Blu-ray Movie Reviews

A rogue CIA agent (Eric Bana) lives in a desolate area of Finland training his 16-year-old daughter (Saoirse Ronan) to become the perfect assassin. Every moment of the girl's upbringing has been spent building up her strength, stamina, and survival instincts she needs to prepare for the day when she becomes the target of a revenge seeking intelligence operative (Cate Blanchett).

I love a good action move as much as the next guy and am willing to suspend a certain amount of belief, but director Joe Wright takes things a little too far. For starters, Ronan maybe weighs 105 pounds soaking wet yet has the strength to take down a plethora of Special Forces personnel and latch onto the bottom of a vehicle moving at over 30 mph. Furthermore, despite all of her training, she's like a fish out of water when she encounters electricity in the modern world.

While I didn't particularly enjoy the movie, it does look outstanding on Blu-ray. Resolution is top notch, black levels are inky and inviting, and there are no compression issues to speak of. The color palette is as bright as it could be, but it looks intentional for stylish reasons and thankfully the flesh tones are accurate and the overall picture is easy on the eyes.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack is the star of the show and exhibits excellent imaging, deep bass response, and intelligible dialog. The surround envelopment is demo-quality, especially when a plane flies overhead in the first act and when Hanna is being interrogated by the CIA.

Supplements include a commentary by Joe Wright, an alternate ending, deleted scenes, a couple of promos and three featurettes. The disc is BD-Live enabled and includes a Digital Copy.

Despite the flaws in the story, the film is well shot by Wright and contains a lot of action, but don't fall into the trap I did and expect something halfway believable. If you like the genre, you may want to give this one a look because of the excellent audio and video, but keep your expectations low and check all of your brain at the door.

Ratings

Picture: 4.5/5
3D-Ness: N/A
Sound: 4.5/5
Extras: 4/5
Interactivity: 1/5

Disc Specs

Studio: Universal (2011)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Length: 111 Min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan