War of the Worlds: Goliath 3D Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

War of the Worlds: Goliath 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Eastern and Western mediocrity collide...

Forget Goliath's intriguing alternate dieselpunk reality, inspired mech designs and gripping premise. Ignore the fact that it cleverly posits itself as a sequel to H. G. Wells' 1897 novel rather than an adaptation. Never mind its solid voice cast, slickly animated machines of war, or promises of gripping mech vs. Martian battles to the death. War of the Worlds: Goliath is a rusty, rickety bucket of bolts that lumbers into view and nearly topples over, clanking and grinding with each stilted step it takes. The Malaysian hand-drawn/CG hybrid animation is as uneven and unexciting as the film's decidedly American screenplay and Western sensibilities. The performances are wooden and unengaging. The script is a cliché-riddled husk from start to finish. The characters are as generic and uninteresting as wartime heroes come. The story and pacing are thin and plodding. The action is boring and the drama even more so. For every spark of imagination there's a whir, sputter and heavy-handed clunk. For every fascinating glimpse into the filmmakers' alternate turn of the century Manhattan there's a muddled, mangled quasi-reality that lacks internal logic and the benefits of more fully realized world building. For every burst of visual ingenuity there are a dozen eyesores. For every ounce of potential there's a pound of misguided choices. For every brief moment of spectacle there's fifteen minutes of dull, dutiful plotting and low-budget execution. For every hint of brilliance there are a dozen pitfalls and plot holes. Ultimately, Goliath is everything its titular mech is not: slow, ordinary and unprepared for combat.

War of the Worlds: Goliath 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Blu-ray edition of War of the Worlds: Goliath offers a reasonably faithful 1080p/AVC-encoded 2D video presentation and a more underwhelming 1080p/MVC-encoded 3D experience. First up: the 2D version. Colors are suitably dusty, bleak and evocative, as intended. Primaries are fairly strong on the whole, weapon fire is bright and vibrant, black levels are satisfying, and contrast is consistent. Detail is quite good too, barring several shots that prove a touch soft. For the most part, the hand-drawn characters are bolstered by cleanly defined lines, the CG machines are armed with crisp edges, and the seams between the two aren't home to any serious distractions. Moreover, significant artifacting, ringing and noise aren't in play. On the flipside, there's some terribly obvious banding and macroblocking (watch the skies, shadows and smoke for the worst of each), intermittent hints of minor aliasing (almost always associated with the CG-rendered mechs) and a few animation anomalies (one particular shot features a bizarrely pint-sized mech walking in mid-air amidst a group of much larger mechs entering a battle). None of it is debilitating, but it does get rather distracting.

The film's 3D presentation is more problematic. CG sequences pop to a degree, with decent depth and passable dimensionality, but characters and other hand-drawn elements are flat and, well, entirely two-dimensional, too often turning the film's 3D experience into an unremarkable pop-up storybook. The hit or miss proceedings make for erratic viewing. One minute, all is well. Impressive even. The next, the 3D results are as forgettable as they are disappointing. Add to that a slight increase in the perceived severity of banding and aliasing (insofar as each issue already appears) and a few troublesome instances of glaring ghosting (at least for those with displays prone to crosstalk) and you have the lesser of the 2-disc set's video presentations. Stick with the 2D encode and treat the 3D experience as a special feature.

War of the Worlds: Goliath 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Goliath's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is passable, although you'll need to bump up your volume a bit more than usual as the mix trends rather low. Dialogue is generally clear and intelligible, but prioritization is all over the place, with voices and effects sparring for dominance in a conflict that's too apparent. LFE output is solid, particularly when battles between mechs and Martians rage, but it isn't all that reliable either. The rear speakers follow suit, providing support in some scenes but retreating from others. Directionality is spotty, pans are a tad stocky on occasion, and dynamics aren't too far behind. Still, it's quite obvious the issues and inconsistencies are rooted in the film's sound design rather than the quality of the Blu-ray edition's lossless track.

War of the Worlds: Goliath 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: Producer/director Joe Pearson and producer/writer David Amramowitz deliver a soft-spoken commentary that isn't terribly insightful but nevertheless details the nuts and bolts of the story, characters, animation, voice casting and final film.
• Stories Before the War (HD, 12 minutes): Next up are two comicbook-style shorts, the highlight of which is the artwork by illustrators Puppeteer Lee and Oh Wang Jing. "St. Petersburg" is set fifteen years before the film and tells the story of General Kushnirov. A colonel in Tsarist Russia, Kushnirov must defend the city of St. Petersburg against the first Martian onslaught. "The Oath" sets up the events leading to the second invasion of 1914, as seen through the eyes of a young soldier manning a lonely Ares outpost in the Badlands of New Mexico.
• The Making of War of the Worlds: Goliath (HD, 24 minutes): This production documentary assembles the filmmakers and cast members to discuss the genesis of the project, the cast and their performances, the animation, 3D experience and more.
• The Movie in Storyboards (HD, 88 minutes): A Picture-in-Picture track that features storyboards for the majority of the entire film. There are a handful of gaps, but none that prove disappointing in the least.
• The Lovers (HD, 2 minutes): A single deleted scene comprised of original storyboards and footage of the voice recording session with actors Eric Wells and Elizabeth Gracen.
• The Art of War (HD): Two semi-interactive image galleries: "War Machine Blueprints" and "Production."
• Meet Our Voice Actors (HD): Brief text bios of the various voice actors.
• Trailer (HD, 2 minutes): The War of the Worlds: Goliath trailer.

War of the Worlds: Goliath 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

War of the Worlds: Goliath is better in theory than in practice. What could have been a unique fusion of East and West, alternate history and classic literature, squanders its potential and fails to deliver on its premise. Anderson Digital's Blu-ray release is better, but still too much of a mixed bag. Its 2D video presentation is fairly true to its source and its supplemental package is quite extensive, but its 3D experience falls short and its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is all over the place. I'd recommend renting this one before considering a purchase.