The Reaping (HD-DVD)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Rated: R (violence, disturbing images and some sensuality)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
HD Encoding: 1080p
HD Video Codec: VC-1
Audio: Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1; Dolby Digital Plus: English 5.1, French 5.1 (dubbed in Quebec) and Spanish 5.1
Subtitles: English; Spanish; French; Portuguese, Chinese and Korean
Time: 99 minutes
Disc Format: 1 DS HD-DVD/ DVD combo disc
Case Style: Keep case
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
HD-DVD Release Date: October 16, 2007
Katherine Winter (Hillary Swank) was an ordained minister in the Sudan when her daughter is killed. She quickly loses her faith and goes after the science behind it. She travels the globe with her partner Ben (the horribly under used and wasted Idris Elba, playing not much more than a scared black man) for the Louisiana State University to debunk all manner of miracles and religious happenings. A man named Doug (David Morrissey) contacts Katherine and Ben because his home town appears to be afflicted by a plague of biblical proportions: bloody rivers and frogs falling from the sky to name a couple. As Katherine and Ben begin to investigate, she is still haunted by the death of her daughter and the events surrounding it. Doug leads them down various paths in an attempt to reasonably understand what is happening, but in the end, Katherine’s quest for answers may depend on just how faithful she is.
Hillary Swank again makes an odd career choice in this somewhat jumpy but certainly not thought provoking thriller. I often wonder what these “A” list actors see in these little pictures that really don’t seem to offer them any challenges. Swank could easily be replaced by any other actress and we’d be given the same effect. The story is fairly basic (science v. religion) and outside of telling us how science has debunked the plagues outlined in Exodus, there’s not much else. As a matter of fact, the first piece of bonus materials covers the same ground and it does so in sixteen minutes. I’m a big fan of Idris Elba from his great work on HBO’s The Wire, but he is just wasted here as he is given nothing to sink his teeth into. The ending of the picture has a bit of a twist to it, but we’ve seen it all before in everything from The Exorcist to The Omen to even Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Video:
Note: I am watching this title using a Marantz VP 11-S1 DLP projector, which has a native resolution of 1080p. I am using a Toshiba XA2 player and utilizing the HDMI capabilities of both units. The projector is doing the scaling to 1080p due to some technical issues with the Toshiba player.
The picture is in VC-1, encoded at 1080p and it is framed at 2.40:1. The picture is a little drab to emphasize the impending spookiness and horror of the story. Colors are muted throughout, but still appear to be accurate. There are many night and dark scenes throughout the picture, and during these times, the image becomes very noisy and grainy. If I notice it from my normal viewing distance, I’ll go do a closer inspection at the screen. In this case, this only made it worse as was to be expected. When the dark scenes occur, the image degrades to the point of standard video, losing much of the shadow detail and depth. Sharpness suffers due to this in the dark scenes, but it doesn’t fare much better in the lighter scenes. Edge enhancement was not noticed.
Audio:
Note: The Dolby TrueHD soundtrack was attained by a 5.1 analog connection.
Where the video lacks, the audio more than makes up for in an exceptionally active surround experience. The Dolby TrueHD track utilizes all the channels to keep us firmly planted in the sound stage and enveloping us with environmental effects and heightening the tension with volume. I noticed the loud scenes seem to be extra loud, so much so that I was dropping the volume from my normal listening levels. There are numerous potential demo tracks in the soundtrack to really show off a system, and I’d suggest demo-ing the last 25 minutes or so. There are also some great effects during the scene where Doug’s house loses power and Katherine is trapped in dreams. Bass effects are deep and rumbling and accurately convey the thunderous storms and wrath of God. The soundtrack treads through all forms of the dynamic range, from scratchy records to the aforementioned storms, and each sound is natural and real. The only drawback to this excellent track is ADR is noticed throughout and there are a couple instances of some really bad lip syncs. Still, not enough to take away from a great audio experience.
Bonus Material:
With the advent of HD-DVD, we are faced with several different audio and video codecs being used on each disc. Due to this, I have begun adding the encoding details as part of the explanation of bonus features when applicable and relevant. For this release, the extras are in MPEG-2, 480p unless otherwise noted.
Science of the Ten Plagues (16:01): A bunch of religious scholars, theologians and historians posit their scientific theories as to what actually caused the plagues. Swank’s character does a quick overview of this in the feature, but this doc expands it. This seems like a History Channel or A&E leftover from a bigger piece.
The Characters (7:01): Cast and crew pontificate on their characters, their motivations, etc.
A Place Called Haven (5:02): An exploration of the exotic locale’s in the film.
The Reaping: The Seventh Plague (1:08): A quick doc on the bugs!
Anna Sophia Robb’s Scary Story (3:04): The young actress who plays Loren wrote this scary story and she narrates and recreates it here. This is kind of silly with a video to accompany the story that seems like it came out of a Unsolved Mysteries episode.
Conclusions:
A forgettable little thrill inducer is hindered even more by a weak video presentation and some minimal supplements. However, it has a great Dolby TrueHD track to make you jump that much higher in the scary parts.
