6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Mankind The Story of All of Us is an epic 12-hour television event about the greatest adventure of all time - the history of the human race.
Narrator: Josh BrolinDocumentary | 100% |
History | 58% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Mankind: The Story of All of Us might seem to be an awfully tall order for any short form documentary series, but take solace in the fact that this History outing isn’t subtitled The Story of Each of Us, which might have been an even more daunting task. Twelve episodes might seem like far too few to tackle something of this scope and magnitude, but of course History isn’t exactly shy about redacting huge amounts of information into more manageable quantities, as their previous special History of the World in Two Hours so perfectly demonstrated. History tends to do a mostly excellent job with these massively themed documentaries, and this project, while keeping to a generally chronlogical outline, is rather smartly built around ideas rather than epochs, drawing correspondences between far flung events and personages that casual observers and even armchair historians may find unusually entertaining and illuminating. But like so many other History outings, Mankind: The Story of All of Us is hobbled by frequent pretentiousness, as well as a sort of manic quality that never allows any given factoid time to really sink in before another gambit of quick cuts and flashy visual and audio effects wash over the viewer, as if all this data simply isn’t interesting enough in and of itself and which the series’ producers evidently feel need gussying up to appeal to what one might almost assume would be an ADHD audience (based on the editing techniques alone).
Mankind: The Story of All of Us is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of History and A&E Home Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The large bulk of this series looks really fantastic, though it's hard to talk about things like "accurate" color or "clarity" of the image due to so many of the reenactments and other little snippets being so artificially color graded or tweaked with digital grain and the like. For a baseline, you can look at the talking heads sequences, which are about the most "normal" looking thing in the series, and here we're offered really robust flesh tones and exceptional fine detail, helped by the fact that most of these sequences are shot in close-up. The rest of the series generally looks great as well, though there's an alarming disparity in some of the CGI. Certain elements look just fine (Ben Franklin's lightning storm's "static electricity" or the Mars landing that caps the series) while other segments, notably the Titanic, look simply dreadful, like they were cobbled together on some ancient CAD system. Generally speaking, the image is quite sharp and well detailed, though the series' emphasis on nonstop quick cut editing makes it hard to tell sometimes.
Mankind: The Story of All of Us's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is as relentlessly aggressive as most History outings, but it has one salient thing to recommend it: it does not have the overpowering LFE that hobbled this series' sibling documentary America: The Story of Us. There is ubiquitous LFE roaring through the subwoofer here, but it's relatively restrained and never overpowers Josh Brolin's well done narration, which remains anchored in the front channels. Each episode has abundant surround activity, courtesy not just of the "whooshes" that seem to accompany every quick cut edit or segue, but also due to a lot of well placed environmental ambient sound effects, as well as sequences that feature large crowds and the like. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is extremely wide throughout all twelve episodes.
- Domesticating the Dog
- Building the Pyramids
- Fire
- The Ice Age
- Birth of Humans
- The Earliest Humans
- Rise of the Incas
- Taming the Horse
- The Plague
- Genghis Khan
Mankind: The Story of All of Us probably tries to do too much for its own good, but the fact that it manages to get so much information crammed into so relatively few episodes is really rather remarkable. The series' writing, while occasionally portentous, is quite strong, though some of the commentary will probably evoke unintended guffaws from time to time. What works best here are the unexpected connections between far flung events or some little told or not well remembered nuggets of information about famous people (like the fact that Christopher Columbus survived a near drowning after having been left for dead by pirates early in his seafaring career). There's no getting around the fact that by its very nature Mankind: The Story of All of Us is a mishmash, but as with any stew made out of copious ingredients, even picky eaters will be able to extract a tasty morsel or two. This Blu-ray offers nice looking video and a really well done surround mix, as well as some agreeable supplements. Recommended.
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