HaH! Give me one repeat ONE reason to see this movie in the theater (other than the $6 for a ticket)? Why should I shell out that much to see a partial story, despite the superb length? If If they cut it THAT much, why not wait to see the DVD? Purchasing the DVD once I've seen the theatrical release makes no sense.

Because unless you got one heck of a home theater watching the fight sequences on anything other than 70 mm is like watching "crouching tiger" on you cell phone. I got luck enough to see an advance screening in Austin last week and the movie rocks. The cuts didn't diminish the story and I will see it agian in genreal release and will buy the extended directors version. My only reservation was the increase in nudity and longer sex scenes from the comic...my 16 year old daughter wants to see it...not looking forward to watching those scenes with her beside me.

There's a good reason to see the movie, not mentioned in the article. Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons was also on the panel and quite regrettably didn't get much time on the panel. However, he recounted that when he received Alan Moore's original script from years ago, it evoked a movie in his mind, which he then had to translate into the pages of the graphic novel. Seeing the movie version today, he said that it was true to the movie he saw in his mind back then. Considering the source, that is quite the compliment for this movie and worth every penny.

well i was there at wonder con and i was amazed at the twenty min of the film. what was bad for me is that i (and dont kill me for this) have not read the comic books. but for a person that dont know any thing it looks great lol well i will be there on the 6th to see it.

So in a nutshell, first we get a version that is missing 30 minutes and then we are supposed to pay for the real version later on. Sorry, but I am going to skip that butchered version. Would you order a version of the comic where ever sixth pages was ripped out?

And on top of that we are asked to place a sideorder for some animated DVD?

I watch this mess once it has been sorted out properly.

This is hardly a mess. The studio needs to control the length of a theatrical release for financial reasons, like shorter run time means more showings per day, and when a movie has a budget like this one, you can't blame them. Snyder's doing an amazing job of trying to make everyone happy by re-releasing the director's cut for the hardcore fans and by releasing the special dvd's. Comics and movies are different mediums - I don't need a panel for panel recreation if the story is well told and manages to maintain some of the depth of the original series.

Well I work at a movie theater so I get to go for free. Still, it's a good first run theater, but independently owned. Inexpensive tickets and concessions, but no stadium seating (Although the chairs are amazing). Every now and then I shell out the cash to go see a film at IMAX (won't do it on Watchmen though. IMAX theater near me makes god awful 7.50 popcorn, and I'd if I'm going to a 2.5 hour film I want to sit with the good popcorn my theater makes). As for a director's cut in theaters, I won't go. It won't come to where I work and I'm going to pay 25-30 bucks for the Blu-ray anyway, so why bother?

I'll be seeing Star Trek at IMAX though. The trailer on that screen blew my mind

If you make a really good movie, the length will not impact the money you make. Just look at Titanic. Top grossing movie world wide and it did not get cut down to 120 minutes for that to happen.

If anything people will get hungrier and thirstier watching a 3h movie, that's good for theaters, especially independent ones.

Also look at Nintendo, they make tons of money with their Wii on artificial shortage. Ask a European about it and they will tell you there are stacks of Wii in every shop over there and no shortage at all ever happened. Not creating a flashflood might be a good thing too.

Plenty of people went to see Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and it was missing over 30min of footage. No one complained about that. I seem to remember it getting a couple of Oscars as well, without that footage. So I think some people like complaining for the sake of complaining. Go see the movie, enjoy it. Buy the Blu-ray full cut of the film, and enjoy that too.

Plenty of people went to see Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and it was missing over 30min of footage. No one complained about that. I seem to remember it getting a couple of Oscars as well, without that footage. So I think some people like complaining for the sake of complaining. Go see the movie, enjoy it. Buy the Blu-ray full cut of the film, and enjoy that too.

The problem, I have with the DVD, directors cut is this:
It is supposed to interleave the pirate story as the film goes along. And in the comic, the punchline is the point where Adrian is talking to Jon. And Adrain explains that he dreams he is swimming... - which is a direct reference to the pirate story. Now given that the director has altered the ending, there are no artists, writers, etc - no Furnesse, no Max Shea, no Hira Manish - how does interveaving the comic story in the extended DVD make sense?

The problem I have with the extended release is that I want to watch it now. And then again tomorrow.

For me, this is a masterpiece in its theatrical form and I thought Snyder did an amazing job. I'll be seeing it again at the flicks, shelling out to see the extended version at the flicks later on, buying the extended disc, the assorted SE discs released later on.

Hell, I'd buy the 'Completey UnSpecial No Different to the Last Version' release of this.

Stunning piece of film-making.