Film  

The best way I can think to describe Battle: Los Angeles is that is a cross between Independence Day and Black Hawk Down, albeit without the humor of Independence Day. In fact, there are scenes lifted right out of both films in this film. The comparisons are obvious. Aliens invade the Earth. They position their attack ships outside of major cities all over the planet The aliens are tall with big heads and spindly legs. They have advanced weaponry that we can hardly deal with. We have a parent with a young child, wounded in the attack who dies. We have an alien with an achilles heel and a brave soldier who figures out how to breach their defenses and bring down each of the mother ships around the world which are controlling each of the attacks. Sound familiar?

On top of this is the gritty look and unrelenting action of a film like Black Hawk Down, presented in a documentary type fashion with hand held jerking cameras. In fact, it is the unrelenting action which is the saving grace of the film as it keeps you are least mildly interested in the film and helps you to overlook the plot and even the lifted dialogue and scenes from other films. It is because of this and the reference video and audio presentations as noted below, that I can give this film a recommendation.

Video  

The video presentation here is darn near perfect and is reference material all the way. The film does not exactly have a bright color palette as it is filled with browns and grays but has exquisite levels of clarity, depth and detail. Blacks are deep and inky. Shadow detail is fantastic.  Each skin pore and blemish, each hair on a soldier’s face is clearly visible as are the fine textures of the uniforms and clothing as well as the metal skin of the military equipment. If you are looking for demo reference material to show off your system and show just what the Blu-ray format is capable of delivering, Battle: Los Angeles is the release for you. The video presentation here is simple sensational. Need I say more?

Audio  

The audio here is a perfect match for the video presentation and is just as reference as the video. The sound mix is superb, with the surrounds engaged aggressively throughout the entire film, placing you smack dab in the center of the action. When the soldiers are holed up in a home in Santa Monica hiding from the advancing alines and trying to regroup, it sounds like you are in the room with them as the room ambiance is captured beautifully. You can hear things falling in the alleys around you, with gun blasts in the distance. The dialogue is beautifully recorded and well placed in the sound field and never ever gets lost in the mix. Dynamics are superb with deep and room shaking bass. The overall fidelity is simply superb, sounding smooth, rich and lifelike with transparency and imaging which is simply off the charts. The sound is just effortless, never straining  and sounds superb, regardless of the volume levels. Listen to this baby cranked up! It really doesn’t get better than this. Superb.

Special Features   

Battle: Los Angeles comes with several extras which while standard fare, are at least mildly interesting. The film comes equipment with what is described as “Command Control” which enables you, via picture-in-picture, to watch storyboard comparisons, battle points and items of interest while watching the film. Quite frankly, watching the film is enough for me. This is a feature that you will only want to access once you have watched the film one time through.

The bulk of the extras consist of featurettes about the making of the film and include “Behind the Battle”, “Aliens in LA”, “Preparing for Battle”, “Creating LA in LA”, “DIrecting the Battle”, “Boot Camp” and “The Freeway Battle”. These featurettes are rather self explanatory as they take you behind the scenes to show how the film was made and show how particular scenes were staged and filmed and feature interviews with the cast and crew.

Final Thoughts  

I found Battle: Los Angeles to be mildly entertaining due mostly to the non stop nature of the action in the film. In addition, this film features reference audio and video presentations that were simply superb. Whether that alone is enough of a reason to purchase a particular title, I will leave up to you.

Film  

The Green Hornet is probably the worst of the most recent comic book based films and by a wide margin. As a fan of the old comic book and the very short lived TV series (canceled after one season), I was expecting a lot more than what this film delivers. In hindsight, I should have known better given that the film was written by Seth Rogan. What the film has in abundance, and what most Seth Rogan films seem to always have in great abundance, is stupidity and at times gross stupidity. Cross a super hero film with crap such as Observe and Report and you have The Green Hornet.

This film totally misses the point of what makes The Green Hornet such an interesting character. Rather than the urbane Britt Reid of the old radio series, the comics and the TV series, we get Britt Reid the a-hole, the non stop partier, without any social consciousness at all and one who has total disregard for his sidekick Kato, who here, unlike the prior incarnations of this character, is the only brains behind the duo.

The film picks up showing an early interaction between Britt and his father, played by Tom Wilkinson, the publisher of The Daily Sentinel, one of LA’s great papers. Britt’s father is to be kind, disappointed, with how Britt was running his life. However, Britt is in for a rude awakening when his father dies suddenly and mysteriously as a result of a bee sting. Britt is then placed at the helm of the paper and suddenly and out of the blue, decide to become a superhero. There is no foundation laid for this change and even so, it is played purely for comedic effect. There is a ton of wasted talent here, from the director, Michel Gondray of the Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless MInd, to Tom Wilkinson and to Christoph Waltz as the lead villain.

Sure the film looks good and has some nifty although totally unoriginal special effects and some great gadgets. The problem, the film has no plot and is totally stupid. The real cool version of The Black Beauty featured in the film is not enough to save this film. There is a great story to be told here. However, Seth Rogan is not the man to tell it or star in it for that matter. At best, I can give this film nothing more than a tepid rating as a rental. What a shame and what a wasted opportunity. Hopefully, the next one (isn’t there always a next one these days) will be better, much better, and hopefully, sans Mr. Rogan.

Video  

While I didn’t like the film, I loved the transfer, which looks fantastic. The film features a bright and bold color palette with natural looking flesh tones. Blacks are deep and inky giving the overall image a very nice sense of depth. I found the overall clarity, detail and depth to be excellent. The only thing that keeps me for giving the film a 5 star rating is the level of detail, which although excellent in its own right, falls just a tad short of the very best I have seen and hence, just a bit short of reference quality and I mean just a tad short. On a different scale, the video here would rate a 4.75 out of 5, it is that good.

The transfer is remarkably noise free, even in the very dark sequences and as one would expect given the age of the film, is in pristine condition. Fans of this film should be more than pleased with the video presentation here. It should be noted that I only screened the 2D version of the film as I do not have a 3D display (a Kuro will just have to do!) However, with the exception of a couple of obvious sight gags, I can’t really see 3D adding much here given that the film was not shot in 3D. I will, however, leave that judgment up to you.

Audio  

As impressed I was with the video presentation, I was even more pleased with the audio, where is excellent and of reference quality in every way. The film features excellent dynamics and deep and powerful bass. The bass response is top notch and lacks some of the overly exaggerated bass that we see in some action films which tends to be over the top and bloated. The bass here is rock solid, tight and impactful, without overtly calling attention to itself. I wish that all action films sounded this good. If I had to pick a word to describe the audio here, it would be effortless.

