Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

WWII From Space Blu-ray Movie Review

From a distance. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 2, 2013

You have to give History at least a little credit while at the same time understanding their predicament: there are only so many epochal events scattered throughout the annals of time, and after this long on the air, History has done about all of them. Twice. (And that’s being charitable.) The cable channel has a tendency to visit and revisit its favorite subjects, whether that be the destruction of the Earth by marauding asteroids, a frequent focal point in The Universe , or just the plain old destruction of the Earth courtesy of any of the innumerable specials about Nostradamus which the network has aired over the years. (Are you sensing a pattern here?) In terms of 20th century history, there’s probably no greater story than World War II, and it’s only to be expected that History would deal with this subject repeatedly, trying any number of gambits to parlay what is basically the same old information in some supposedly new light. But did we really need WWII From Space? What exactly is the point, especially since this one off piece doesn’t even abide by its titular rules and ventures not just Earthward, but underwater at some points, for crying out loud. While there’s nothing wrong with the information being imparted here, it smacks of desperation, like a weary junior high history teacher dressing up like some great leader and doing performance art in order to keep his (or her) students interested. Were the licensing fees of The World at War that formidable?

It’s almost funny at times how labored WWII From Space becomes as it gives a supposed bird’s eye view of the most momentous battles of the Second World War. Lots of animations of our fair planet under siege are shown, often with superimposed maps that purport to depict the encroaching Nazi menace. But this is a stupidly tarted up feature that injects faux “electronic distortion” so that the supposed high tech viewscreen data we’re witnessing pops and warps, as if to suggest we’re about to lose an all important transmission. What exactly is the point here?

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with at least most of the information contained in WWII From Space, even here, too, there are some laughable moments, including a great line from a talking head that Hitler’s big problem with the Soviet Union was that it was a “bastion of Communism”. Well, yes, yes, it was, thank you very much. WWII From Space moves more or less chronologically through the war, although it starts with Pearl Harbor and then backtracks before picking up the story again. The best elements here are perhaps expectedly about the air war, where the special’s gimmick can be more fully exploited.

Aside from the kind of silly premise of the whole outing, WWII From Space is also hobbled by the cursory way it reviews events. The Battle of Midway gets a sentence or two, the cracking of the Enigma codes barely even that, which again raises the salient question: why? Why bother to go about something like this when so many other more in depth documentaries have been made about this subject? Unfortunately, the only logical answer is that History has airtime to fill and has to come up with something to fill it with.

If you can get past the patently ridiculous gimmick as well as some of the equally dunderheaded visual effects, there is some redeeming content here. Some of the map work is excellent and at least gives a broad view of some of the larger battles. As with many recent History specials, there’s a reliance on quick cutting and splashy rotoscoped stills that offer a quasi-3D look, and those elements at least may engage some viewers who respond to such visual elements. Aside from a few less than brilliant comments by the talking heads (see above), most of the experts here seem genuinely enthused about the subject, even if they, like the special itself, tend to offer broad generalities rather than any really insightful analysis.

The bottom line here is that WWII From Space has some passing moments of decent enough information, but the whole enterprise smacks of desperation and furthermore contradicts its very gimmick throughout its presentation. Some people may feel that this approach is “far out”, but my hunch is most are going to watch this special and think that it’s “lost in space”.

WWII From Space Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

WWII in Space is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films and The History Channel with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. While this special is presented in a progressive format (not always the case with History Blu- rays), which is a plus, there's a rather startling lack of other elements that may disappoint choosy videophiles. This is a strangely desaturated special, even in the contemporary interview segments, which rarely pop with robust color. These talking head segments do present generally very commendable fine object detail, especially since the bulk of these sequences are shot in close-up. The rest of this largely animated special is kind of a hit or miss affair. Some of the rotoscoped historical stills look fantastic, while some of the maps with all their "electronic" bells and whistles are really rather surprisingly soft looking, lacking definition and further marred by those very bells and whistles which serve mostly to distract and don't even always provide much salient information.

WWII From Space Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

WWII From Space features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 which from a technical standpoint is probably the single most appealing thing about this release, even if it suffers from the fact that a lot of this special is either narrated or features talking heads, two elements which expectedly do not engage the surround channels. The surrounds do come into play when some of the battles are depicted, and these sequences offer good discrete channelization of foley effects. As with several History outings, there's rather aggressive low end here, both with actual LFE and also an abundance of other low end effects. Narration is always well prioritized and mixed well in front of the effects. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is very wide.

WWII From Space Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only so-called "supplements" here are trailers for other Lionsgate releases, which I never include as part of the official score for bonus material.

WWII From Space Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This Reader's Digest recounting of World War II may serve as a sort of video Cliff's Notes for those without the wherewithal to make it through longer, more in depth pieces, but that still doesn't account for the just downright (or should that be upright) silly decision to try to frame all of the material from high in the sky, a decision that seems even sillier when the special doesn't even attempt to stay up in the sky. I've long taken History to task for its emphasis on apocalyptic material, and in that regard, at least WWII From Space doesn't over dramatize events with intimations of extinction, but this special still falls prey to another annoying History tendency, namely the network's inclination to visit and revisit the same old material with some ridiculous gimmick or point of view appended to it to try to make it "hip and happening". A thoughtful account of World War II deserves more than a mere gimmick.