8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.4 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.3 |
Sexy. Slammin'. Outrageous. Hurl all the adjectives you want, but one word says it all: Britney. (Ms. Spears if you're nasty.) The Grammy-winning pop diva storms the stage with a fierce mix of fan-favorite hits and hot new tracks from her latest album, Femme Fatale, in this concert special taped before a sold-out crowd in Toronto. Whether you're in the market for bodacious dance moves, killer costume changes or that make-you-melt Louisiana drawl, Britney's bringing ‘em all - bigger and better than ever.
Starring: Britney SpearsMusic | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English: LPCM 5.1
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Is Britney Spears back from the brink? The pop icon, arguably her generation’s biggest music superstar, seemed dangerously close to the end of her career little more than two or three years ago. Virtually no news report appeared about the singer without describing her as “troubled.” Her escapades, including her infamous head shaving episode, ultimately led to intimations of mental illness, her finances being placed into a conservatorship, and Dr. Phil angling for a very special sitdown with star, hopefully to air during Sweeps Month. (The good doctor found himself in the awkward position of having to release a formal apology to the press after he commented on Brit’s disposition in a well publicized interview surrounding his visit to the ailing star while she was hospitalized). Brit seemed perhaps unexpectedly sanguine about all the fuss and bother over her career, though some wags, especially those in the tabloid press, claimed that that was simply further proof of her mental instability. And yet through it all somehow Britney managed to keep it together enough to keep recording, charting several Top 10 singles, and truth be told the critics if anything were perhaps a bit kinder to Brit than they had been in previous years, as with the critical brickbats which were thrown her way in her lambasted appearance at the MTV Music Video Awards. Spears is one of several former Disney kids who some decry as the worst example of pre-packaged pop stardom, and in a recording and performing industry dominated by autotuning and “live” performances rife with prerecords and multitrack playback augmenting whatever (if anything) is actually done live on stage, it’s hard to put up much of a sustained argument that stars like Brit at the very least have the appearance of being products instead of actual, honest to goodness, talents. And so we come to Brit’s 2011 Femme Fatale Tour, captured here in high definition, culled from concerts she gave in Toronto. Cynics may still decry Brit as being pre-packaged, a zombiefied icon moving through the paces with all the grace of programmed robot, but it simply can’t be denied that, for better or worse, Brit is back.
Britney Spears: The Femme Fatale Tour is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. The Femme Fatale concert is an amazing extravaganza of sights, and this high definition presentation is certainly one of the most eye popping concert videos in recent memory. The overall image is sharp as a tack and offers abundant clarity and some surprisingly excellent fine detail, especially in close- ups. Black levels are gorgeously deep, but little if any shadow detail is lost in them, despite some large upstage klieg lights aimed directly at the audience (and cameras). The interlaced format doesn't present any horrible combing artifacts, colors are solid and extremely well saturated, and the concert provides a really great "you are there" feeling that fans will certainly enjoy.
Britney Spears: The Femme Fatale Tour features two lossless tracks, an LPCM 5.1 uncompressed surround mix and an LPCM 2.0 stereo mix, as well as a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Say what you will about the actual music on this concert (and I'll try to refrain for fear of being tarred and feathered by Brit's rabid fan base), the two LPCM tracks here are staggeringly robust, with some of the best low end I've personally heard in a live concert offering over the past year at least. There are actually some nice, if subtle, differences in the playback mixes between the 5.1 and 2.0 LPCM tracks and Brit's most ardent fans may want to listen to the concert at least twice so that they can hear both tracks in their entirety (and of course the biggest fans are going to return to the concert much more than twice). Fidelity is excellent, with really lustrous reproduction of all frequency ranges. There frankly isn't a whale of a lot of dynamic range here, since the bulk of the concert is Brit's dance oriented tunes, most of which offer loud and consistent kick drums and bass, but in a couple of relatively quieter moments, both LPCM tracks support everything that's going on quite effortlessly.
Bonus Videos include Hold It Against Me (1080i; 4:35), Till the World Ends (1080p; 4:04), I Wanna Go (1080i; 4:41) and Criminal (1080p; 5:26).
Britney Spears: The Femme Fatale Tour is an eye popping extravaganza that comes at the audience full force and rarely if ever lets up. It's incessantly energetic, visually quite amazing at times and sonically a virtual nonstop array of thumping dance beats. Britney is completely on top of her game throughout, with well articulated dance moves and complete control of her stagecraft. But the concert has a buttoned down, completely mapped out feel that deprives the audience from ever really feeling close to the star. That's probably by design, but it means no one ever is really going to get a piece of Britney. Still, for fans at least, this Blu-ray looks and sounds magnificent and easily comes Recommended.
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