5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Ancient mysteries. Powerful evil. And a fearless hero's quest through a fantastical realm of steam-powered wonders and sinister magic.
Starring: Michael Sheen, Lena Headey, Sam Neill, Aneurin Barnard, Ioan GruffuddFamily | 100% |
Fantasy | 62% |
Adventure | 30% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
"Where can we get our next fantasy franchise?" You can imagine that question echoing through the corridors of media giants in New York and Hollywood on an almost daily basis. With Harry Potter ending, Pirates of the Caribbean petering out and various attempts at a successor DOA, studios will throw money at even the most obscure series of books or graphic novels—instantly inflated to iconic status by the marketing department—in the hope of scoring a dependable cash cow. What's especially disheartening, though, is when smaller companies, which could be producing genuinely interesting work, pool resources which still can't touch the mega-budgets available to the majors and pour them into a would-be franchise that has no hope of gaining a foothold in today's crowded media market. Such is the case with The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box, a joint British/Belgian production based on the first of three fantasy novels by English author G.P. Taylor. With an estimated budget of $25 million, a mere fraction of what Disney or Warner would invest in marketing alone, The Adventurer is probably not a film you've ever heard of. According to Box Office Mojo, it played in just 82 U.S. theaters for seven days in January 2014, where it grossed $6,399. (International totals are not available.) The film's wide release is on video, courtesy of RLJ/Image Entertainment. While I would like to be able to report that The Adventurer is a hidden gem ripe for discovery on Blu-ray, I cannot do so. Despite the presence of first-rate talent and decent production values, the entire enterprise feels like a Frankenstein monster built of recycled parts from other, better films—often from films that were themselves recycled from other, better films. It is never a good sign when one is constantly pulled out of a fantasy world by reminders of the Indiana Jones series, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider or the National Treasure films. It's an even worse sign when the film actually makes you nostalgic for some of the weakest entries in the genre.
The film itself may disappoint, but the Blu-ray presentation by RLJ/Image Entertainment does not. The bulk of The Adventurer was shot with the Arri Alexa by Unax Mendía (No Rest for the Wicked). The credits suggest that some portions were also shot on film, but if so the film was scanned and blended with the digital footage via a digital intermediate, and the Blu-ray was presumably sourced from digital files, after major effects work. Image's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray offers a dark but detailed and richly stylized image to denote an earlier era. Blacks are deep and inky, enlivened by flashes of intense color, especially where flame or gold is concerned. Outdoor scenes are always grey and cold, never sunny or bright; whether this reflects England in the 19th Century or the weather in Cornwall and Bristol, where much of The Adventurer was shot, is unclear. The image is free of noise or artifacts, except for some light banding in a few dissolves. The average bitrate of 19.99 Mbps is on the low side, but digital footage compresses well, and the compressionist has taken advantage of the letterbox bars and the many dark portions of the frame for maximum efficiency.
The Adventurer has the kind of aggressive surround mix, presented here in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, that one would expect from a major fantasy film. It starts from the very opening, where the sound of London's rain envelops the listener, and continues through a host of situations, both real and fantastical. Discrete surround effects, pans and deep bass extension are common throughout, especially when the film reaches the Prince Regent Hotel with its massive steam engines, hidden chambers and subterranean excavations. The score by Fernando Velázquez (The Impossible) supplies the requisite sense of urgency, but it can't make up for the story's essential emptiness.
The disc's sole extra is "The Making of The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box" (1080p, 1.78:1; 20:43), a featurette that includes interviews with director Jonathan Newman, producer Peter Bevan, novelist G.P. Taylor, hair and make-up designer Pamela Haddock and most of the principal cast. To the extent one is interested in the nuts and bolts of making the film, there is worthwhile material here, including the technical challenges of shooting in Cornwall and the island of St. Michael's Mount. Of perhaps greater note is the nakedness of the filmmakers' ambition to create a Hollywood-style franchise feature, despite the fact that more of such efforts fail than succeed.
Too derivative for adults, too diffuse and confusing for kids, The Adventurer ultimately has little to offer for any age group. The Blu-ray is technically satisfying, but in the end it's what is on the disc that counts. Not recommended.
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