There are some movies where the story of the production is almost as entertaining as the resulting film (or sometimes more, as was the case of '
Superman Returns'). Twenty-two years in the making, '
Watchmen' finally reached the silver screen earlier this year, led by '
300' director Zack Synder, after being attached to numerous studios, directors, and writers along the way.
The Blu-ray release is one of many firsts. It is the first time that Warner has used the DTS-HD Master Audio codec instead of Dolby TrueHD. Both codecs offer the same lossless audio experience, but it appears that DTS is popping up on more and more releases these days (much the same as the AVC video codec is slowly trumping VC-1). Regardless, Staff Reviewer Kenneth Brown calls the soundtrack "a marvelous, memorable endeavor that captures all the power and fury of Snyder's ode to dark superheroics."
It's also the first use of Warner's new Maximum Movie Mode, which puts viewers inside a virtual classroom of sorts. Here director Zack Synder stands in front of two screens, one of them showing the film in real-time, while revealing some inside info about the film. As Ken calls it, "I've returned from the future, dear readers, and I can tell you it's a bright and wonderful place. Warner's Maximum Movie Mode isn't just another Picture-in-Picture visual commentary, it's a sprawling, multifaceted, interactive minefield of information that never relents or grows dry."
Ken concludes, "It offers a near-perfect video transfer, an astounding DTS-HD Master Audio track, a fantastic PiP Maximum Movie Mode, and a generous helping of supplemental materials. All things considered, Watchmen is a must-have release that videophiles and audiophiles will be overjoyed to add to their collection."
Fans of stop-motion films have been fairly lucky when it comes to high definition presentations. Recent films like '
The Nightmare Before Christmas' and '
Corpse Bride' as well as classic films like the '
Ray Harryhausen Collection' have received wonderful Blu-ray presentations that allow viewers to see the extraordinary amount of detail worked into these films. Today's release of '
Coraline' is no different, with a video presentation that is sharp as a tack and an audio soundtrack that will put other releases to shame.
As a fan of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and 'The Corpse Bride', I was a bit disappointed with 'Coraline' as a story. It feels undeveloped, or possibly over-simplistic. The run-time trumps both previously mentioned titles, but it feels like less of a story is told.
Ken disagrees with me on this, so don't take this to mean it's a bad movie, just one that may not appeal to all audiences (both adult and child).
When '300' was first released on Blu-ray, it quickly became one of the best selling Blu-ray titles despite missing some special features included on the simultaneously released HD DVD. Today, Warner fixes the issue by releasing '
300: The Complete Experience' as a digibook. While I'm still not 100% sold on the digibook case (I'm slowly coming around), the inclusion of the green-screen PIP feature is most welcome. The only thing missing is the PCM audio track, which was a secondary track (to the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack) on the original release. Depending on your preference, this is either a must have upgrade or enough reason to resist the double-dip.
Sony today brings the amazing true story of '
Midnight Express' to Blu-ray in digibook packaging (a format the studio is using for many of their classic catalog releases). This Oscar award-winning film from 1978 is a treat to watch, and the Blu-ray presentation does not disappoint.
And finally, we get the two TV series '
Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season' and '
Prison Break: The Final Break'. The later is the conclusion of the series that was not shown on TV, so if you really want to know what happens, you will need to watch this release.
For a complete listing of all the Blu-ray titles released today,
click here.