Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		1.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Fascination Coral Reef: Hunters and the Hunted Blu-ray Movie Review

The biggest thing being hunted is your wallet...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown December 29, 2013

Universal is doing the 3D market a disservice. Not in terms of the recent theatrical releases the studio issues on 3D Blu-ray, which are uniformly excellent when it comes to AV quality, but with the growing number of bargain bin natural history 3D documentaries Universal is casually tossing into the market. Every few months it's a new batch of lesser titles, the most recent being Fascination Coral Reef: Hunters and the Hunted and Ocean Predators 3D; bland, undersea rehashes in every sense of the word. Both are of such low quality that it's a wonder they aren't bundled together with a $9.99 price tag, Echo Bridge style. (Although even that might be a bit too generous.) Each doc's video transfer is an upscaled mess. Each 3D presentation a misfire. Each lossless audio track merely serviceable. And each release is as barebones as they come. There's a place for 3D natural history productions, and I'd even wager a decent market. But titles like these -- not to mention those that have preceded them and those that will inevitably arrive in the future -- only disappoint consumers with discs that may as well be DVDs.

In this 3D adventure, we observe sharks on the lookout for the next bite and swarms of diverse fish as they make their way through the reef, confusing hungry attackers with their vast display of shapes and colors. Although this continuous struggle sounds barbaric, there is a balance between the hunters and the hunted. Eat or be eaten. In this world, it's all about survival.

Like Fascination Coral Reef and Fascination Coral Reef 3D: Mysterious Worlds Underwater before it, Hunters and the Hunted suffers with faulty fundamentals. The photography is pedestrian (almost as if it's comprised of a series of semi-amateur diver videos), the information and attempts at humanizing animal behavior is dry and dutiful, the 3D experience amounts to little more than a small bonus (and a lackluster one at that), and the score features the sort of music you might hear while holding for the next available representative. Budget is no doubt a major factor -- the documentary ascribes to the tell, don't show school of editing, presumably because the filmmakers were working with limited stereoscopic footage captured on a tight schedule -- but apart from the competently scripted, grandfatherly narration and pace, there isn't enough here to justify the cost of admission or the time spent swimming through such shallow, murky waters.

Fascination Coral Reef: Hunters and the Hunted Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hunted's 1080p/MVC-encoded 3D video presentation is an open wound regardless of whether you select 2D or 3D. Colors are bright and vibrant, but most everything else is incredibly disheveled. Severe macroblocking, unsightly banding, frequent aliasing, almost non-existent fine detail, noise, crush, compression artifacts, ringing, edge halos, pulldown anomalies and... really, every other debilitating issue that comes to mind. The whole thing frankly stops just short of being unwatchable. In 3D, the presentation improves marginally I suppose, despite the fact that each eyesore is that much more in-your-face. Depth and dimensionality are laughably flat, the image lacks any measure of pop, and crosstalk is apparent to varying degrees no matter the display. (Yes, even those displays that aren't prone to ghosting, meaning some of the crosstalk is a product of the encode. A rarity and an irritation.) It doesn't get much worse than this. Key word: much. I've watched a few 3D releases that sink a bit deeper.

Fascination Coral Reef: Hunters and the Hunted Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround tracks for Hunters and the Hunted and Ocean Predators are solid , given the circumstances at least. Narration is clear and intelligible at all times, without anything in the way of prioritization mishaps or strangeness. The rear speakers spread the film's music around the soundfield nicely too, even though the bubbling water and light, ambient island flavor of the score offers very little in terms of enveloping composition or six-channel fullness. LFE output is restrained from start to finish as well, which might be a problem if the documentary's sound design demanded anything more. (It doesn't.) Ultimately, there's nothing remotely remarkable on tap, nor anything so offensive as to warrant gross penalization.

Fascination Coral Reef: Hunters and the Hunted Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray release of Fascination Coral Reef: Hunters and the Hunted doesn't include any special features.

Fascination Coral Reef: Hunters and the Hunted Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fascination Coral Reef: Hunters and the Hunted is a slow, sleepy, all too ordinary trip beneath the waves, trailing after sharks and other coral-framed predators and prey with very little to show for it. The result is a dull, uneventful natural history documentary and a terribly dissatisfying Blu-ray release. While the film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is decent, its video presentation is extremely problematic and its 3D experience isn't anything to write home about. All told, this is another bottom of the barrel 3D natural history doc from Universal. Proceed accordingly.