7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
The affair between a politician and a ballerina is affected by mysterious forces keeping the lovers apart.
Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly (V)Thriller | 100% |
Sci-Fi | 45% |
Imaginary | 37% |
Romance | 23% |
Mystery | 22% |
Psychological thriller | 17% |
Supernatural | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy (as download)
DVD copy
BD-Live
D-Box
Mobile features
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The interplay between free will and destiny has led to many a debate within both philosophical and religious circles. Maybe that’s why it took an iconic science fiction writer to conveniently marry the two with some sleight of hand and frankly occasionally unexplained elements. Philip K. Dick, the remarkable author whose source stories and novels have given us films as disparate as Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly and Minority Report, posited in his short story The Adjustment Team that there was a group of superhuman (possibly angelic) creatures who were able to subtly shift people’s pathways through their lives in order to keep them on some mysterious (and often changing) Plan. That’s a really compelling premise for a motion picture, but unfortunately The Adjustment Bureau ends up being a weird concatenation of some quasi-thriller mystery elements wrapped around a core that is kind of like the ultimate Chick Flick—you know, the kind where True Love can’t be undone by Bad Things happening to Beautiful People. The Adjustment Bureau was marketed in a post-Inception landscape and its teaser emphasized a couple of CGI elements as well as the supposedly “mind bending” aspects of the story, neither of which are ultimately all that important to the film’s central conceit. This is at its most basic simply a love story between two people who feel they’re fated to be with each other while the universe (including some superhuman angelic creatures) seems to be doing everything to keep them apart.
Evidently the "codec wars" aren't quite as settled as a lot of people had assumed, as this is the second major release in the past week or so I've reviewed which is presented with a VC-1 encode rather than AVC. Some videophiles have claimed to be able to see supposedly noticeable differences in transfers using these two preferred codecs, with AVC supposedly being superior, but you'd be hard pressed to prove that with the mostly sterling results offered by The Adjustment Bureau. This 1080p 1.85:1 presentation offers gorgeously varied hues, especially remarkable in that Nolfi has intentionally filtered so much of this film (as he discusses in his commentary track) toward, at various times, the cool blue or the blanched sepia ends of the spectrum. In fact when we finally get some natural looking light at the end of the film, it's something of a relief. Through it all, though, the image remains impeccably sharp, with abundant fine detail, natural looking grain, and appealing, if at times strangely filtered, color. About the only niggling concern for most will be some minor crush, which is perhaps more apparent than it might have been simply because so much of this film plays out in shadowy, dimly lit environments.
The Adjustment Bureau's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is surprisingly spacious and at times incredibly immersive, somewhat at odds with the often claustrophobic paranoiac feel of the rest of the film. From the opening campaign moments, when David Norris is surrounded by a throng of adoring fans, we're immediately thrust into the center of a very active soundscape, and the surround activity is very smartly assembled for the rest of the film. The most completely immersive moments are in the many location exterior shots throughout New York, where the city's manic ambience comes fully to life, but even in some interior shots, as in the final chase scene, there are some fantastic foley effects popping up around the soundfield, and such everyday items as scurrying footsteps nicely pan through the soundfield with aplomb. There's a perhaps surprising lack of bombastic underscore here, but that actually benefits the film. Dialogue is clear, occasionally panned well, and is very well mixed within the overall environmental sound effects.
Your personal appreciation and enjoyment of The Adjustment Bureau is most likely going to be geared more than usual to your expectations of what kind of film you think you're about to see. If you're in the mood for a sort of Matrix meets Inception CGI-fest with a quasi-hallucinogenic take on the nature of reality, you're more than likely to be sorely disappointed in this film. If, on the other hand, you want nothing more than an OK chick flick, with lovers fighting against impossible (and even supernatural) odds, you'll probably find a lot to like in The Adjustment Bureau, despite its logical deficiencies and tonal imbalances. For those on the fence about which camp they're in, a rental would probably be the best bet.
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