6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Due to depleting natural resources and overpopulation, humans look to Mars as their next habitat. Terraforming is the project to change Mars' environment to accommodate humans. For this project, cockroaches are sent to Mars and mutated to walk. In the year 2599, 15 poor Japanese are sent to Mars to take out the cockroaches. They are unaware of what they are up against.
Starring: Hideaki Itô, Emi Takei, Takayuki Yamada, Shun Oguri, Kane KosugiForeign | 100% |
Horror | 45% |
Comic book | Insignificant |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
It might be easy to watch Terra Formars with its giant mutant cockroaches and astronauts who are also able to morph into various insects and respond with a hearty, “So, just another Takashi Miike movie, eh?” Of course that’s said with tongue planted firmly in cheek, but in this case the over the top visuals and lunatic plot line may owe at least a bit to forces other than the often provocative Miike (even this film’s marketing trailers and teasers label Miike as “controversial”, which is probably an understatement). Terra Formars began life as an insanely popular Japanese manga by Yū Sasuga and Michio Fukuda which, like many an other manga, was ultimately “translated” into anime form (Terra Formars Set 1 and Terra Formars Set 2: Revenge are currently available as domestic Blu-ray sets). Miike approaches the source material with a fair amount of fidelity, but this is a film where there’s really not much “there” there, despite an impressive production design (with some admittedly hokey looking CGI).
Terra Formars is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The insert booklet included with this release has what is perhaps the briefest description yet of the provenance of an Arrow Video transfer, stating only that:
Terraformars is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 [ sic ] with 5.1 audio.I haven't been able to track down much if any technical data on the shoot, but I'm assuming this was culled from a 2K DI of a digitally captured property (again, as always with my reviews, if anyone has any authoritative data to the contrary, send it my way and I'll happily post an update here). Those of you who are used to some of the visual excesses of any given Miike film will already know about skewed palettes and odd framings, both of which are de rigeur in this film as well. Detail levels are quite impressive throughout, even if some of the "bug info" details can look a bit soft. In fact CGI is variably sharp, though close-ups of the cockroaches reveal quite a bit of texturing (see screenshot 1 for one example). The entire palette, while oddly graded at times (and even seemingly desaturated in some of the exterior scenes), tends to ping pong between browns and beiges and more of a blue hue (especially with regard to the "command center"). Fine detail tends to not be materially affected by many of these choices, but shadow detail in a number of dark interior scenes is still occasionally problematic.
Terra Formars features an often pretty wacky sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in the original Japanese. There are some great panning effects offered on this track, especially when hordes of cockroaches are swarming all over the place. Many of the outdoor scenes offer spare but rather well done placement of ambient environmental effects, and the cloistered environment of the main spaceship also has some interesting acoustics which are well rendered. While there's not a glut of LFE, at least for those who are coming to this film expecting non-stop low end since this is a monster fueled science fiction "epic", there are bursts of energy that are quite forceful. Some of the "crunching" effects, which are frequently followed by "slurping" sounds of goo emanating from cockroach shells are intentionally hilarious. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track.
- Hideako Ito (1080p; 10:09)
- Emi Takei (1080p; 6:52)
- Tomohisa Yamashita (1080p; 10:40)
- Takayuki Yamada (1080p; 8:16)
- Shun Oguri (1080p; 12:13)
- Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:35)
- Teaser 1 (1080p; 00:32)
- Teaser 2 (1080p; 00:52)
Miike remains one of the most consistently unpredictable filmmakers working these days, and for that alone I personally think he's to be commended, even if some may feel his efforts are (as the marketing materials for this film maintain) "controversial". Terra Formars in some ways is just good, old fashioned "popcorn munching" fun, and it has a certain lunatic quality that may appeal to those who aren't that concerned about lack of overall story momentum or even character differentiation. While a bit hazy looking at times due to the prevalence of green screen and CGI elements, technical merits here are first rate for those who are considering a purchase.
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