Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Air Blu-ray Movie Review

Crossing Jordan.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III September 15, 2023

Ben Affleck's Air may one day be known as the little Amazon Studios film that kick-started "brand awareness" dramas (see also Flamin' Hot, Blackberry), even if Tetris technically beat it by a few weeks. The reason? A high-profile cast and near-universal acclaim by fans and critics alike, who championed this whitewashed history of Nike as one of the finest films of the year in mid-March. Though not without a few bright spots, Air is ultimately a vanilla product that's at best harmlessly predictable and, at worst, a shamelessly manipulative salute to good old-fashioned consumerism.

This is your God.

To its credit, Air at least has an interesting premise: we're transported back to 1984, just as third-ranking apparel company Nike. Inc. faces a crossroads in their struggling basketball shoe division. Nike's savant-like NBA talent scout, Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), is tasked with finding the next big name to revitalize their brand; he believes first-round draft pick Michael Jordan (Damian Young) is an ideal fit, but the talented young star is a fan of rival Adidas. Never one to give up easily, Sonny takes extra measures -- and goes against company policy -- to court Jordan, even personally visiting his family in North Carolina including Michael's rightfully protective parents James and Deloris (Julius Tennon and Viola Davis). Sonny's contemporaries, including marketing VP Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), fast-talking executive Howard White (Chris Tucker), and perpetually barefoot co-founder / CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck), aren't unanimously happy with his methods -- at least until they, you know, work -- which also include Sonny's absolutely insane idea to spend the company's entire yearly NBA endorsement budget of $250,000 on just one measly player.

Key scenes in Air play out like one long extended gag in a time travel movie or flashback, when the sarcastic sidekick makes a crack about how some brash new start-up company -- say, Google -- will never amount to anything. We more or less know how everything's going to play out yet, to its credit, Air at least makes part of the process enjoyable due to its cast and script. Other visual elements and touches, like its rock-solid cinematography and the way Jordan's aura and presence circumvent the need to show his face, give Air a modest edge over other material of this type.

But otherwise there's more that Air does wrong than right, and mostly in areas too critical to ignore. Its main stopping point is the outright familiarity of everything: the tireless efforts of a middle-aged know-it-all that Matt Damon's done already (and better) in films like Ford v Ferrari, the back-and-forth dialogue that wants so desperately to be Moneyball, and the obligatory biopic/sports drama "wall of text" coda that spells out exactly what happened to just about every character of importance; here, it's even overdone to the point of comedy. Add in at least a half-dozen too many needle-drop 1980s pop music cues and you've got a recipe for mediocrity, a film that starts well enough and has its moments but wears out its welcome long before the fourth quarter. That's of course in addition to its other main flaw, a paean to consumerism that totally ignores little details like Nike's well-known use of sweatshops to produce its sneakers (they're not alone, obviously); instead, Air proudly highlights the billions of dollars in annual profits since 1984.

Well damn, at least it's got a happy ending.

Side note: the last time I remember going off the rails like this in a review was for 2016's Deepwater Horizon, a film that tried to rewrite one of the worst oil spills in human history as a heartfelt human drama in support of the company at fault. Air isn't nearly as wrong-headed, but it's at least in the same ballpark... er, basketball court.

Whether or not you think I should just shut up and enjoy the ride, Air somewhat surprisingly arrives as a barebones Blu-ray roughly six months after its Amazon Prime debut... where it can still be watched in 4K/Dolby Vision, albeit with the often heavily compressed nature of streaming video and audio. The fact this Blu-ray beats it in direct comparison shouldn't be a huge surprise, but it makes the absence of a physical 4K edition all the more baffling.

Air Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Make no mistake about it: even for "just" a Blu-ray, Air looks like a million bucks on WB's dual-layered Blu-ray, where the 112-minute drama gets more than enough room to breathe. Prepared with a 4K DI, it's a mostly digital production that's peppered with occasional 16mm segments as well as sporadic low-resolution clips of vintage material, including news broadcasts and original game footage. Those elements only look as good as their source material will allow, as do a handful of establishing drone shots -- many of Nike's main office -- which are a bit waxy in comparison to everything else. I can't fault the Blu-ray for any of this, as its rock-solid downscaled 1080p transfer still wrings an awful lot of fine detail from almost every surface. Its color palette, a hybrid of modern blue/orange-dominant tones and the clothing of yesteryear, likewise looks good in well-lit and darkened shots along, sporting vivid hues that aren't prone to bleeding. I also didn't notice any real signs of banding, posterization, or macro blocking, which is somewhat rare for a WB disc but, given the real estate here, it's perhaps not surprising. Overall, this is a great-looking film that would obviously play even better in 4K -- it's maybe a shade or two dark at times (see above), but that's about it.

Air Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Air's Dolby Atmos mix is, in comparison, less ambitious but only due to the subject matter. Attempts are made to bring life to the surround and height channels: an opener scene in Vegas, dramatic flourishes, and those perpetual needle-drop music cues. But this is a dialogue-driven film that mostly stays in small offices and stuffy board rooms, which makes this a solid front-forward presentation of material that doesn't always aim for a big-screen presence.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature.

Air Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with cast-heavy cover artwork; a slipcover is included, but no Digital Code or other inserts. Somewhat shockingly, no bonus features are on board either.

Air Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It has decent technical merits, a good cast, and a solid premise, but almost everything else about Ben Affleck's Air rubbed me the wrong way: its predictable (and whitewashed) story, a reliance on expository text, and the off-putting atmosphere of a thinly-veiled commercial. Along with a few other films mentioned above, it's also paved the way for more sound-alike "brand awareness" dramas in recent months, a trend that'll hopefully go down as short-lived. Air has its fans, though, and while they'll appreciate a non-streaming copy to preserve, this one's a movie-only disc and only Blu-ray to boot. Keeping the theme of unchecked consumerism going, perhaps a 4K is on the horizon?