DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson August 26, 2017

After a somewhat insipid first season, DC's Legends of Tomorrow launches its second season with high-octane energy, beginning with the introduction of the Justice Society of America (an antecedent of DC's Justice League), who have teleported an alternate Waverider near the Legends' own Waverider. Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) is no longer commander of the Waverider. That task is split between Professor Martin Stein/Firestorm (Victor Garber) and Sara Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz). In essence replacing Hunter on the crew is the charming and analytical historian Dr. Nate Heywood (Nick Zano), who determines that the Legends have been scattered throughout time. Dr. Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Roth), Jefferson "Jax" Jackson/Firestorm (Franz Drameh), and Mick Rory/Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell) return for more missions. The Legends are reeling from the aftermath of the Hour Man, a warning cast by the JSA that sends a message to the Legends that they must protect Earth from possible Time Aberrations—potential anomalies in the timeline that could produce life-altering consequences in past, present, and future events. Although not all members of the JSA are mainstays throughout this season, the beautiful Amaya Jiwe/Vixen (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) from the JSA joins forces with the remaining Legends to wage battle against a triumvirate of new Super-Villains known as the Legion of Doom—Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), Malcolm Merlyn/Dark Archer (John Barrowman), and Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash (Matt Letscher). The evil men collaborate to recover and assemble the Spear of Destiny, a mythical and mystical artifact that has the power to rewrite history and chart new actualities. There are also additional secondary adversaries introduced in each episode for the Legends to fight under the auspices of Darhk and his men. A lot of these foes are topically recognizable so the viewer can immediately relate to their character's makeup, period, and context.

Season Two has a lot more variety than its predecessor, which depended on Vandal Savage and the unlawful Time Masters. It moves faster and the action takes place across a wide spectrum of historical epochs. More specifically, it shifts back and forth from the Waverider to the Renaissance, World War II, Civil War, American Revolution, the Reagan eighties, et al. That is also the season's biggest weakness. The series' writers have crammed a great deal of material into compact forty-minute episodes to the degree that famous and infamous historical personages have been dumbed-down into dime store archetypes. It would have been better if at least some episodes were spread into two parts to allow for more growth and development. Also, this would allow for secondary and tertiary characters that are not so well-known to give their respective historical periods a wider and richer context. Season Two doesn't take itself as seriously as the first and this results in a fun collection of seventeen episodes that are highly entertaining. My critical score of 4.0 is most reflective of the show's production values, which are first-rate and replete with spectacular colors.

A typical scene from DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON

Warner Bros. has released a three-disc set that includes a total of seventeen episodes on three BD-50s. The Elite case's enclosed leaflet contains a synopsis of each episode. Expanded summaries of episodes can be found at on this Arrowverse Wiki.

DISC 1

1. Out of Time

2. The Justice Society of America

3. Shogun

4. Abominations

5. Compromised

6. Outlaw Country

DISC 2

7. Invasion!

8. The Chicago Way

9. Raiders of the Lost Art

10. The Legion of Doom

11. Turncoat

12. Camelot/3000

DISC 3

13. Land of the Lost

14. Moonshot

15. Fellowship of the Spear

16. Doomworld

17. Aruba

DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All episodes of DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season have been given AVC-encoded transfers in their originally shot and broadcast aspect ratios of 1.78:1. This is another virtually spotless transfer by Warner, with the only blemish being some ringing that becomes evident due to compression. Inside the Waverider, there is sometimes phosphorescent light that doesn't reveal any banding. Skin tones are unmanipulated and show a stark contrast with other aspects in the frame in artificially lit scenes (see Dr. Stein in Screenshot #6). There is an occasional tendency by the cinematographer for a soft or shallow focus in which one plane is sharp and the other blurry (see #s 8 and 14). Outdoor day scenes for the different periods pop out gloriously (e.g., #s 19 and 20).

Each episode can be accessed through the pop-menu. A scissors symbol adjacent to the episode name signfies an excised scene, which can be played under Episodes or they're individually labeled via the Special Features pop-up.

Each episode is introduced with a character's voice-over giving a mini-capsule of the season's premise, followed by a recap of the prior episode.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

An English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (16-bit) is the default original sound track for all episodes. The mix sounds very warm and active, with discrete separation for sound effects like lasergun fire, explosions, tire screeches, engines, etc. Dialogue is almost always clearly articulated and delivery sounds flawless along the front speakers. Blake Neely's series theme and underscore is omnipresent across the soundstage. The brass and bass tend to sound loud and deep. A Portuguese dub is also available as a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo at 192 kbps.

Warner supplies English SDH as well as optional French, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles for display during the episodes.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

DISC 1

• Deleted Scenes (6 min., 1080p)

DISC 2

• Allied: The Invasion Complex (9:56, 1080p)

• One Deleted Scene (1:35, 1080p)

DISC 3

• DC's Legends of Tomorrow: 2016 Comic-Con Panel (29:56, 1080p)

• Deleted Scenes (4 min., 1080p)

• Gag-Reel (6:39, 1080p)

The second season of DC's Legends of Tomorrow is also currently available to own on Digital HD. My review copy came with an insert containing a redemption code. Digital HD allows consumers to instantly stream and download all episodes to watch anywhere and anytime on their favorite devices. Digital HD is available from various digital retailers including Amazon Video, CinemaNow, iTunes, PlayStation, Vudu, Xbox, and others. A Digital Copy is also included with the purchase of this three-disc set for redemption and cloud storage through participating retail services including CinemaNow, Vudu, and Flixster Video.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

According to Nielsen, DC's Legends of Tomorrow ranks as the #4 show on The CW among total viewers, with over 3.2 million viewers tuning in weekly. This should not deter series fans from indulging in the action-packed and fast-paced second season. Warner Bros. delivers nearly immaculate transfers for the episodes and the lossless audio is also outstanding. There are nearly ten scenes deleted from episodes that Warner has included, along with a crossover featurette and Comic-Con panel. Warner renewed the series for a third season, which will premiere on October 10, 2017. In the meantime, you should enjoy most all of these episodes, which have plenty of replay value. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.