One Direction: Where We Are - Live from San Siro Stadium Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

One Direction: Where We Are - Live from San Siro Stadium Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 12, 2014

For anyone outside of One Direction’s natural demographic who either through the vagaries of fate or due to professional obligations is forced to watch One Direction Where We Are — Live from San Siro Stadium, here’s a helpful drinking game which will actually accomplish two things simultaneously. Simply take a sip—a swig really isn’t necessary, due to the ubiquity of the “trigger”—every time the camera cuts away to an hysterical girl screaming and/or crying inconsolably. Special accommodations can be made when the camera cuts away to two or more girls engaged in community hysteria, clutching each other maniacally and wailing as if the giant projection screens behind this boy group qua marketing phenomenon (or is that the other way around?) had suddenly announced the Apocalypse (meaning of course no more One Direction concerts), and perhaps several sips might be allowed in such circumstances. And the two things this gambit will accomplish? Well, first of all, it will give folks without an ounce of interest in this “band” something to do as they traipse through a series of prefabricated tunes, and more importantly, most folks will be so completely drunk before the end of even the first song that they will have ceased to care about being forced to watch the concert. Any of you with teenaged girls who might be seriously considering this approach can simply thank me later. In the meantime, my professional obligations require me to actually discuss this latest One Direction Blu-ray, following on the stylish heels of 2012’s One Direction - Up All Night: The Live Tour and 2013’s One Direction: This Is Us 3D.

You can grouse all you want to about the “prefab” nature of One Direction—heck music snobs, er, curmudgeons have been doing stuff like that since at least the time of The Monkees—but there’s little doubt that the quintet and their Svengali Simon Cowell seem to know what they’re doing. One Direction has tallied up an incredible number of “firsts” in their still regularly young career. Not only have their albums regularly reached the top echelons of most international charts, the band holds the distinction of being the first group in U.S. chart history to take the vaunted Number 1 position with their first four consecutive albums. Tell that to The Beatles. A number of other accolades have been lavished on the group, making the members among the wealthiest in the world in their “under 30” category.

Still, there’s a mechanized aspect to One Direction that just as easily can’t be dismissed. Everything about this gargantuan concert, from the Big Hair era arena light and fireworks displays, to the photo opps each member takes out on a gloriously long thrust stage, to the supposed “intimate” moments shared by the bandmates on stage seem choreographed to within an inch of their lives. Simon Cowell is no fool, and he knows how to build superstars. It's therefore probably pointless to argue and to simply relax and witness one of his latest feats of architecture.

But part of that winning formula (emphasis on formula) is the fact that Cowell is no slouch in guiding producers and artists to decent material, and as slight as some have assailed One Direction’s recorded output for being so far, it’s ridiculous to argue with many of the tunes’ hook laden sensibilities, which at times seem to almost reach out and grab the listener by the cranium, forcefully planting ear worms that can only be eradicated by listening to the next hook laden tune. The boys are very energetic and sing well enough, and have obviously been schooled in the art of crotch grabbing, which seems to delight the large female audience in attendance at San Siro Stadium.

There are a few missteps in this overly calculated effort, however, though they might be noticed only by music snobs, er, curmudgeons who might wonder why a band member would go to such lengths to prove his “real” musicianship by strapping on a guitar, and then weirdly forget to change his finger position on the fretboard every time a chord changes. The other issue is simply one of a crowd literally overwhelming a concert. This has the impeccable stage and sound design that is part and parcel of this kind of operation, and yet the screaming, wailing and general hysteria of the largely (but not totally) female audience makes some of the music hard to hear at times. If you’re not already passed out from that aforementioned drinking game, you might be prone to consider that a blessing.

One Direction’s set list for this concert is:

1. Midnight Memories
2. Little Black Dress
3. Kiss You
4. Why Don't We Go There
5. Rock Me
6. Don't Forget Where You Belong
7. Live While We're Young
8. C'mon, C'mon
9. Right Now
10. Through the Dark
11. Happily
12. Little Things
13. Moments
14. Strong
15. Better Than Words
16. Alive
17. One Thing
18. Diana
19. What Makes You Beautiful
20. You and I
21. Story of My Life
22. Little White Lies
23. Best Song Ever

One Direction: Where We Are - Live from San Siro Stadium Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

One Direction Where We Are — Live From San Siro Stadium is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Music with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 2.39:1. I was actually pleasantly surprised to discover this was an interlaced presentation, for when watching it, I had come to the incorrect conclusion that it was progressive based on the nice lack of any traditional issues like combing artifacts. This is in fact a generally extremely sharp and well detailed looking concert video, one that benefits from the almost insane array of cameras covering the action, which include everything from drones offering high altitude views of the entire massive arena to what hopefully were not drones getting virtually up into the nose hairs of the One Direction members. Colors are precise and accurate looking and contrast is consistent. There are still a few very minor issues that some videophiles may notice. Banding is in evidence, though in surprisingly minor amounts given the huge lighting effects utilized throughout the concert. There's also some very brief posterizing when bright lights are aimed directly at the camera and light spills onto nearby objects.

One Direction: Where We Are - Live from San Siro Stadium Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One Direction Where We Are — Live From San Siro Stadium features both an LCPM 2.0 as well as a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (as with so many concert Blu-rays, for some reason the default audio choice is the stereo track rather than the surround track). Both of these offer a sterling accounting of what's going on in San Siro, but that unfortunately includes a lot of crowd noise and ubiquitous (and I do mean ubiquitous) "sing alongs" by the several thousand in attendance. That (irony intended) "wall of sound" tends to drown out the actual One Direction singing throughout the concert, with the boys' lower ranges often getting completely subsumed by the audience's nonstop output. There's still good reproduction here, even if every last note can't be adequately heard, with a solid midrange and nice breathing room offering excellent spatial differentiation in the surround mix.

One Direction: Where We Are - Live from San Siro Stadium Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Road to San Siro (1080i; 24:09) provides a surprising wealth of production info and footage, with tons of backstage and/or candid footage that is sure to delight One Direction's rabid fanbase.

One Direction: Where We Are - Live from San Siro Stadium Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A famous album of a certain Mr. Presley's stated 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong. This concert outing proves that several thousand One Direction fans can't be quiet. The audience caterwauling may prove to be at least a minor annoyance for some One Direction fans, since it keeps the band from being heard all the time, but otherwise this is an absolutely regimented performance that sees everyone hitting their marks and their notes without a hitch. Technical merits are first rate and for fans if for no one else One Direction Where We Are — Live From San Siro comes Recommended.