The overall fidelity is smooth and open with excellent transparency and imaging. Depth both from side to side and front to back is exceptional, creating a huge sound field. The surrounds are used aggressively to create an excellent sense of immersion. Sound effects such as explosions and gun shots, and there are many in this film, have an excellent sense of heft and authenticity. The various panning effects are done beautifully as well. All in all, this is a great sounding film that is reference in all respects.

Special Features  

The version of the film that I was provided with is a 3-disc combo pack, containing a 3D version of the film, a 2D version of the film as well as a DVD copy. As I do not have a 3D display, I only watched the 2D version of the film. I believe that in addition to the 3D combo pack, a 2D combo pack of the film is also available. For those of you with 3D capabilities, the 3D disc contains a 3D Animated Storyboard Comparison.

The 2D disc contains many extras including the usual commentaries, a gag reel and deleted scenes. The extras also include The Green Hornet Cutting Room which allows you to edit car cash scenes yourself.

Also included are several featurettes about the making of the film and the film makers including “Trust Me” with director Michel Gondry, a Writing the Green Hornet featurette, The Black beauty: Rebirth of The Cool, The Stunt Family Armstrong,, FInding Kato and The Art of Destruction.

We also get 2 Easter Eggs Jay Chou’s Audition and Double Barrel. While there are a ton of extras here, I can’t say that I found any that were really compelling, with the rating noted above based more on volume rather than content.

Final Thoughts  

The Green Hornet was a huge disappointment for me as a film. There is great potential here with these characters and this is a story that really deserves a much better effort, with people who really understand the characters and what makes action films so compelling. I would just love to see what someone like Christopher Nolan could do with this story. I have seen enough of Seth Rogan. Rated as a rental only.

Film

David Ayer’s S.W.A.T. gets a direct to video sequel, which seemed odd to me. Considering David Ayer’s filmography can be broken into two categories: grungy critically successful films such as Training Day and Harsh Times and critically panned hits like Fast and the Furious and S.W.A.T.

When compared to The Fast and the Furious, which is about to become a pentalogy it’s strange that S.W.A.T. wouldn’t follow suit and have more sequels released considering it’s very successful box office performance. Instead were given a by-the-numbers low budget sequel 8 years later.

The film follows a new S.W.A.T. team as they train in Detroit  with a new captain from out-of-town, played by Gabriel Macht (The Spirit)  the first of many actors who could only be here for a paycheck. From having both Terminators in this film: Robert Patrick and Kristanna Loken I was immediately reminded that it shouldn’t be a surprise considering Robert Patrick played an over-the-top bad guy in The Marine a while back and Loken can be spotted in a tirade of Uwe Boll flicks. All of the characters in the film are incredibly flat playing walking clichés of characters from other films. Even the main character doesn’t have any depth… he goes from being a tough swat leader to a tough swat leader who is being targeted by a mad man.

With over the top acting and really poor writing the film feels like a bad joke. There’s a scene that displays the genius behind the script in which there is a cell phone conversation between Robert Patrick’s villainous character at a firing range and our protagonist at a different firing range and as they want to emphasize their points, they decide to begin firing at their targets…  It’s hard to take the script seriously when almost every aspect of it feels like a 12 year old wrote it.

Video

S.W.A.T. Firefight’s video is displayed using the AVC MPEG-4 codec. The video quality of the film is pretty decent. The movie is generally sharp and maintains a clean image throughout. Sometimes the film softens up or gets bit blown out due to inconsistent camera settings but the video is pretty good for a low budget flick.

The video is artifact free and due to the softness in the lower lit shots ends up having an almost noise-free run, but the film does lack in  some fine detail because of it as well.

The colors of the film are really over-the-top, trying to achieve that blockbuster Hollywood color grade which involves having dark teal shadows and yellowish orange highlights. The film generally has a blue cast over it for the most of the film and the skin tones suffer from the drastic color balance change.

The film’s visual content isn’t too appealing either, for I felt the director felt pretty nonexistent for the film and decided to go crazy for a few shots randomly. Whenever there was an establishing shot that took place in a different part of town they would go through a dozen panning and dollying shots of the streets sprinkled with random close-ups of power lines and other nonsense. Then at times he would go for a P.O.V. gun shot that mounted a mini camera on the top rails of the S.W.A.T. team rifles… Instead of looking cool or original it made me feel nauseous.

Audio

S.W.A.T. Firefight’s audio comes at us using the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The sound is a step up from the video quality. It manages to mix all of the elements pretty flawlessly. Some of the sound effects use some nice panning, such as gunshots at the firing range.

The dialogue is clean and centered while the surrounds get some nice usage out of the sound effects and recreating urban ambience during the scenes in the city. The low frequencies don’t get much love except for a couple big explosions, but even then it feels a bit flat.

The score is beyond cheesy, with some really patriotic sounding horn pieces to the crappy hard rock guitar riffs that are layered over stupid slow-mo S.W.A.T. team members as they walk… and be cool. Sometimes the score seemed a bit too loud, but I’m almost certain I only feel that way for the fact that it’s a really lame composition.

Special Features

For a film that comes off like a cash grab doesn’t earn much respect offering one very lame extra. It follows the director Benny Boom as he goes over ideas dropped from the film and goes over some of the training involved, which surprised me that there was any planning involved in this film.

Final Thoughts

A film that didn’t require a sequel gets one that feels like it only uses the S.W.A.T. moniker to try and squeeze a few more hard earned bucks out of our pockets. The script is garbage, the acting is all over the place and the direction is audacious. The technical aspects of the film doesn’t save anything and with a single bonus feature, the lazy effort of a movie is well rounded with a lazy effort from the distributor.

Before I begin (no pun intended), I need a quick moment to reflect upon a disclaimer I need to make. If it were not for on-screen onslaught of The Dark Knight, I don’t think I would have given Batman Begins the much needed respect and appreciation it deserves. I think I need to be brutally honest here for a moment. Batman Begins is an origin story so if you have not seen it, do not go in with the expectations that it is going to be one of the greatest high-adrenaline action movies you have ever seen because you will be greatly disappointed. Instead, you need to appreciate the movie for what it really is. What is that, you might ask? It is a slick vehicle to introduce to the world who the Batman really is.

Batman is not just a man in a masked costume going around fighting loud and ludicrous villains. Batman is a human being just like any of us and suffers from some of the same fears and desperations that plague the lives of all ordinary people. When you strip the Batman character down to bare bones you realize that he is simply a man driven by a fear that severely haunts him and his only way of escaping that binding fear, to fight crime and injustice, is by sharing it with his enemies. How does one do that? You do that by becoming a symbol…by becoming more than just a man. This is the psychological journey we are treated to and undertake in Batman Begins.

