I have mixed feelings about Peter Jackson's attempt to make the testimony and footage from the first World War more accessible to modern audiences through colourisation, CGI, sound effects and even 3D. The "restoration" is only partly successful to my eyes. For example, the blurry slow motion segments rather than adding pathos and drama only serve to make the production sag and the colourisation - particularly the uniform washes of skin colour - can never be mistaken for reality.
More concerning is the juxtaposition of still photos of corpses with close ups of people who resemble them in group photographs - and the use of unrestored clips of black and white silent footage with a clattering projector soundtrack belies the fact that silent film can look very good indeed when sensitively restored and played at the right frame rate.
But it's not without merit, the colorisation highlights details like poppies growing on a grass verge or camouflage patterns on tanks which I would have certainly missed otherwise. The foley effects add real atmosphere to the first hand accounts of survivors. The story itself remains a powerful one, and the close is really strong.
Verdict: A worthy experiment
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