6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.9 |
Tells a timeless story based on Irish folklore of good versus evil, & through the media of dance & music it is understood and appreciated by every culture.
Starring: Michael FlatleyMusical | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Okay, let’s just get this out of the way right off the bat: my wife and I have made merciless fun of the Riverdance and Lord of the Dance franchises for years, lambasting them as “dancing with no arm movements.” PBS pledge breaks have consistently lost two regular viewers whenever Michael Flatley and company have burst on screen, tapping those toes faster than seems humanly possible. And yet I’m not immune to the charms of Irish dancing, and in fact have firsthand knowledge of how popular it can be. Years ago a large chorus I direct had a Celtic themed concert, and as a special guest we brought in an award winning young lass who had recently won a national Irish dancing contest. We had never before experienced an audience of the magnitude we saw that day. The church where we performed was full to capacity, and people were actually standing out in the narthex and, yes, even the parking lot trying to gain a gander at the choir and the dancer. Obviously, there’s something extremely attractive about this art form which has captivated audiences worldwide and which has made Michael Flatley an international phenomenon. Flatley, a south side Chicago kid of Irish ancestry has taken his ethnic heritage very seriously, becoming a living exemplar of an ancient art and winning countless fans and untold millions in the process. When he left Riverdance under that oft-quoted cloud of "artistic differences," he created his own incredible extravaganza, Lord of the Dance, which quickly eclipsed Riverdance in both ambition and impact. This new Blu-ray, subtitled Michael Flatley Returns, is in fact Flatley's recreation of Lord of the Dance back in Dublin, where it all began in 1996. Flatley had in the meantime moved onto other projects as well as survived at least a couple of major health scares.
Lord of the Dance: Michael Flatley Returns is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of entertainmentone with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This entire presentation, while incredibly colorful and decently detailed, suffers from an overall softness which is further exacerbated by an aggressive lighting scheme which bathes the dancers in diffuse shades of red and blue, only adding to the gauzy texture of the piece. Frequently moiré patterns appear rather liberally in the busy light array behind the dancers, especially in the sequence featuring the red lit steps, where they almost overwhelm the image at times. The concert is also played out on a frequently quite dark stage, and crush is fairly rampant, especially in the upstage areas. That's the bad news. The good news is, this is incredibly colorful stuff, and the palette here is not only very lifelike and accurate looking, it's incredibly robust. Detail on the costumes can be quite good, especially in close-ups, though it's worth noting by far the vast majority of this feature is filmed from midrange in order to take in as many dancers as possible at any one time.
Lord of the Dance: Michael Flatley Returns offers the listener two stupendously excellent lossless tracks, a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix and an LPCM 2.0. If your equipment permits you to experience the 7.1 mix, that's the obvious and overwhelming choice here, as it will bathe you not just in Ronan Hardiman's wonderful music, but in a really at times startling display of surround activity as various clicks, taps and pops of those incredibly fleet feet move across the stage. Fidelity is excellent, with very appealing low end, but also a just warm and inviting sound through all frequency ranges. While the audience sound gets a bit bothersome between pieces, for the most part during the performance it's kept at a minimum. Dynamic range is also superb, especially nicely realized as Hardiman's music goes from a gentle Irish whisper to a full on rock guitar roar.
Lord of the Dance is an old fashioned extravaganza, but it's one that's also curiously restrained, never quite completely giving in to glitz and glamour, despite an abundance of rhinestones, tap shoes and lots of impressive lighting effects. Flatley is still a very engaging presence and his troupe has obviously been rehearsed to within an inch of their lives and/or toes. Though the image quality on this Blu-ray leaves a little bit to be desired, the soundtrack is amazingly well presented, and any fans of Flatley and his gargantuan productions will love this release. I still hold out hope these dancers will learn to move their arms someday, but even so, this release is Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
2011
20th Anniversary Edition
1992
50th Anniversary Edition
1964
2010
2018
1953
1968
35th Anniversary Edition
1977
1999
Special Edition
1971
2009
The Musical
1998
1993
2017
2009
80th Anniversary Edition
1939
1978
2014
1994
1976