Don’t think of this as simply another comic book movie, but instead treat it like you would any good psychological thriller. There is always an underlying reason for a man’s actions, which ultimately defines who he is. In hindsight, we finally get to walk on the red carpet by seeing what exactly makes Bruce Wayne tick. We get to witness what drives him into becoming the only hope that Gotham City has. Gotham City needs to be saved from the underworld clutches of the world’s most dangerous villains and criminals. This ladies and gentleman, is the story of Batman Begins.

Film  

The film opens with eight-year old Bruce Wayne having accidentally just fallen into a cave while playing with his best friend, Rachel Dawes. Helpless and injured young Bruce Wayne has a frightful yet fateful encounter with bats. He grows more fearful of bats every passing day as his nightmares haunt him and extinguish his sleep. Then came the dark night (again no pun intended) that changed young Bruce’s life forever. While attending an opera with his parents, Bruce becomes frightened at the actors portraying bats. Cognitive of Bruce’s frightened state, his parents agree to take him home. Outside the opera house, Bruce’s parents are robbed and shot down in cold blood by a thug named Joe Chill. Having witnessed this seditious and tragic act of violence, Bruce blames himself for his parents’ untimely demise.

Many years go by as a more mature Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) returns home to Wayne Manor from Princeton University, with intent to kill Joe Chill who is being arraigned for a possible early release. His childhood friend, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), who is now an attorney herself, accompanies him to the trial. Before Bruce can act on his plan of revenge, an unidentified woman kills Joe Chill for the crime lord Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson). Angered and feeling cheated that he did not get to complete his act of selfish vengeance, Bruce Wayne decides to confront Carmine Falcone. This is where one of my favorite lines of the movie comes to fruition. Carmine Falcone lectures Bruce that he does not understand the nature of crime and that he should be thankful that he killed his parent’s murderer. The most memeorable line comes when Carmine starts pointing out all the lawyers, cops and politicians in the restaurant they are in and how he could fire his gun upon Bruce Wayne without hesitation or anyone questioning the act of him doing so. He tells Bruce that this is power you just cannot buy. I may have mixed some words around but I think you get the point. This is serious stuff here people!

Bruce, at this point, is just disgusted at the injustice and current state of Gotham City ruled by corrupt politicians, police officers and criminal organizations. He decides to travel the world to understand the criminal mind. He learns what its like to live without money and to steal just to feed and clothe himself over a seven-year length of time. Ultimately, he ends up imprisoned and meets Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson). Ducard invites Bruce to train and eventually join the extremist vigilante group, the League of Shadows led by Ra’s al Ghul, dedicated to ridding the world of criminal activity and declining civilizations. During his rigorous martial arts and mental training sessions with Ducard and the members of the League of Shadows, Bruce learns to embrace his fear of bats by utilizing it to fight crime and putting fear into the wrongdoers he intends to stop. The final test comes when Bruce is ordered to execute a criminal and he must decide between what he feels is the right and what is the wrong kind of justice. Upon being ordered to carry out the execution of this prisoner, Bruce finally realizes that the League’s conflicting extremist views do not align with what he feels justice truly should be. As a result, he ends up burning down the temple and defeating Ra’s al Ghul…so he thinks. I told you this film was deep, didn’t I?

Back in Gotham City, things are worse than ever. Gotham City is now pretty much under the corruption and control of Falcone. Bruce Wayne declares war against the corruption that infiltrates Gotham City. Bruce returns back to the loving care and guidance of his family’s trusted butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), who has taking care and presiding over all of Bruce’s affairs while he has been gone. Bruce manages to re-establish his connections to his father’s company, Wayne Enterprises, which is about to go public. It is there that he is introduced to a former board member, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), who now heads the research and development department. Secretly, Bruce uses Lucius’ knowledge and gadgets to acquire not only suit armor and weaponry, but also the Tumbler, a prototype armored car, which will replace what legacy Batman fans always refer to as the Batmobile. Back at Wayne Manor, with the help of Alfred, Bruce constructs the Batcave and ultimately his alter ego…the Batman. When asked why bats, Bruce responds because he is afraid of them and wants his opponents to share in that fear. The rest ladies and gentlemen…is what they call history. I hope I have given you enough to whet your appetite for what will eventually become a baptism by fire for the Batman as he ventures out to rid Gotham City of corruption and spread his own kind of justice. Of course you can expect a few major villains to go bump in the night and try to foil the Dark Knight’s crusade to save Gotham City. Who will ultimately prevail? I guess you will need to watch and find out because the path through Batman Begins only leads to bigger and better things…The Dark Knight.

Batman Begins ultimately became a critical and commercial success. The film eventually grossed more than $370 million worldwide. While not really being a big fan of Chris Nolan’s prior films, I was somewhat judgmental when I heard he was helming the reboot of the Batman franchise. I personally felt it was way too soon after the failure of the last Batman movie in 1997. I now hang my head in embarrassment and admit how truly wrong I was. Chris Nolan not only resurrected the Batman franchise but has also paved a trend for many more superhero movies to follow. If you keep up with entertainment and movie news like I do, then you will know what I am talking about. Just about every news article I read about future superhero movies talk about how the producers and writers are taking cues from Christopher Nolan’s darker version of Batman. Let’s face it…there has to be a serious issue or deep underlying reason why a person wants to become a superhero and Christopher Nolan explores and dissects this theory by making the audience not only care for the Batman but also for his alter identity, Bruce Wayne. Now if that is not deeply psychologically rooted, then I don’t know what is. This is not a film for the kiddies. They just won’t understand the psychosis of everything involved. Like I said before, the journey that Christopher Nolan has created only gets better as you going along.

Video  

Warner Bros. brings us a video transfer with a 1080P VC-1 video encode and a 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio. Unfortunately, here is where I start to digress and take the journey down the road of complaints. While the Blu-ray video transfer is leaps and bounds above the DVD release, it is nowhere close to the reference quality video many current Blu-ray discs portray. There are no problems with the resolution but throughout the entire feature, the colors seem somewhat muted and the image never has that three-dimensional pop that many of today’s Blu-rays exhibit. Some of the shots do look good but the majority of the film is very soft and almost feels as if it has a filter overlaid on top of the image because it almost never seems sharp. The flesh tones all seemed a bit pale to me as well. The good news is that grain is at an absolute minimum for a movie that is mostly dark and filmed in the shadows. While this Blu-ray release may not be of reference quality video, this is definitely the finest High-Definition presentation of Batman Begins that is available and is truly a delicacy for die-hard fans.

