Flesh tones are natural, while the more intense hues don't create any problems with chroma noise or bleeding. Blacks are nicely rendered and shadow detail is pretty solid. The film element displays some blemished, however they are most noticeable in the earliest part of the film. The Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack has a rather subdued mix, especially in the surround channels. There are some directional effects across the forward soundstage, while the surround channels provide ambient sound and fill to David Shire's beautiful musical score.
Dialogue is reproduced cleanly and remains locked into the center channel.
After turning up the brightness and contrast controls on my monitor to unacceptable levels, I was able to detect the the large areas of blocky pixels that were the subject of the complaints. When I restored my monitor to its proper calibration, the compression artifacts were not easy to spot. So, the compression artifacts are there, but the viewer's individual setup will determine how noticeable they are during viewing.