Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Mortimer "Mo" Folchart (Brendan Fraser) has an extraordinary gift for bringing characters from books to life when he reads aloud. But there's a danger—when a character is brought to life from a book, a real person disappears into its pages. On a trip to a secondhand-book shop, Mo hears voices from Inkheart, a book he's been searching for since his wife vanished into its mystical world 12 years earlier, at which point Mo vowed that he would stop at nothing to reunite his family.

With a cast that includes Fraser, Paul Bettany, Andy Serkis, and Academy Award-winners Helen Mirren and Jim Boadbent, I had high expectations for a wonderful journey to another world. Unfortunately, it was 106 minutes of wasted time due to a poorly conceived script, shoddy CG work, and uninspired acting. There are a few moments in which the actors break out of the doldrums, especially Bettany and Mirren, but there's only so much that first-rate actors can do with a rotten script.

Out of the gate, the VC-1 encode is fabulous with rich colors, excellent detail, and nice depth. However, this isn't the norm for most of the film. Resolution is all over the map and is particularly soft whenever CG is involved. The contrast wavers from scene to scene, and darker scenes suffer from some significant video noise. Fortunately, when the picture looks good, it's fabulous, but the unevenness of the encode is very disappointing.

The Dolby True HD 5.1 soundtrack is fantastic, particularly in the third act. Regrettably, the disc defaults to the lossy Dolby Digital track, so be sure to engage the superior lossless track with a press of the "audio" button on your remote. The soundtrack features clear fidelity, thunderous bass, and superior ambience from the rear soundstage—particularly the crackling of fire toward the end of the film. The dialog is crystal clear and intelligible, and the sound design is exceptional—too bad the film's entertainment value doesn't reach these heights.

As for the supplements, they are rather brief and uninspiring. There's a six-minute reading game that includes the cast and crew, a short featurette on author Cornelia Funke, and some scenes read aloud by Eliza Hope Bennet (who plays Mo's daughter Meggie) that didn't make it into the film. Rounding things out is a digital copy of the film for use in a portable player.

The fantasy genre is loaded with some exceptional films such as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, Inkheart doesn't even come close. The video is inconsistent, but the stellar audio track may be enough to justify a rental —barely.

Release Date:June 23, 2009
Studio: Warner

Movie: 4/10
Picture: 7/10
Sound: 9/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics