6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Following a deadly viral outbreak, private military soldier Max Gatling leads a handful of survivors and a ragtag band of robots against an army of the infected.
Starring: Dolph Lundgren, Melanie Zanetti, Matt Doran, David Field (I), Lydia LookAction | 100% |
Horror | 99% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Imagine if a filmmaker sat down over the course of a day or two and watched Land of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Escape from New York, and either a Robocop or Terminator movie. Imagine that he then decided to make a low-budget mash-up of all of these movies. There's no doubt the end result would look an awful lot like Battle of the Damned, the latest and, frankly, one of the coolest direct-to-video Action films to come along since the likes of Universal Soldier: Regeneration (also, coincidentally, starring Dolph Lundgren, albeit in a much more limited role). While there's obviously nothing new here -- it's little more than a post-apocalyptic shooter with a name in the lead role and a basic action-framing plot -- the picture satisfies its core requirements and does so with surprisingly decent special effects and precious little nonsense getting in the way of bloody human-on-infected and robot-on-infected mayhem.
"Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, obliterate the infected."
Battle of the Damned features a modern genre-standard high definition transfer. The HD video source material is rather clean and precisely detailed. The image captures all of the basics with the expectedly high level of precision, from faces to the textured military-style gear Max and his men wear in the film. Likewise, backgrounds reveal even, discernible small details, though the lack of a real sense of a crumbling civilization means less in the way of raw, jagged textures to enjoy. Image clarity is consistent, as is sharpness. Colors are drained to favor a cold, gray overlay. The image rarely finds a splash of bright, vibrant colors, but skin textures, hair, and blood are nicely contrasted against that darker backdrop. Black levels give no cause for concern, nor do flesh tones. The picture sees a hint of banding and noise here and there, but not enough to cause a distraction. This is a fundamentally sound presentation from Anchor Bay.
Like its video counterpart, Battle of the Damned's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack serves the material well. Anchor Bay's latest lossless presentation provides authoritative music and gunfire, which comprise the bulk of the track's needs. Music is delivered efficiently and accurately, falling into place across the front and enveloping the listener with a healthy surround support. Gunfire hits hard and proves effective at pushing the action forward with punishing volume and intensity. Additional scattered effects impress, too, whether a blaring car horn heard early in the film or the rush of infected plowing through the soundstage on a few occasions. Dialogue plays firmly and clearly from the center. This is a rather basic but nevertheless charged-up soundtrack that's the quintessential listen for the modern DTV Action flick.
Battle of the Damned contains only one supplement. Battling the Damned (HD, 6:40) features several minutes of raw on-location footage.
Battle of the Damned is an imperfect movie in an imperfect direct-to-video marketplace, but it's significantly better than most, an honest action-first entertainer with solid visual effects and a good lead performance from Dolph Lundgren. Genre fans shouldn't expect miracles, but they should expect an honest effort and a fun watch out of a movie that may remind longtime fans of DTV Action flicks of a good little film from the 1990s titled A.P.E.X. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Battle of the Damned features solid video and strong audio. Unfortunately, only one supplement is included. Recommended to DTV Action fans.
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