6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.4 |
A devastating assassination attempt leaves the president in a coma with Agent Mike Banning the only likely suspect.
Starring: Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lance Reddick, Tim Blake NelsonAction | 100% |
Thriller | 28% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Sometimes public relations marketing hype can provide at least a wry smile or two, if not outright laughter. Case in point: the press sheet accompanying the film currently under review breathlessly touts that this is “the latest stand alone installment of the full throttle Has Fallen action series”. That may strike some grammarians as at least a little oxymoronic, in terms of combining “stand alone” with “series”, but what really made me chuckle a bit was this nascent franchise being labeled with the (to me, anyway) kind of funny Has Fallen moniker. But of course there have been previous “Has Fallen” entries, beginning with 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen and then continuing on with London Has Fallen. Olympus Has Fallen wasn’t exactly met with critical love letters, though it did reasonably well at the box office, but London Has Fallen was met with pretty withering critical assessments, which of course means that it was a pretty massive box office hit, raking in well over 200 million, which obviously helped pave the way for this latest installment. Angel Has Fallen is arguably better than its immediate predecessor, which may in fact be damning with faint praise, but the film knows what it wants to deliver and does so in a reasonably engaging fashion.
Angel Has Fallen is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists several Arri Alexa models as having been utilized on the shoot, with everything finished at a 4K DI. This is a largely sharp and extremely well detailed looking presentation, albeit one that is often swathed in what I might term "thriller blue". Perhaps surprisingly, despite a number of aggressively graded sequences and other scenes that take place in near darkness, fine detail is generally very commendable throughout. Fine detail is very precise looking in better lit scenes, to the point that you can actually see the tiny veins running through Butler's eyes. CGI is a bit soft at times, and one composite in the hospital scene showing Banning helping Trumbull escape the maelstrom is almost comically bad. The very darkest scenes, including a couple of night sequences, show at least moderate declines in detail levels. I noticed no major compression anomalies.
Angel Has Fallen offers a really fun and immersive Dolby Atmos track, one that utilizes the surround and Atmos channels fairly aggressively at times, starting with the kind of swooping and thumping cues from David Buckley's score that start the film (there's a nicely evocative low end droning sound that is repeatedly utilized to up the angst level at various junctures). Speaking of drones, there's a great set piece in the film featuring an "army" of drones that attack the President and that scene offers some of the best overhead and panning activity in the film. Other big action moments, like a crazy truck chase, or several gigantic explosions that occur, offer bursts of LFE that can be quite impressive. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free and very enjoyable track.
One of the things that always makes me wonder a bit in films like this is the so-called "collateral damage" that is never really ever addressed. It's one thing to take out a force of bad guys, but this film includes a number of deaths or implied deaths of not just good guys but innocent bystanders (notably in the climax where a hospital, yep, goes boom). Niggling concerns like that are probably the domain of folks like me who overthink movies like this, but for those willing to go with the flow, Angel Has Fallen is brisk and generally exciting, even if it's resolutely rote almost all of the time. Technical merits are first rate and the supplemental package quite enjoyable, for those who are considering a purchase.
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