Audio  

Like the video, it appears that Warner Bros. has also ported over the audio from the HD DVD release. The audio track of choice here is a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround mix. I have read and heard many conflicting reviews regarding the audio track of the Batman Begins Blu-ray disc. Some people say it is status quo and some same it is reference quality throughout. I fall somewhere in between those two points of view. While I feel the audio definitely has its moments, I would not be inclined to showcase this as a reference audio track. The dialogue is always clear and intelligible throughout the feature. The famous Hans Zimmer also treats us to another fine musical score. The low-end bass is superb during all the action scenes but I just can’t shake the feeling that the rest of the movie just sounds flat during non-action sequences to me. The Dolby TrueHD surround track sounds exactly like the audio track on the HD DVD release of Batman Begins. While the audio track here is nothing to sneer at, I just feel certain dynamics could have been fleshed out a bit more and improved upon.

Special Features  

If there was ever a reason for me to own the Blu-ray release of Batman Begins when I already own it on HD DVD, it was for the six heavenly minutes of The Dark Knight IMAX prologue footage. This is the “Holy Grail” of the Blu-ray release and makes the price of admission and owning the Batman Begins Blu-ray well worth it, even if you own it on two other different formats like myself. The Blu-ray release of Batman Begins was purposely released a week before the theatrical release of The Dark Knight and for many fans it was their first glimpse of the Oscar-worthy performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker. This is the first time in a long time in which I am excited about the extras. As a side note, just about every extra from the past HD DVD and DVD releases are included here. The only disappointing thing is that every special feature is in Standard Definition with the exception of the IMAX prologue and theatrical trailer.

The following are the full technical specs as published on the back of the Blu-ray cover art:

In-Movie Experience – (HD) This is the Picture-in-Picture track that delayed the Blu-ray release until the Profile 1.1 was finalized. This is basically a visual commentary with director Christopher Nolan and is joined by the main cast and production crewmembers through a variety of behind-the-scenes footage.

The Dark Knight IMAX Prologue – (HD) This is the entire first 6-minutes of the opening sequence. It is presented in pristine 1080P with a 1.80:1 aspect ratio. This sequence is reference quality and worth every penny.

Tankman Begins – (SD) This is a funny short skit created for the 2005 MTV Movie Awards.

Batman – The Journey Begins – (SD) This is a short 14-minute documentary on the casting process.

Shaping Mind and Body – (SD) This is a 13-minute documentary that shows the training that Christian Bale undertook for the role.

Gotham City Rises – (SD) This is a 13-minute look at the production team tasked with building the various Gotham City locations.

Cape and Cowl – (SD) This is an 8-minute look at the creation of the new Batsuit.

Batman – The Tumbler – (SD) Here is a 14-minute documentary about the creation and concepts of the new Batmobile.

Path to Discovery – (SD) This is a 14-minute look at the challenges the production crew faced in cold climate of Iceland.

Saving Gotham City – (SD) This is a 13-minute tribute to the filming of the action scenes and how they tried to use as little CGI as possible.

Genesis of the Bat – (SD) We get a 15-minute explanation from director Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David S. Goyer on how the film was conceived.

Still Gallery (SD) – The still gallery contains a collection of various advertising concepts for the film’s marketing around the world.

Theatrical Trailer – (HD) Don’t let this title fool you. This is only the teaser trailer and not the full theatrical trailer.

Reflections on Writing Batman Begins – (SD) David S. Goyer speaks to his experience in writing the screenplay and how he got inspired.  This 2-minute feature is not overly valuable, but worth a quick watch.

Digital Batman – (SD) This 1-minute feature shows how digital images of batman were more believable then the live batman.  Side-by-side comparisons are used.  Rather a dull extra, but somewhat interesting none-the-less.

Batman Begins Stunts – (SD) This 2.5-minute poor quality extra features shots of how a number of stunts were pulled off during the filming of the movie.  No need to waste your time here.

Final Thoughts  

I guess one of the reasons I initially dismissed Batman Begins upon my first viewing in the theatre, was mainly for a lack of action that I was expecting rather than the psychological story I got. I can only figure that I must have got so numb from the previous Batman franchise that I was not expecting to have to do so much thinking. I was so use to the flashy and flamboyant villains that I did not know what to make of Batman Begins. I don’t want to be misunderstood. In no way did I think that Batman Begins was a bad movie. I just thought it was really different than what I was expecting to see and was amazed at how many fan boys came out of nowhere as a result of the darker Batman story. Then the month of July 2008 came around and my life changed forever. My initial viewing of The Dark Knight made Batman Begins mean so much more to me. I finally saw what I was missing all along in Batman Begins. The audience gets to dive head-first into the psychosis thinking of what is going through Bruce Wayne’s mind as we experience first hand his motivation, training and drive that culminated him into our favorite crime fighter…the Batman. What makes Batman unique is that under the mask and costume, Bruce Wayne is just an ordinary man with no superhuman powers except the ability to free his mind of any fear and devote himself to a higher mission in life…saving the lives of others. Batman is more than a man. He is a symbol. He is a symbol that criminals should fear. He uses this fear to clean up the streets of Gotham City. How brilliant is that?

If you are a Batman fan, then this is a no-brainer. I highly recommend the purchase of Batman Begins Steelbook on Blu-ray. But get it before it is gone… this is a Limited Edition release!

Film 

There is little question that Thelma & Louise is a classic. There were certainly no films like it before and I can’t really think of one since its release. In this regard, it pretty much stands as unique in the history of cinema. Sure there were plenty of road movies before and since and plenty of Buddy films. However, this is the only “Buddy” or “Road” film that I can recall where the two leads were women and not men. The movie world was male dominated 20 years ago and still is. When Thelma & Louise was released, it caused quite a stir in the media, including a cover piece in Time.

How you viewed the film often times depended on your gender, with women loving it, viewing it as a film about the empowerment of women and men hating it anti male given the way Thelma & Louise treated most men in the film. I guess men were not used to seeing men shot and humiliated in films by women. Looking back on it with 20 years’ perspective, all the bluster about the film seems to be just that, bluster. It is simply a great film about two interesting and complex women and one that I am grateful to see make its debut on Blu-ray.

I am sure that most of you already know the plot line of the film. Thelma & Louise are played brilliantly by Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon. Thelma is a housewife trapped in a loveless marriage to a real boob and leading a life totally devoid of even a hint of excitement or passion. Louise is a long time friend who works as a waitress in a diner who has some hidden demons that manifest themselves early enough in the film.

