6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A woman seeks out revenge against the man who kidnapped her mother.
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Ben Mendelsohn, Garrett Hedlund, Caren Pistorius, Brooklynn PrinceThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
How exactly does something become a viral sensation? And how exactly does that sensation fade almost as quickly as it appeared? Sometime during the late summer months of 2017 my social media feeds were suddenly full of (largely) women talking about some book called The Marsh King's Daughter, with several asking whether they should even continue reading if the story's heroine ended up dead (in other words, they were asking for spoilers). That particular answer won't be overtly mentioned in this review, but the question at least hints that the novel offered a visceral tale of a veritable damsel in distress, in this case a young woman being raised "off the grid" who later discovers she's actually the product of a father who had more or less kidnapped her mother and kept them all isolated but definitely in captivity, in a kind of "wide open spaces" riff on certain elements in Room, albeit in this case with a focus on the child rather than the mother.
The Marsh King's Daughter is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits roll offers only a Panavision credit, and neither Panavision's site nor the IMDb have more technical information as of the writing of this review, so I can't authoritatively state what camera was used or what resolution the DI was. That said, both cinematographer Alwin H. Küchler and director Neil Burger previously collaborated on Divergent, which utilized Arri Alexas, and to my eyes this has the look of that capture technology. As can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, the outdoor material has been rather aggressively graded towards yellow-green tones, which give things a slightly unreal appearance, though detail levels are typically excellent, with the possible exception of a few passing moments in water and some very dimly lit nighttime material. The palette warms considerably once things move on to Helena's adult situation, and at least in some of the opening moments of that section, things are much more "natural" looking in terms of nicely suffused blue skies and a somewhat more realistic accounting of both interior and exterior locations. Palette and grading aside, fine detail is often quite excellent, to the point that those on the squeamish side of things may cringe at a few of the depictions on tap. I'm still not sure about the resolution of the DI, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 4K, considering the general level of fine detail levels in particular.
The Marsh King's Daughter features an effectively immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that starts out with some almost frightening "thumps" from Adam Janota Bzowski's interesting score, but which regularly engages the side and rear channels with a glut of ambient environmental sounds, probably understandably most noticeably in the many forested sequences. The film has its fair share of gunfire, which allows for some explosive low frequency effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.
Committed performances and some lovely (if occasionally terrifying) scenery can't help overcome some pacing and writing issues, but fans of the novel may want to check out this release, which offers solid technical merits.
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