5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A young boy with a distant father re-enters a world of make-believe and magic through a portal within an antique book.
Starring: Jonathan Brandis, Kenny Morrison, Clarissa Burt, John Wesley Shipp, Martin UmbachFamily | 100% |
Fantasy | 66% |
Adventure | 55% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Six years after the worldwide success of Wolfgang Petersen's The NeverEnding Story, producer Dieter Geissler was back with a sequel, having successfully fought off the efforts of the original novel's author, Michael Ende, to halt production. Ende had bitterly and publicly denounced Petersen's film as a betrayal of his vision, and he had accused Petersen of secretly rewriting the script the two men had co-authored. One wonders, then, how Ende must have felt about the sequel Geissler created with an entirely new director and writer, which borrowed elements from the second half of Ende's book but wove them into an entirely new story. Geissler subtitled it "The Next Chapter", but the sequel is such an obvious effort at recycling themes and story points from Petersen's superior original that he might as well have called it "A Second Bite at the NeverEnding Apple". The director of "The Next Chapter" was Scottish-born George T. Miller, who had made the Australian classic, The Man from Snowy River (and should not be confused with the George Miller best known for the Mad Max films). The screenwriter, Karin Howard, was making her film debut, but she would go on to write a second NeverEnding sequel, as well as a NeverEnding TV movie and series for Canadian television. The familiar and beloved characters from the 1984 original were brought back, but, with one exception, all of them were recast. The most important shift in the sequel, however, was thematic. The Next Chapter deliberately blurred the line that Petersen's film had so carefully drawn between the young boy reading a book and the fantastic world between its pages that only came alive through the reader's imagination. In The Next Chapter, the young reader steps into novel's fantasy world just by turning its pages, whereas crossing that boundary served as the hard-won conclusion of Petersen's film. Ende's novel served as precedent, because the latter half does indeed follow the young man's adventures once he has crossed the imaginary threshold into the world about which he has been reading, but Ende was telling a single story in which that crossing served a midpoint rather than a conclusion. Also for the sequel, Geissler and his screenwriter had to invent a new villain, a new threat to the beloved land of Fantasia, and a whole new reason for young Bastian Balthazar Bux to go back there in the first place. The result is a pale imitation of the original that has none of its charm or mythic resonance. At best, it's a minor diversion for small children.
Shot on film by Australian cinematographer David Connell (Zeus and Roxanne), The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter is presented by Warner Home Video in a 1080p, AVC-encoded version that WHV calls "remastered", although this is the first time the film has been released on Blu-ray. Perhaps WHV means nothing more than that the film once was issued on DVD. In any case this is an adequate but unspectacular presentation featuring respectable detail in most live-action shots free from special effects, but with an immediate drop-off in fine detail whenever a scene contains opticals. Perhaps in an effort to compensate for the limitations of older effects technology, both brightness and contrast are somewhat overstated, often overwhelming or washing out fine detail, especially in the non-Fantasia sequences. Colors often appear to be lightened by the excessive white levels (although it can be difficult to tell for certain without an objective reference). The source material is in excellent shape. Warner has mastered the The Next Chapter with an average bitrate of 21.82 Mbps, which seems low for such a film, but the softness of the image no doubt helps. In any case, no compression errors were observed.
The film's original Dolby Surround mix is presented in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. When played through a good surround decoder, the matrixed stereo track has an enveloping presence and noticeable stereo separation, with audible steering of rear channel effects that help sustain the illusion of an imaginary world composed of elemental forces. The track's dynamic range is robust, especially in the lower ranges that accompany such events as the attacks by the robots controlled by the villainous Xayide. Dialogue is clear, and the fairy tale/heroic score by Robert Folk (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) blend nicely with the sound effects.
Other than a trailer (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:24), the disc has no extras.
An indifferent sequel has been given a modest treatment on Blu-ray. Fans of The Next Chapter may be disappointed, but this is the best they are likely to see. The Next Chapter isn't a film I can recommend, but existing fans will certainly want to add the Blu-ray version to their collection. Just don't pay top dollar for it.
30th Anniversary Edition | US Version
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20th Anniversary Edition | Mastered in 4K
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Lenticular Faceplate
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