6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Legendary Chinese anti-hero Zhong Kui, a young man endowed with mysterious powers who is forced into a battle among the realms of Heaven, Earth and Hell in the course of his attempt to save his countrymen and the woman he loves.
Starring: Kun Chen, Bingbing Li, Winston Chao, Zishan Yang, Bei'er BaoForeign | 100% |
Action | 48% |
Fantasy | 36% |
Romance | 4% |
Adventure | 1% |
Supernatural | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Mandarin: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Fans of the 1982 Jim Henson — Frank Oz collaboration The Dark Crystal might be drawn to the similarly named Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal simply due to the fact of the title alone, but while this 2015 Chinese fantasy spectacular doesn’t offer puppets (hey, it’s the CGI era, isn’t it?), there are a number of other analogies between the two films, not the least of which is that good old eternal battle between good and evil and, yes, a totemic artifact that is called the dark crystal and which plays into the overall plot arc. The film was evidently released overseas as Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal, with that initial name referencing a famous “ghost buster” from Chinese mythology. Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal may not in fact employ animatronics, but it is stuffed to its veritable gills with just about everything else imaginable, from various strata of beings from heaven on high to the depths of hell below, and humans of course stuck somewhere in the middle. The film is also a riot of special effects work. Unfortunately, in what continues to be a somewhat disappointing trend, Well Go USA has brought the film to domestic Blu-ray in 2D, when the original theatrical exhibition was in 3D, and it is more than patently obvious that the bulk of the effects were designed to be “in your face,” something that loses a bit “in translation” to a flat presentation. There is still a cartwheeling ambience to much of Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal, and if the film tends to ricochet a bit unevenly in its narrative development, there is so much going on visually and aurally most of the time that undemanding viewers will probably find more than enough escapist fare to enjoy the proceedings.
Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. While the digital photography of the film was obviously originally engineered with 3D in mind, aside from some recurrent softness in many CGI infested sequences, the overall look of this transfer is rather beautifully detailed and often sumptuously colorful. While the animation can be pretty gauzy looking at times (peruse the screencaptures accompanying this review for several key examples), when actual humans and practical props and costumes enter the mix, detail and fine detail are often exceptional. The film has its fair share of aggressively color graded sequences, with a minimal diminution in detail resulting at times. Some of the CGI seems to have been engineered to evoke the redolent works of Ray Harryhausen, and there's a bit of a "herky jerky" style to the movement that older viewers will probably find a bit nostalgic looking.
Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal features an extremely aggressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, one which zings sound effects through the surrounds with apparent gleeful abandon almost from the first moments of the film and then rarely if ever lets up afterward. Everything from the churning volcanic noises of hell to some of the crack and quicksilver of various battle sequences offer opportunities for excellently discrete channelization and some very winning LFE. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and Javier Navarrete's enjoyable score resides in the side and rear channels quite effectively.
- The Music Journey (1080i; 5:27)
- Visual Effects (1080p; 9:54)
There are a few allusions to elements like socioeconomic structure and the interplay of humans and their Gods (and/or Devils) in Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal, but really the film exists and is best appreciated as a big, overstuffed live action cartoon that pits good against evil without much doubt about which is going to end up on top. The film is a riot of CGI and fantastic (in both senses of the word) production design, and those elements help to distract from some of the story inadequacies. This is one film that really should have been granted a 3D Blu-ray release, for it's obvious that a lot of the effects were designed to "reach out and touch" the audience. Technical merits are generally strong on this release, and Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal comes Recommended.
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