6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
A couple encounter mysterious atmospheric effects in an airplane and find themselves in a town where people behave oddly.
Starring: Michael Cole (I), Deborah Walley, Virginia Gregg, Johnny Desmond, Olan SouleSci-Fi | 100% |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 MVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.55:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.50:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Blu-ray 3D
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
One of the nice things about some of the early to mid-sixties fantasy-science fiction television series like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits is that no matter how strained credulity became, things were never stretched out past the hour mark (and in most of The Twilight Zone offerings, only half that). That required a certain economy of presentation that helped move things along and perhaps aided in the suspension of disbelief. The Bubble, which plays a bit like a cross between the old Twilight Zone episode “Stopover in a Quiet Town” and more contemporary fare like Under the Dome, is hobbled by the fact that the illogical behaviors displayed by the central characters simply go on too long to ever do much more than frustrate the average viewer. To put it another way: if you were a concerned husband whose wife had just given birth under traumatic circumstances, and you found yourself in a town filled with zombie like automatons, not to mention a general ambience that seems to be like a backlot of a movie studio, replete with different eras of buildings and things like “subway entrances” which are cardboard and go nowhere, would you just kind of amble about aimlessly, as if there were nothing serious wrong? That’s one central misfire this Arch Oboler written and directed outing can’t quite escape. The Bubble remains a curio in the annals of 3D exhibitions, being the first of the so-called “Space Vision” offerings (a technique also utilized by Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein), an economical 3D shooting system that “stacked” the left and right elements on top of each other on one frame of film, alleviating the necessity for expensive and bulky older systems. There’s “in your face” entertainment galore throughout The Bubble, something that at least temporarily helps to distract from the fact that the plot of the film is at best labored and at worst fairly ridiculous.
The Bubble is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Classics with both an MVC (3D) and AVC (2D) encoded 1080p transfer in 2.55:1.
Culled from the original camera negative which was evidently not curated well at all and was in very bad condition (3-D Archive's Bob Furmanek
details some of the issues on our Forum thread devoted to The Bubble), extensive restoration work has been done that still cannot
completely overcome some source limitations. There's obvious fade here, especially in the early going, where colors have gone decidedly brown
and where dirt and dust is especially prevalent in what would have been the film's first couple of reels. Things improve rather markedly however
as the film goes on—contrast the brown flesh tones of screenshot 2 (among several others) with those in screenshot 17, for example. Opticals
(and there are quite a few in the film) are still fairly grimy looking, but overall grain structure is organic and contrast remains relatively consistent.
The true calling card here, of course, is the 3D presentation, and that is aces, with some of the best "in your face" emergent visuals you're likely
to see in any vintage 3D film. As with 3-D Archive's restoration of Dragonfly Squadron 3D, there's occasional negative dirt that shows up as glints of white or silver, usually floating in
front of the image, and that can serve as a minor distraction from time to time. But the consistency of the dimensionality in this presentation is
really outstanding, and not necessarily limited to the frankly gimmicky shots that Oboler stuffs into the film.
The Bubble's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix sounds surprisingly spry, offering really good support for the electronically tinged score of Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter. Dialogue is also very cleanly presented, and the sound design is quite inventive at times—listen during the scene where Herric and Mark "confront" the dome and how the ingenious mix changes dramatically when the camera is placed either inside or outside of the glass. Fidelity is excellent and there are no real issues here other than a slightly dated and boxy sound.
3-D Archive continues to rescue little remembered 3D films from yesteryear, and they obviously are caring, thorough professionals who have now recently rescued two films from history's dustheap. The fact is neither Dragonfly Squadron nor The Bubble rank as anything close to masterpieces, and so 3-D Archive's efforts will probably be best appreciated for those with an eye toward film history and specifically the long and winding road 3-D took to become 3D (and/or Real-D). The Bubble is frankly a mess from a narrative standpoint, but the 3D effects are so consistently immersive that it's easy to forgive the film its manifest flaws. This is another example of a not great film deserving to be seen for its historical value and for this often stunning 3D restoration. Recommended.
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