Review: Watchmen blu-ray

Depending on who you talk to, Watchmen is either the best or worst movie of 2009.

As an adaptation of a famous graphic novel, Watchmen is set in 1985 but in an alternate universe.

In this dark place, Richard Nixon is still president of the United States, the Cold War is still running and superheroes exist.

However, superheroes have fallen from grace and are outlawed. And more recently someone has started killing retired superheroes, one by one. A chap by the name of Rorschach, himself a former superhero, decides to get on the case and try to get to the bottom of it.

As he narrates the story we are introduced to a number of other retired superheroes, all fearing for their safety and all concerned about the state of the world.

There is no doubting the brilliance of the cinematography of Watchmen, and a number of computer generated sequences are simply breathtaking.

The antics of the wholly computer generated character Dr Manhattan – a blue being – are particularly awesome to behold.

A film noir approach informs the movie, and a touch of 1940s gangster spirit is clear in the production.

It was a very difficult task for the makers of Watchmen to adapt it from such a complex and cult-popular graphic novel, but they have done so admirably.

The Watchmen bluray will be available in the second half of 2009.