Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Based on a story by sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick, this is an interesting premise on future sight and what could be achieved with it. The story is interesting enough and I never got bored, but the production had its limitations. The special effects could have been a bit better, and at times they were almost embarrassingly bad. My wife even commented on how fake things looked. Aside from that though, this is a fun popcorn film.

The HD presentation is a bit of a mixed blessing. Most of the time the detail and depth of image are quite good. But anytime you bring an effects shot into the mix, things go awry. You REALLY notice the "green screen" effect around the actors as the backgrounds soften up quite a bit. Some of the longer shots are also a bit noisier than the rest of the image and cause distraction. I didn't notice any difference in this transfer compared to the HD DVD I still had on hand.

While the HD DVD featured a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, the Blu-ray features an uncompressed PCM mix. Honestly, I couldn't tell much of a difference as both sound excellent. Since this is an action movie, there is plenty of stuff going on in the soundstage, and the soundtrack does a nice job of filling the room. Bass is clean and defined, and there are some interesting panning effects the action scenes. Ambiance is natural enough and the dialogue is clean and balanced nicely with the rest of the soundtrack.

These are all in HD and include some production features, interviews, a look at the effects, and the theatrical trailer.

I liked this film far more than I thought I would. Sure the special effects can be a bit cheesy at times, but it is still a fun action film. The Blu-ray doesn't seem to offer anything new in terms of A/V quality, but the HD DVD was already quite good. A solid presentation by Paramount on this one.