DVD: Watchmen (18)

"The night reeks of fornication and bad consciences." Zack Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's much-loved graphic novel is full of this kind of portentous drivel.

However, the opening credit sequence, which lasts the length of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'", is sensational, a succession of vibrant, garish images charting history (an alternative one) from the 1940s to 1985, ending with a grinning, arms-outstretched President Richard Nixon winning a third term. It's all downhill from there.

An ex-superhero, Rorschach, is investigating the murder of fellow "hero" the Comedian, a thoroughly unpleasant fellow who kills indiscriminately (at one point, he kills a pregnant woman at point-blank range) and is given to raping his colleagues. Rorschach reconnects with his old, retired crime-busting pals – Ozymandias, Nite Owl II and the inexplicably naked Dr Manhattan (Billy Crudup) – to track down the killer. They're a gloomy bunch. The glum, masked Rorschach is equally appalling company, grumbling about "whores" and "human cockroaches". He's Travis Bickle, without the light side. The rest of the action is thoroughly baffling, sometimes soapy and always humourless. Yes, it's imaginatively lit and staged, and clearly an awful lot of cash has been spent, but ultimately Snyder's film is sombre, ultra-violent nihilistic rot, riddled with unpleasantness.