DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Syriana (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). (1 Viewer)

[Gregory Suarez]

While I love this movie (and I feel that it and Good Night, and Good Luck should be required viewing for Fox News zombies), I was highly, HIGHLY disappointed with the DVD. First, I can't believe that this was the best that Warner could do with extras. What happened to the commentary that was supposed to be here when the disc was announced? And don't you think that this would have been the perfect opportunity for a commentary by socio-political experts or a Crossfire-like commentary by two experts of differing opinion?

What really burns me is that the video quality is SO bad. This disc has the worst compression artifacting I have seen on a DVD since Master and Commander from Fox. There are almost no extra features on the disc and no DTS track. What gives? And when the image isn't soft, there are noticeable edge halos.

I hope Warner does a better job with V for Vendetta (another relevantly-charged political film). I do have to give props to Warner, however, for being ballsy enough to put their name on these kinds of films that are a breath of fresh air in this world we live.

 

[Felix Martinez]

I have been noticing that WB releases over the past 6-9 months have had some alarming compression probs - the last Harry Potter and Good Night, Luck being particularly bad. Syriana looked much better than those two.

 

[Gregory Suarez]

I just watched 16 Blocks last night and that had similarly horrible compression artifacting.

 

[Hank]

I watched Syriana HD DVD last night. Followed it closely but I want to watch it again because there is so much story that must be followed every minute. Picture quality was great, the sound sems like it was recorded 10db lower than my other HD DVD titles.

 

[Chris Parham]

Watched this last night with my wife - Quite a departure from the previous night's fare ( Failure to Launch). I feel as though I gained back the IQ points I lost the night before.

Very thought provoking on so many levels! I agree with the reviewer about every minute driving the plot and I too might have appreciated some hand holding. There is something going on in every frame - Did anyone else notice that BOTH of Matt Damon's children were playing at the fountain when his wife told him that she was going back to the US. He is then left with the one son at the end of that scene.

As for the transfer, I also noticed some compression artifacting, though not as much as in Failure to Launch. I also disagree with the reviewer's assessment that the dialogue was clear. While I did understand everything that was being said, I did have to consider a few lines in context to make out what was being said. In a movie like this, you cannot expend that much mental energy trying to figure out what is being said lest you should fall behind on the plot. At least I can't!

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Me, too. Normally I don't like to keep subtitles on throughout the entire movie, at least when I'm watching it for the first time. However, with Syriana I made an exception, and it helped quite a bit.

 

[Vincent-P]

I just watched this on DVD tonight. It was my favorite film of 2005. The thing that really disappoints me about the DVD that no one has mentioned so far is that they replaced the theatrical subtitles with player-generated ones that do not match the look of the original subtitles. I was surprised because I did not expect this to happen on a Warner DVD. I expect better from them. I liked the look of the original subtitles, which you can see in the deleted scenes section. Does anyone know a phone number or e-mail that I can contact Warner to let them know my feelings about this. I doubt they'll fix this release, but it may help persuade them to use the original burned in subtitles on future releases for this or other films.