a Director’s, unrated or whatever the hell they decided to call it this time. Notice a pattern here?

The reason for this rather long diatribe is Watchmen. I knew that the version that was released in theaters was not going to be the final version of the film, the director made no qualms about it, because he had shot too much footage and the studio was very adamant about attaining a certain runtime. I was a big fan of the graphic novel and was looking forward to this film even though I knew I was being lured into the very same trap I despised. I did this because I knew the reasons, I accepted them and knew there would be a proper director’s cut when the film was eventually released on DVD and Blu-Ray. The director had said this numerous times, in multiple interviews.  He had also detailed that the Director’s cut would not only consist of a longer version of the film with scenes that were shot but not making it into the theatrical version for time constraints, but would also contain the animated Tales of the Black Freighter edited in throughout the film just like the graphic novel.

Here is the problem the director’s cut being released on July 21st is NOT that version. Funny thing is, previewers and Journalists who are receiving their advance copies of Watchmen the “Director’s cut” are finding out thanks to a flyer in the DVD and Blu-ray that the true 5 disc “Director’s cut” of Watchmen is going to be released in December and is not the version you hold in your hands, “Sorry”. But, because you spent $30-$40 buying this “Director’s Cut” we will gladly give you $10 off this version by allowing you to sign up for the Warner Rewards Program. After seeing this I was rather upset. I promptly cancelled my order with Amazon and hope you do the same.

I don’t see the point in buying something I know is already obsolete and I think Warner Brothers has some serious balls putting this flyer in the film to say “Hey thanks for buying this but it’s not only, not the version you thought it was but if you try and return this it’s opened and retailers wont take it back so enjoy an incomplete product and be sure to buy the ULTIMATE edition in December and have a nice day”. This is a slap in the face of consumers and fans everywhere as far as I am concerned and I hope you feel as disgusted as I do about this practice and not participate in this vicious cycle any longer. Because if no one buys this shoddy excuse for a “Director’s cut” because we know better, Hollywood might actually stop fleecing the movie going market. Honestly Watchmen was not a huge hit and I can’t see your average consumer being excited about a 3+ hour movie about super heroes, so in essence they are robbing the fans. These are the same fans who went to see the film twice on the director’s insistence to help the numbers of the film on the second weekend after opening. How are they repaying their loyalty? By some of the worst double-dipping in history, buyer beware.