Wow. If ever there was need for Blu-ray/high definition, it’s a film like ‘Watchmen’, where the level of detail (much of it rendered in a shadowy, dark-hued context) really demands maximum clarity and depth.

As a visual experience, ‘Watchmen’ is about as astonishing as it is as a film. Surely, this will go down as perhaps the best motion picture ever to be made from a comic (or more correctly, a graphic novel).

As someone who hasn’t read the book, I found the first 45 minutes quite difficult to unravel; its technique is to constantly cut back and forth from concurrent scenes and flashbacks. After a while (and this film is a generous 2 and a half hours in length) I finally “clicked” and relaxed into the style. At a certain point (about an hour and 15 minutes in) the film starts trying less hard to explain the characters and their complex beginnings and starts concentrating on the story at hand, and it starts to get pretty compelling at that point.

There seems to be a trend to end-of-the-world and apocalyptic films at the moment, and ‘Watchmen’ fits right in, but I wouldn’t insult this great piece of cinema by mentioning it in the same breath as something like ‘Knowing’. (Oh dear, it happened anyway).

Set in a fictionalised 1985 in which Richard Nixon is president and the world is on the brink of nuclear war with Russia, ‘Watchmen’ is about a group of superheroes who are supposed to have hung up their costumes. It’s unlike any superhero film before it, and its subject matter is extremely dark. In fact, it’s rare in motion pictures to find a picture that examines the human race and existence itself on such a deep, metaphysical level as ‘Watchmen’. Here’s a film that really belongs in the ‘art movie’ category, and it’s a rare example of film (surely one of the most debased artistic expressions at the moment) expecting some intellectual muscle from its viewers.

While ‘Watchmen’ is not an easy watch, anyone who appreciates special effects and contemporary CG will watch with mouth agape. The CG work here is simply spectacular, except that it’s not just explosions and unnecessary ballistics… every frame seems to count for something, unlike recent fiascos like the ‘Transformers’ sequel, for instance.

It’s a violent and frequently disturbing film, but one with a deep-thinking moral centre. For all that, it’s definitely adult viewing.

Now back to the look and sound of ‘Watchmen’. It’s incredible! There’s a terrific sense of control over the visual style of the movie, and as I said before, its appropriately shadowy. But when the viewer expects to see detail, that’s what we get. For instance, when one of the superheroes has his mask ripped off, the level of detail on the heroe’s face (wrinkles, cuts and scrapes, stubble) is just incredible. I can’t think of a better transfer to Blu-ray.

Unlike the US release, we get DolbyTRUE HD rather than its DTS equivalent (why?) but it’s still spectacular. The sound of the movie is just as crucial as the visuals (almost) and everything is crisp, packs plenty of heft, and there’s clear differentiation between the audio effects, the score, the dialogue (which is just a little bit too low in the mix for my liking) and the rest.

There’s a second disc of extras, which runs to the usual over-supply of ‘making of’ features and featurettes. GARY STEEL

Sound 4.5

Vision 5

Movie 5