Continued escalation in the superhero genre, one or two stair-steps above The Dark Knight. Adapted from “the most celebrated graphic novel of all time” (the escalation commences, even if the kudo is roughly akin to “the most celebrated reality-TV show” or “most celebrated MMA fighter”), it runs almost two hours and three-quarters, though “runs” really isn’t the word. The violence intermittently, but not relentlessly, reaches levels of post-Romero horror-film gore. (Zack Snyder, the director, came to fame with his remake of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.) The population of superheroes, without an exact head count, seems to exceed that of the X-Men. And the fashionable “darkness” of the genre deepens all the way to a purgative holocaust of Biblical dimensions. For literal brinkmanship, the Doomsday Clock that monitors U.S.-Soviet relations (as of 1985 in an alternative universe) starts out at five minutes to midnight. But a profusion of flashbacks — a profusion of biographical backstories — has the effect of dissipating any tension in the countdown to doomsday. A present-tense romance between a couple of second-generation superheroes has a similar effect. And a converging murder investigation fails to assert its relevance in a timely manner. As a piece of storytelling, it’s a complete botch. Back tracks and tangents, though they have their uses, don’t suit doomsday. And the climactic battle of indestructibles, a cliché no matter how extraordinarily talkative the combatants, adds instant boredom to the brewing boredom. Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. (2009) — Duncan Shepherd