They decide to have a little fun and meet to go fishing in the mountains. Along the way they stop at a truck stop for some drinks where Thelma is hit on by Harlan Puckett (Timothy Carhart), a married man who is well known at the restaurant/bar as a pick-up artist. Thelma has too much to drink and feels sick while dancing. She goes outside for some fresh air where Harlan tries to rape her after she rejects his affections. Louise comes upon the scene while trying to locate Thelma as Harlan is just starting ito manhandle Thelma over the hood of a car and breaks it up with a gun from Thelma’s handbag to the back of Harlan’s head.

While leaving, Harlan says something derogatory to Louise who turns around and shoots and kills him. Rather than call the police, the two flee the scene. When the murder is discovered, the police, led by Detective Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel) quickly zero in on Thelma & Louise as suspects and begin to pursue them as they attempt to escape to Mexico. As they cross several states as part of their escape, they engage in criminal activity to finance their efforts to avoid capture at the hands of just about every law enforcement agency in the Southwest United States.

*Spoiler Alert*

Along the way, they truly discover themselves and even enrich their friendships, to the point that they commit suicide together rather than get caught, as they drive their car over the edge of the Grand Canyon as the film ends with that unforgettable sight of their car suspended in the air over the canyon before they can begin the plunge to their deaths.

Despite the subject matter, the film is filled with humor and is a very entertaining 129 minutes. Thelma & Louise is an unforgettable film that is as good today as when it was released way back in 1991 and is highly recommended.

Video 

I have no recollection as to how this film looked in the theaters 20 years ago. I am not sure that anyone would have having only seen the film once 20 years before. That said, this is a fine looking encode. The film has a pleasing looking color palette which is a bit skewed to the color cyan, with colors having a light blue tinge to them. Black levels are good and stable and consistent throughout the film but far from reference. Color saturation, detail, shadow detail and clarity are all good, although the overall look of the film is a tad on the soft side.

I found film grain to be well preserved with the overall video presentation maintaining that film like appearance. Other than during the opening sequence of the film where slight banding was present, I noticed no significant encoding issues. The print used for the release looked clean and in excellent shape. Fans of the film should be more than pleased with the look of the film on its initial Blu-ray release.

Audio 

All in all I was quite pleased with the audio here. While the sound design is a bit front heavy, the overall fidelity of the recorded sound was excellent, sounding smooth, rich and open with not even the hint of hardness evident. Bass response was particularly strong and most noticeable during the film score and sound effects. The dialogue track was well recorded and always intelligible. All in all, the sound reproduction here is of top notch quality.

Special Features 

I found the extras presented here to be rather mundane. The extras include an audio commentary with director Ridley Scott as well as one featuring Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis and screenwriter Callie Khouri. We also get a featurette on the making of the film and the reaction to it entitled “Thelma & Louise: The Last Journey” which is presented in standard definition and appears to have been ported over from the prior DVD release of the film.

Also included is an extended ending to the film with commentary by Ridley Scott, where he explains why the extended ending was deleted from the film. The extras also include several extended and deleted screens, a mutli-angles storyboard of the final chase scene as well as the original trailer for the film and a “Part of You, Part of Me” music video by Glenn Frey.

Final Thoughts 

It was great to see Thelma & Louise again after 20 years. its initial release on Blu-ray looks and sounds about as good as this film can and should please the many fans of this film and is highly recommended.

Film 

After watching the film and thinking about how to describe it for this review, I came to conclusion that Takers could best be described as a cross between Oceans 11 and American Gangster. Like Oceans 11, the film focuses on a group of accomplished criminals. However, rather than focusing on comedy, the group in Takers is a well dressed group of urbane and sophisticated guys, who like the finer things in life and use creative and inventive heists as their way of acquiring the cash to posses them, hence the term “takers”.

The film is like American Gangster in terms of the use of violence and the overall tone as well as the fact that the main protagonists and antagonists in the film don’t really meet and interact until the very end of the film. Here it is the hardened old school detective Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and his flawed and ethically compromised partner, Eddie Hatcher (Jay Hernandez) who are looking to track down the group responsible for a bank heist and who come upon evidence that indicates that the group is about to do and even biggest heist.

The film actually tries to get you to root for the criminals as they are much more likeable than the “good guys”. There is really quite a bit to like about the film. There is certainly plenty of action and the idea that is the basis of the film is quite good. However, where the film fails for me is in the lack of character development. While we learn a little about Welles and Hernandez, we learn little about the team of criminals and their motivations. Too much of the film is devoted to showing them setting up the second heist rather than telling us who they are and what their motivation was for their criminal enterprise, other than the love of money.

I also found parts of the film to be a little too predictable. Rather than give it away, I will just say that the end of the film is pretty obvious about 10 to 15 minutes into the film. Takers was directed by John Luessenhop and written by Peter Allen, Gabriel Casseus, John Luessenhop and Avery Duff. The film also stars Paul Walker, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Michael Ealy, Idris Elba, Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen, Johnathon Schaech, Nichloas Turturro, Zoe Saldana and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

Overall, the film boasts a fine cast and is well acted. It is just the script and storytelling that falls a bit short of the mark for me. Rated as a rental only.

Video 

Overall, this is a very fine looking film which looks great on this Blu-ray release. The film features a rather stylized color palette which is all over the place in terms of color. Some scenes have a bit of a cool blueish tinge to them while others are skewed to the colors brown and gold. In some scenes, the colors are richly saturated and in others, a bit undersaturated. Black levels are consistent throughout the film and are deep and stable. Overall detail and in particular shadow detail is excellent, with fine facial and background details clearly visible.

The overall image of the film is sharp, clear and detailed with the exception of the some of the lower lit interior scenes which are just a tad on the soft side. There is some video noise visible in the night time shots but that is really kept to a minimum. On the whole, despite a couple of minor shortcomings, Takers looks great and Blu-ray and boasts a transfer that fans of the film should find quite pleasing.

Audio 

As good as the video presentation is, the audio may even be a tad better. The overall fidelity of the sound is quite good. The dialogue track is well recorded and well placed in the mix. What impressed me the most about the audio mix was the overall dynamics which is sensational.

If you love deep bass, there are several sequences in the film that will thrill you. Explosions simply rock the room. Listen to the thunderous bass as the armored vehicles fall into the hole blown in to the street. The same can be said for the audio of the gun battle near the end of the film which is, at times, simply deafening. Gun shots and explosions have a very lifelike sound and an excellent weight and impact.

The surrounds are used fairly aggressively throughout the film but fail to convey the sense of total immersion is characteristic of the very best sound mixes. In that sense, the mix here falls just a tad shot of the very best sounding films but is excellent in its own right and will certainly give your subwoofer a real workout at times.

Special Features 

Takers is a one disc release and contains little other than your standard bare bones extras and is rather pedestrian.

