Stan Lee's Mighty 7: Beginnings Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Stan Lee's Mighty 7: Beginnings Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 16, 2014

My, my, my what a difference a few years—well, maybe more than just a few—can make. When I was growing up, DC was the undisputed master of the comics realm, due partly to the then relatively recent success of the television version of Batman as well as to the first of the Christopher Reeve Superman films (The Superman Motion Picture Anthology ). Marvel was seen in those days as a kind of B-movie version of DC, although I personally loved a lot of their offerings back then, many of which featured unusual heroes like The Silver Surfer. Marvel now dwarfs DC in magazine sales and perhaps more importantly in the worldwide box office of its many film franchises, and I’d posit that one of the main reasons for this unparalleled success is the fact that the brand has a readily recognizable figurehead in the person of Stan Lee. Can even a major comic book fan come up with any given executive at DC who approaches Lee’s renown? That renown gives Stan Lee’s Mighty 7: Beginnings a certain “meta” quality, for an animated version of Lee (voiced by Lee himself) appears in this pilot for a would be new animated series.

Unfortunately, Lee’s “appearance” in this outing is about its only notable feature. Mighty 7, as might be inferred from its very title, amounts to little more than The Fantastic Four plus three. Lee is out driving in the desert one evening trying to come up with an idea for a new comic when an alien ship crash lands and the titular seven appear, soon taking up residence in a private Lee hideaway. The plot continues to amble along in fairly predictable fashion, with the seven—supposedly wanted fugitives—having to battle aliens while also adapting to an Earthbound existence, with Lee as their mentor.

Stan Lee's Mighty 7: Beginnings Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Stan Lee's Mighty 7: Beginnings is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. While there's nothing overly distinctive about the animation on display here, this high definition presentation boasts excellently sharp and clear line detail as well as some boldly saturated colors. Contrast is also consistent and strong and the relatively short feature (barely over an hour) rests quite comfortably on a BD-25 with no overt compression artifacts.

Stan Lee's Mighty 7: Beginnings Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 on the disc is rather aggressive at times, providing good surround activity in the many action sequences as well as the (perhaps too ubiquitous) use of underscore. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is quite wide.

Stan Lee's Mighty 7: Beginnings Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Stan (1080p; 4:25)


• Stan's Rants (1080p; 1:59)


• Script to Screen (1080p; 00:34) is an introduction that then branches to multi-screen featurettes showing various sequences:

  Stan the Man (1080p; 1:21)

  The Escape Plan (1080p; 1:25)

  The Final Showdown (1080p; 1:26)

• Extended Scenes include:

  Beach House Brawl (1080p; 1:54)

  Lazer Lord Unmasks Xanar (1080p; 2:27)

  The Final Showdown (1080p; 1:02)

• Slam 7 Trailer (1080p; 2:13)


• Stan Lee Trivia Game


• Production Sketches Gallery (1080p)


• Composer's Favorite Music Cues includes "Stan the Man", "Crash Landing", "The Oil Refinery", "Surprise Attack: The Laboratory", and "Final Battle" (non are authored to show elapsed time).

Stan Lee's Mighty 7: Beginnings Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rabid completists in the Marvel universe or big Lee fans may well want to check out this release, but it's pretty standard fare. Even an initially announced series has been backtracked on, perhaps offering the best evidence that the Mighty 7 aren't quite ready for prime time (and/or Saturday morning), even with the help of the perspicacious Mr. Lee.