6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.6 |
A boy and his brother run away from home and hitch cross country with the help of a girl they meet to compete in the ultimate video game championship.
Starring: Fred Savage, Beau Bridges, Christian Slater, Luke Edwards, Wendy PhillipsComedy | 100% |
Sport | 48% |
Coming of age | 48% |
Family | 35% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 1.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
It's difficult to watch The Wizard without thinking of The Who's Pinball Wizard and the film Tommy, both stories of arcade game savants. The comparisons largely end there, though. The Wizard is primarily a drawn-out commercial for Nintendo and the then-upcoming game Super Mario Bros. 3. The film released back in the heyday of the original Nintendo Entertainment System and the company's dominance on the video game marketplace, a marketplace the Japanese giant has been trying to recapture ever since, with various rises and falls along the way. But the 8-bit era certainly belonged to Nintendo, and The Wizard follows the story of a traumatized young boy who just so happens to be a gifted video gamer but who really just wants to come to terms with his dark past. The film is not remembered for its character drama, but it's nicely interwoven into some of the surrounding noise and silliness and proves more satisfying than the video game play that appears on the screen for many of the film's key scenes.
To be blunt, The Wizard's 1080p transfer is one of the worst Universal, or any studio for that matter, has released. The movie appears heavily processed, with rough and uneven edges, edge halos, regular wobble, and smoothed-over details. Poor definition is evident even in close-up, where faces offer little more than a trace of the inherent details that once were. Obviously, various landscapes and locations seen on the road to California fare no better. Roads and rock formations are robbed of the inherently rough textures that once existed. Bus stations and storage rooms and motel rooms and the big, plastic-y fake looking arena where the game finals are held were all certainly once home to gorgeously complex details that have long since been obliterated. The image appears on the verge of digital collapse in every shot, like it's literally going to crumble on the screen into tiny little digital chunks. It's dishearteningly flat, and there's nearly no saving grace. Maybe colors find a halfway decent presentation on occasion, but for the most part they're fairly dull, absent nuance, and very flat. Skin tones are hopelessly pasty. Black crush devours darker shots. Blu-ray doesn't get a whole lot worse than this, especially from a big studio and a somewhat high profile title.
The Wizard's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack fares a little better than the video presentation (OK, a lot better in totality) in that it at least reaches a baseline competency. Front end spread is fairly good. Musical clarity doesn't completely lack, and lyrics and dialogue alike image nicely enough to the center. While there's obviously no surround engagement, a few effects push around the front nicely enough, and the occasional ambient effect flutters through, particularly in casinos and higher traffic areas like the crowded room in which the game finals are held. Additionally, various arid, empty exteriors offer a few sonic surprises here and there, too. There are some awful lip sync issues in spots. "What is this kid, some kind of cyborg?" at the 34:13 mark is probably the most egregious example, though it could be chalked up to poor ADR editing, too.
This Blu-ray release of The Wizard contains no supplemental content. Subtitles must be toggled on and off in-film via a crude pop-up menu. No top menu screen is included. Needless to say, no DVD or digital versions are included, and the release does not ship with a slipcover. As a random aside, speaking of covers, does anyone else find it interesting that Fred Savage is wearing the Power Glove on the cover artwork but nowhere in the movie does it ever appear with anyone but Lucas? It's also ironic that Nintendo made the highly sought-after peripheral the exclusive property of the film's villain.
The Wizard offers a blast of nostalgia if nothing else. The story is flimsy and repetitive but there's a little bit of built-in heart, too. Through repetitive dealings, the film builds up its characters to decent enough heights, enough to keep the viewer interested and engaged in their journeys. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray is a mess. The image is, frankly, a disaster. Extreme processing is the hallmark, and each shot has been extensively noise reduced, laid to waste by the video transfer equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Audio is at least not a total fail, but no supplements are included. Fans should wait for a considerable price drop before even thinking about picking this one up.
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