The extras include an audio commentary with director John Luessenhop, Producers Will Parker, Jason Geter and Tip “T.I.” Harris. Also included is a music video for “Yeah Ya Know” by T.I. Harris.

We also get two featurettes presented in high definition, including a behind the scenes look at the making of the film featuring interviews with the cast and crew aptly entitled “Executing the Heist: The Making of Takers” as well as a look at the making of the various action sequences in the film entitled “Take Action”.

The release also contains movieIQ+sync and is BD-Live enabled which enables you connect live to real time information about the cast, crew, music and trivia while watching the film. Other than a few previews of some other films available from Sony Pictures, that is all for the extras folks.

Final Thoughts 

While takers certainly has its moments, the lack of character development keeps the film from being a real keeper. Rated as a rental only.

Film

Knight and Day sold itself as a fun summer movie and the chance to see Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz who last starred together in the underrated Vanilla Sky was probably the most appealing thing to me. The film is a bit one dimensional, with a very formulaic script, but the stars are really on board and give us a pretty interesting performance. Tom Cruise tries especially hard, tapping into the same wackiness that he displayed to hilarious perfection in Tropic Thunder. The problem is that the story is already old and there aren’t any fresh twists.

Cameron Diaz’s character June bumps into a stranger at the airport, played by Cruise, whom turns out to be an incredibly skilled agent. Suddenly, she finds herself being chased by men in black that think she may be involved with Cruise’s character. Luckily, he arrives in time to save the day and in the process treks across the world with many interesting backdrops to shoot action in front of including France, the Bahamas and Mexico for the running of the bulls.

Despite the efforts of the stars, especially Tom Cruise, the script leaves the viewer wanting more. It’s never quite as funny as you want it to be and the action scenes, albeit humorous and exciting and are the only really memorable scenes, are unfortunately few and far between. The film doesn’t break any ground but it is a fun and mindless action comedy that would provide a nice night in’s worth of enjoyment even if you’re not a Tom Cruise fan. His performance is pretty unique in this one; he often channels his suave performance for the softer moments but at times he lets the crazy come out especially in the beginning of the film when he is trying to rescue Cameron Diaz during a car chase. All in all it’s fun.

Video

Knight and Day’s video is displayed using AVC codec and in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1. The video looks great at times, but suffers from some noise issues during the scenes at night. The contrast is at a good level and although the image isn’t as vivid as it could be, the deeper black levels help hide and grain in the shadows of the image.

The color palette of the film is pretty natural and the shadows have a bit a blue tone to them at times while midtones are a bit orange, but it’s a choice of the color grader to create an appealing color scheme and it’s a pretty run of the mill choice but for a reason… it looks good.

The detail of the video is nice and sharp, while some of the shots with shallower depth of field have nice soft bokeh. The video is free of artefacting or any glitches and because of the nice clean video it’s easier to pick up on the lesser quality of the compositing and CGI effects that stick out at times.

Audio

Knight and Day’s audio comes at us using the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The audio is a definite step-up from the video quality and to those who like a great high octane mix, Knight and Day won’t disappoint. The dialogue is clean and centered while the rest of the mix surrounds us. The mix uses the surrounds for an atmospheric quality that helps bring us into the film.

The mix is very powerful with a load of loud sound effects ranging from ricocheting bullet hits to cars flipping over. The sound effects are layered and detailed and come through clearly even when they’re amidst hundreds of others.

And as far as the low frequency range is concerned the subwoofer gets a lot of work during the action scenes adding that oomph to the crashes and explosions. So it’s obvious when I say the mix is a lot of fun, if not a little over-the-top, but for audio guys who want to flex the muscles of their sound systems Knight and Day gives them a chance to do just that.

Special Features

Knight and Day’s extras are a bit light; however they all are in high definition which is a bit of a bonus. With a few straight forward behind-the-scenes featurettes and some random internet videos the extras really don’t cover much more than electronic press kits. The one interesting extra was a video of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes going to see The Black Eyed Peas, for one of their songs appears at the end credits.

With a lack of entertaining extras, any fans of the actors or film will be disappointed and with just a few run of the mill items like the featurettes, it feels like the extras were just some filler added to make the disc seem more valuable.

Final Thoughts

The movie may not be the best action comedy mash-up when compared to others, but it’s wacky comedy is definitely enjoyable. With decent video quality and a dynamic sound mix that is worth the rental alone, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a fun night in. Unfortunately the lack of quality extras makes the disc’s value go down slightly so fans may want to stick to the rental as well.

Film 

I had not seen The Town at the local Cineplex but I heard some very good things about it from friends. I was therefore looking forward to getting a look at the film when it was released on Blu-ray. While my friends and I often have different tastes in films, they were spot on with thier opinion of The Town, which I enjoyed immensely.

The film takes place in Charlestown, a lower middle class section of Boston. While only a one square mile section of town, it has produced more bank robberies and armored car heists than anywhere else in the US. Part of the reason for such a large number of robberies in that section of the city, is the fact that the robberies often go unsolved as the community is very tight lipped so that those who know the idenities of the bandits refuse to talk or “squeal” to the authorities, whether for fear of retribution or otherwise. Even one one of the robbers is caught, they would rather go to prison than “rat” on their cohorts. It is this community and this mindset that The Town explores.

In addition to directing and starring in the film, Ben Affleck is a co-writer of the screenplay along with Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard. The screenplay is based on the book “Prince of Thieves” by Chuck Hogan.

Affleck stars as Doug MacRay a resident of Charlestown and bank robber. Doug is a bit different than his cohorts, in that he has a conscience and a heart. He is tired of the life of crime and wants to get out and leave Charlestown. He wants to escape the lifestyle rather than end up like his father, old and rotting in prison. The decision is tough on Doug as his only real family members are his fellow thieves.

While not blood relatives, they are the closest thing that he has to a family, as his mother died when he was young and with his father in jail. While he wants to get out, his family won’t let him, and he agrees to one last heist of proceeds from the Cathedral of Boston, namely Fenway Park. Doug and his families’ activities are complicated by the fact that they are being pursued by the FBI in the form of Agent Fawley (Jon Hamm) and his task force who are hot on their tails, trying to build an airtight a case against the family.

The film also has a subplot involving Doug and Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), who Jem (Jeremy Renner) took hostage during the robbery that opens the film. Jem took Claire’s driver’s license and finds that she resides in Charlestown. Jem thinks it best that she be eliminated to tie up all loose ends. However, Doug eschews violence and tells Jem that he will follow Claire and make sure that she is not cooperating with the FBI. In doing so, he falls in love with Claire and tries to build a relationship with her and in the process, hiding his criminal past from her. However, when her life is put onto danger when Doug tries to bail on his “family”, Claire finds out and wants nothing further to do with him, spoiling his dreams of a life outside Charlestown with her. In order to save Claire’s life, Doug agrees to one last job which is one that will put his life in jeopardy.

