6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Two scientists, Michael and Karen Brace are developing a virtual reality system that sends sensory inputs into the brain and can record sights, sounds, feelings, and even dreams. The military attempts to take over the project when a senior worker begins to die of a heart attack and uses the system to tape the experience. They will do anything to get it. Enhanced virtual reality scenes filmed in 70mm, the film switching formats and OAR in them.
Starring: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher, Cliff Robertson, Jason LivelyThriller | Insignificant |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.20:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Predating Inception by more than twenty-five years, Brainstorm is a trippy, mind-bending journey into the conscious and subconscious that, terribly cheesy '80s conventions aside, doesn't flinch away from asking big questions. Or rather The Big Question. Three-time Oscar-nominated special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull, fresh off Blade Runner, hadn't directed a film since 1972's Silent Running, a shakily scripted but fondly remembered cult classic. Between producing little-known sci-fi series The Starlost for Canadian television and slipping on his supervisor shoes for Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, Trumbull didn't have a lot of time on his hands. But when an opportunity arose to produce and direct a high-concept psychedelic thriller based on a story by then-upstart screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost, Jacob's Ladder), he couldn't resist. Little did he know that tragedy would nearly derail the project in the middle of production. That the film, originally developed to showcase Trumbull's own 60 frames per second Showscan process, would instead be shot using 70mm Super Panavision and standard 35mm cameras. Or that time wouldn't be so kind to Brainstorm, an undeniably flawed '80s curiosity best known as the late Natalie Wood's final film.
This is your brain. This your brain on 'Brainstorm.'
Fear not, purists: Trumbull's shifting aspect ratios are intact and rightfully presented via a non-shifting 2.40:1 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer. However, the aggressively letterboxed results are more distracting than they are evocative, with the mind-interface sequences presented in 2.40:1 widescreen (1911 x 796 pixels) and the real world scenes presented in 1.67:1 with black bars on all sides (1330 x 796 pixels). The leaps between the two are startling, just as Trumbull intended, and do make the fish-eyed interface shots a bit more visceral. But the vast majority of the film is letterboxed top and bottom, left and right, leaving the viewer watching something that resembles a non-anamorphic widescreen presentation. Worse, the interface sequences are soft and hazy, the real world scenes are flat and listless, and colors and skintones are bland and lifeless in both. Black levels are often muted as well, and contrast is inconsistent. Every now and then a primary pops or a shot erupts with color, but that's the exception. Then there's the encode itself, the integrity of which is undermined by occasional artifacting, banding, unwieldy noise and other anomalies. Brainstorm's presentation is reasonably faithful, particularly when it comes to its handling of Trumbull's shifting aspect ratios, but source and encoding issues cut it down to size.
Warner's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is serviceable, effective even, but it's a bit too hit or miss to make much of an impact. The interface sequences are loud and jarring, and like the accompanying visuals, more unsettling. LFE and rear speaker output increase dramatically and the entire soundfield bristles with activity. The real world scenes, though, may as well be presented via a single channel lossy track. Dialogue is intelligible but ranges from clear to dampened to a bit muffled, dynamics are dull and diluted, and very little draws the listener in. And while much of that can be attributed to intention, it doesn't make for an immersive experience. Yes, Trumbull went out of his way to make the interface sequences larger than life. But to do so, he also deadened the real world scenes. Perhaps that bit of criticism belongs in the movie portion of my review, but it struck me as being more appropriate here.
Brainstorm arrives with a standard definition theatrical trailer, nothing more.
Brainstorm would make a killer Christopher Nolan flick. Trumbull mismanages the material, though, and rarely delivers on the promise of Rubin's high-concept story. The most notable thing about the film is that it was Natalie Wood's last, and that does little more than increase its status as a curiosity. Unfortunately, Warner's Blu-ray release is almost as dated as the movie itself, with a problematic video transfer, a decent DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and a near-barebones supplemental package. So rent Brainstorm for its final minutes. Skip a purchase for everything else.
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