Re: The Transformers: The Movie (1986) 20th Anniversary DVD
Thanks, Jeff, the 20th anniversary edition Prime will do me fine, besides I always end up modifying anything that's wrong with a figure or toy that I buy, so i'll just replace the stacks with fabricated ones and chrome plate the appropriate parts using alcolt.
I went back and looked at the DVD again taking into account all that has been said, I even took it into the bedroom and watched some scenes on my 27" and while I do see some compression artifacts i'm not willing to go so far as to say they are quite as bad as some claim, in fact I barely saw any except for when there is flashing lights going on.
As for the light level you must keep in mind that your used to seeing this movie on VHS and the Rhino DVD which were not accurate representations of what the film looked like in theaters, both were altered in some way from the light level to the color palette, which BTW is accurate, Hot Rod was and is supposed to be pink, orange and yellow. Past editions, while being very color-rich, were over-saturated IMO and that was onlt compounded by a too dark transfer.
The color on this DVD is very clean and balanced and makes subtle colors stand apart from one another while reds and oranges tended to bleed and were sometimes indisguishable from one another before.
The light level on this DVD isn't too dark and it isn't too bright, it's just enough to give more depth to scenes and allow shadow detail to make themselves known, this is something that always bothered me about previous versions of the film and IMO they corrected that wonderfully here.
It's a case of not being used to the film looking this way, but if you go back and watch it a couple of times you'll come to accept how certain things look pretty quickly.
Like I said Flint Dille even stated that the new transfer is even more accurate than the film print and I see no reason to challenge him on that or change anything for a future edition, they could transfer the newly created master just the way it is on say an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray release in the future and it would be perfect, minus the compression and interlacing I assume.
In the end, aside from
OCCASIONAL compression artifacts and some interlacing, particularly during the end credits scroll, this is a very solid release for this film, there's nothing wrong with it aside from the compression which is sparse to my eyes and the interlacing which, again, is only truly visible during the credits.
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