The Town is a fast paced film which really pulls you into the narrative. It features some tense action and a final gun battle that really rocks. Both the theatrical and extended versions of the film are included here. If you haven’t seen The Town, by all means do so. You will be glad you did. The Town is Highly recommended.

Video 

The video on both versions of the film presented here for the most part look great. Both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film have excellent levels of detail and a richly saturated color palette. The overall color scheme of the film is skewed a bit to cyan, with everything having a bit of a blue tinge and a resulting cool image. It is subtle but noticeable and is clearly the intent of the cinematographer and director and results in a very appealing image. Clarity and detail are top notch with facial detail and fine textures well preserved.

Blacks are deep and inky and at times, perhaps too much so as blacks can be a bit crushed at times. It is hard to say that this is the result of the encode or not. If I had to guess, I would bet that it is the way Ben Affleck intended the film to look and hence, I can’t really drop the score as a result of it. If I could find a fault with the encode, it would be the presence of some very mild and I mean mild artifacting which occurs very infrequently, along with some minor video noise visible in night time shots. Again, this is minimal as well. Given that there are two separate full versions of the film encoded on the Blu-ray disc, this is overall a great looking encode and a fine looking film.

Audio 

I can recall when Warner Brothers was ripped for not providing lossless encoded on their Blu-ray releases. Speed Racer comes to mind, which while having a great video presentation, was marred by a totally lackluster plain jane Dolby digital 5.1 soundtrack. Thankfully, since the release of Speed Racer, Warner Brothers has seen the light and has been including lossless tracks on all of its new Blu-ray releases, with some of them being quite stellar. Such is the case with the DTS HD Master Audio track included on The Town.

Simply put, this audio here is superb, with tremendous dynamics and deep bass to satisfy any bass junkie. Explosions, car crashes and gun shots all have the heft and weight to grab your attention. The surrounds are uses aggressively, to provide a total sense of immersion throughout the film and heightening the sense of suspense. The dialogue track is also well recorded and beautifully presented in the sound mix. Even during the most action intensive sequences in the film, those Boston accents and hard R’s are clear and easy to follow. never getting lost in the mix. This is one fine audio presentation and is one that should please fans of the film.

Special Features 

The Town is presented as a combo pack and, in addition to the Blu-ray copy of the film, includes a second disc that contains a DVD copy of the film along with a digital copy. The extras are a series of short featurettes detailing the making of the film.

• “Pulling off The Perfect Heist” discusses the filming of the bank robbery sequences.
• “The Town” discusses the Charlestown section of Boston where the film is located and its history of criminal activity.
• “The Real People of The Town” reveals that a number of the actors featured in The Town were amateurs essentially taken off the streets of Boston and used in the film.
• “Nuns With Guns: Filming in the North End” details just what you would think it does, namely the filming of the armored car heist sequence featured in the film in the North End section of Boston.
• “The Cathedral of Boston” discuses all that went into the filming of the climactic heist and gun battle scene in Fenway Park.
• “Ben Affleck: Director & Actor” takes a look at Ben Affleck’s dual role as both the lead actor in the film as well as the director.

All of the extras are presented in high definition and feature interviews with the cast and crew. The extras also include a separate director’s commentary for both the theatrical and extended editions of the film. The featurettes are all rather short and worth a look.

Final Thoughts 

The Town is not your typical heist film. It features a fine script, excellent performances and plenty of suspense, action and character development. The fact that is features a fine video and top tier audio presentation is a bonus. This release is highly recommended.

Film

In the original film we followed the epic showdown between immortal warriors (including Connery and Lambert) destined to decapitate each other for supreme dominance (Yeah, I know how it sounds). Told in interwoven fragments over centuries through past and present the characters forged a bond and learnt of the hardships of immortality. By the end of the film heads roll and invaluable lessons are learnt, which brings us to the second instalment; Highlander 2: The Quickening.

In the opening sequence a new broadcast informs us that a hole in the ozone layer is depleting and within a matter of months it will be completely gone. In Africa millions have already died among them is the wife of Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert). Before her death MacLeod promised he would find a solution to end the ozone crisis. MacLeod does indeed deliver in his promise within five short years, but it doesn’t come without it’s drawbacks. An electromagnetic shield does in fact protect the earth from the sun’s rays but also keeps the planet in a constant state of night and a heightened global temperature. After a quarter century humanity has fallen into a tulmuptious state; an evil corporation has taken over the shield with profit as it’s only motivation, and terrorist cells have risen to combat this.

Throughout the film we learn more about the past of the main characters and the events that lead up to the original films storyline. I especially enjoyed this aspect of the film as after the original I had several unanswered questions. However, with these answers came more questions and often times unnecessary events were added to the storyline. On paper I really enjoy the concept of this series but in reality it isn’t executed as well as it could be. The characters are interesting but one can’t help but understand their motives; thankfully Highlander 2 is casted with actors well enough to bring out the most in their characters.

So in the end Highlander 2: The Quickening is a rather decent sequel. Of course I find the original to be the better of the two, but some interesting new elements are introduced in this film that makes it worth checking out. But this film won’t be for everyone, let’s face it, it’s a little out there. But if you enjoyed the first one I have no doubts you will enjoy this one. If you haven’t seen the first one yet I would highly recommend you do before delving into the sequel or you will be extremely confused.

Video

Presented in 1080p 2.41:1; The Highlander 2 is leaps and bounds ahead of its DVD predecessor in terms of its video quality. Being better than the DVD still doesn’t make it good as a Blu ray; when compared to some recent catalogue releases such as The Silence of The Lambs, The Doors, or even Point Break, Highlander 2 isn’t all it could be. The film mostly takes place in dark settings and therefore we sacrifice a lot of exterior details, and the backgrounds look soft. The main area in which the video quality does excel lies mostly within the daylight scenes, more specifically in close ups, the facial details are often impressive. In the end I felt that the video quality is enough to please fans, but don’t expect the world of it, because you’ll be left disappointed.

Audio

Lionsgate has included a 7.1 DTS HD audio track with the release of Highlander 2. I have to say that Highlander 2 was an extremely active track, the sound effects were aggressive throughout and the full range of speakers was utilized throughout the entirety of the film. The strongest aspect of this track has to be within the excessive amount of bass (most prevalent during the action sequences). On the flip side the dialogue had room for improvement, as it could be noisy at times. But ultimately I was very impressed with the audio track, I hope Lionsgate can keep up the quality in their future catalogue releases.

Special Features

Highlander 2 comes equipped with a decent bunch of features, the highlight of which has to be the 50 minute making of documentary which supplies is with an interesting look into the film. There are a handful of intriguing interviews with the cast and crew, and an interesting look into what went into the making of the film. The rest of the features delve into aspects of the films restoration, costume designs, music and the cinematography. To top it off we are given a few senseless deleted scenes and the original theatrical trailer. I feel fans of the film will be pleasantly surprised with the depth of some of these features.

Highlander 2: Seduced by Argentina

• The Redemption of Highlander 2
• The Music
• The Fabric
• Shadows & Darkness: The Cinematography
• Original Cannes Promotional Reel
• Deleted Scenes
• Trailer

Final Thoughts

Well it doesn’t quite live up to the original in terms of story, or overall quality I found that Highlander 2 does well by way of most sequels. There is some new information introduced into the story that helps explain things brought forward in the original film, which I found were interwoven nicely. However, the target audience on this one is rather limited and unless you saw the first film don’t bother attempting this one. As far as the audio and video transfers go I was placated but not impressed regarding the ladder, but the audio was extremely impressive. For a film of this calibre I didn’t expect much more, but it wouldn’t have hurt. So at the end of the day this one is for fans only, there isn’t much room for improvement as far as this film goes.

http://moviemarbles.com/blurays.php?brid=129

Film

When audiences walk into an M. Night Shyamalan movie, they have come to expect certain things… Usually a suspense filled twisted story that ends with a final reveal that flips your perception of the movie on its head, but with The Last Airbender, we are seeing a different kind of Shyamalan. This one is clearly for the kids.

I’ve never watched the television show before, so I have no idea how it compares to it. Whether it stays true to the original story or not is a mystery to me and I’m sorry to say that it will probably stay that way.  As I mention above, this movie was made for kids and to be more specific, ten year old boys. Unfortunately, that’s the only audience that will be impressed with this movie.  It’s not bad, it just has nothing to offer anyone else, and so it’s hard for me to recommend this one unless you’re a die-hard fan of the show and a completionist.

The basic plot revolves around two children named Katara and Sokka, who find a boy named Aang trapped in an ice sphere and free him. It turns out Aang is an Avatar and has the power to hold the world in balance. Unfortunately, since he’s been missing for 100 years, The Fire Nation has declared war on the other three nations, (Air, Water, Earth), and obviously see Aang’s return as a threat.

The main problem is the acting. Almost every performance feels like exactly that.  The main character is a 12 year old boy named Aang, played by Noah Ringer, although athletic enough to pull off the many martial art style moves he performs throughout the movie, when it comes time to carrying on a conversation it becomes painfully obvious that acting is not his forte. I found this particularly confusing since the movie is an M. Night Shyamalan film and he did direct one of the best child performances, in my opinion obviously, in The Sixth Sense with Haley Joel Osment. I don’t want to single Ringer out exclusively though. The rest of the cast is pretty bad too, with the one notable exception being Shaun Toub as a Fire Nation elder who follows around a fallen prince named Zuko, whose character is supposed to play a major part in the proposed sequel that is apparently in development. Anyway, Toub actually gives a damn good performance and is one of the few small pleasure s I took from the film.

Don’t expect the usual M. Night here, this is just lame movie adaption of a popular kid’s show that is no longer on the air anymore.  I’ve enjoy every movie he’s made up to this one, which is clearly not aimed at me so I’m not surprised… However it feels like when M. Night doesn’t write the script, he’s not as connected and I never felt that all-encompassing experience with The Last Airbender opposed to his original ideas.

Video

The Last Airbender’s video is displayed in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1 using the AVC MPEG-4 codec. The film looks great and the transfer is pristine with absolutely no scratches, dust or artefacting in any way. The print is very clean and noise free, even in the night shots the film doesn’t suffer from overbearing graininess. I’m not sure if the Director of Photography was on his A-Game or if the footage had been polished in post (considering the film was converted to 3D, they could’ve done a very thorough refining job).

The images are very crisp and sharp and on the other end of the spectrum the bokeh is very soft any beautiful when depth of field is in effect. The close-ups that showcase skin texture and hair detail are the moments that should be put on loop for showcase purposes.

My only complaint is the contrast of the film was a bit inconsistent, the black levels are true for most of the film but there were a few scenes where I felt the image was a bit too gray and at other times during wide shots at night, the scenes were a little too dark. It’s not much of a complaint and when stacked up against how good this Blu-ray looks, it pales in comparison.  

Audio

The Last Airbender’s audio comes at us using the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio codec and has 5.1 mixing in French, Spanish and Portuguese as well. The film’s mix is very impressive and I would say it’s one of the few Blu-rays I’ve seen recently that is showroom quality, I did notice at some times the mix felt a bit inconsistent, where some sound effects weren’t as balanced as others but that’s being really nitpicky.

The audio offers great dynamic range and the low frequency really roar and rumble to all of our heart’s content. The dialogue is clear and centered with no noise issues as well. The surrounds are used really well to create a very enthralling atmosphere and some interesting use of panning really sells a lot of the actions scenes.

One of the best things I found in the film was the score. James Newton Howard, who has scored every movie M. Night has done and also recently did a remarkable job on The Dark Knight with Hans Zimmer, pulls out all the stops. The music in this movie was, simply put, great. During the climax it actually stirred me out of my boredom and forced me to take notice. It was powerful stuff and sounded great!

Special Features

The Last Airbender has a great selection of extras and thankfully in HD, which is a relief for I was getting tired of having the headache of watching SD footage on a projector.  The extras include four behind-the-scenes featurettes where the film’s production is examined as well as some light coverage on the original show, however I felt these were a bit lacking in the TV show department. I realize this isn’t the television show, but I would’ve liked to see the pilot episode or something along those lines to add some filler. Although these do cover the origins of the characters with the co-creators of the show and go over concept art, I couldn’t really see a child’s attention being captured for more than 10 minutes.

There are deleted scenes and outtakes as well as select scene commentary via picture-in-picture. All of which are pretty straightforward, the lack of a feature length commentary felt weird, but I guess when your movie aimed towards younger audiences, those kind of extras aren’t as important. All in all I would’ve liked to have seen more kid oriented special features but the HD extras and Picture-in-Picture commentary are really great.

Final Thoughts

The Last Airbender was hit with some unfair criticisms in my opinion, but even so it’s a very target audience oriented film that really doesn’t play to a wide audience. M. Night does a fine job directing the film but the script and acting is lacking. Even though the Blu-ray looks and sounds great; unless you are buying it for your kid, leave this Blu-ray on the shelf, check out the CD aisle and pick up the soundtrack instead.