Blu-ray Disc REVIEW |
Release Date: AVAILABLE NOW Film Rating:   / Starring: Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft), Jon Voight (Lord Richard Croft), Iain Glen (Manfred Powell), Noah Taylor (Bryce), Daniel Craig (Alex West) Screenplay by: Patrick Massett & John Zinman Directed by: Simon West Who Is Lara Croft? Who is Lara Croft? She’s the woman all men want to be with. She’s the woman all women want to be. She’s sexy, adventurous, and great with a handgun. She has a killer figure with curves to die for. She is a videogame character come to life. It was only a matter of time before this game came to the big screen. It was one of the most popular game titles back in the day and I remember stock flying off the shelf and it being a sell-out during holiday seasons. I’ve never played the game myself, but it must have been a hoot to be a chick in a third-person shooter who was an adventurer. Fantasies abound, I’m sure of it. When the film was announced and the cast selected, I must admit even I believed there could be no better woman selected for the role than Angelina Jolie. She fits the mould of appearance; it’s almost as if Lara Croft was designed on Jolie’s looks. Jolie doesn’t pass as being fit and cut to do half of the stunts her character does in this film (nor is her accent believable), but she passes in every other way. Tomb Raider has a basic plot and is all action. After her years of searching for rare artefacts in the most dangerous parts of the world, she has a new challenge timed perfectly during the alignment of the planets. During her quest for these new artefacts she finds they can give a person total control over time and even have the ability to change the past. Lara isn’t the only one in search of this. She’s hot on her heels as the Illuminati, a secret society, is after this power. I didn’t like this movie when I saw it in the theatre in 2001. After watching this Blu-ray disc, I still didn’t like the movie. It’s a senseless action film that just doesn’t appeal to me. Sometimes I like senseless, but just not this time. I’m surprised it actually launched a sequel. I’ve never seen it but have heard it is equal in amusement to this one. This Paramount title is on a Blu-ray disc that is very translucent. When looking at the data side of the disc you can actually see right through it to the label on the other side. That’s something new! It’s packaged in a case that is almost the same as what other studios have been using. The size and look is the same, but this package has a small snapper lid on the side of the package to open and close it. You have to get your nails in there pretty good to open it. I just hope wear and tear over the years doesn’t cause this to break and not provide the case a seal. It’s solid for the time being so we’ll see how this snapper stands the test of time. When putting the disc in the tray the BD has a forced trailer of upcoming Blu-ray titles. It’s a generic high definition ad that could easily be used on the HD-DVD discs too. It’s good to watch the first time and thankfully it can be skipped each time after.  VIDEO QUALITY 3/5 This was the first Paramount Blu-ray disc I viewed and I was disappointed in the picture quality. I haven’t seen the HD-DVD, but based on all of the reading I’ve done about this title on that format it seems these discs are probably identical in quality. This Blu-ray disc will reveal all problems with the source and it’s probably one of the worst looking titles I’ve seen to date. The picture is flat and except for a few close-up shots this film doesn’t exhibit the depth that I expect to see in HD. Of course, those are my expectations. My expectations will only be satisfied if the source material is good. Tomb Raider’s print has defects such as black dirt blotches and a few scratches. Film grain is highly visible and it gives the film a hazy look. It’s not like the fine grain I’ve seen with other titles where it seems more natural and part of the medium. The grain in this film looks a bit overbearing. It looks like the source of this Blu-ray disc (and the HD-DVD) was a later generation theatrical print rather than an earlier generation print. If this is an early generation source I’m surprised on how terrible it looks for such a new film. Colours are under saturated with the film looking a bit warm. Black levels are only mediocre and don’t quite hit the depth of the better film sources. I didn’t notice any MPEG-2 compression artefacts but just a very fine line of edge enhancement is noticed throughout the film. While considerably more detailed than the DVD, this isn’t a disc that I would ever use to demonstrate high definition in my home theatre. AUDIO QUALITY: 3.5/5 I’ve been very spoiled listening to lossless and uncompressed PCM on all Sony Blu-ray titles. I’ve also been raving about how all HD discs should have this improved sound option despite the naysayers complaining of gobbled video space. As an audio enthusiast let me have my word: stop making noise and listen. It is evident that what has been lost on Tomb Raider can only be brought back with some kind of lossless sound option. As of this time only lossless uncompressed PCM has been an option although the compressed lossless option by Dolby Digital and DTS show promise of high fidelity. It’s a wait and see approach at this time. The two lossy soundtrack options (Dolby Digital @ 640kbps and DTS @ 1.5Mbps) are included at their higher bitrate. Both are very close in sound quality and are almost at the point of bearing negligible differences. But as mentioned before, I can imagine what has been lost in the soundtrack by being able to pick out the flaws of these lossy formats based on the differences I hear when comparing lossless to lossy on other titles. I didn’t like this soundtrack at all. It’s not that it isn’t active enough – because it is – but it’s because it’s tiring to listen to. There is too much unevenness throughout the frequency range giving the feeling of gaps in the sound. Both soundtrack options suffer from this. Of course I can only go by feeling here because I have no reference to a lossless version of this soundtrack. It’s fatiguing because it has a prominent high end that isn’t balanced well enough with the sucked in upper midrange. Midbass stands out a bit more but lower midbass and the deepest bass lack any kind of authority and dominance. Maybe the X-curve is playing a bit of a role too, but experience listening to lossless PCM tells me these areas in the sound are less delivered with lossy tracks. The original recording is also probably flawed…in the sense that it is designed for movie theatres rather than home theatres. I really wish all HD titles would be re-equalized and remixed for home theatre. As far as fidelity goes, it’s a mixed bag. First let me say that dynamic range isn’t as good as it could be. The soundtrack gets loud but that’s only when everything is loud and that contributes to the fatiguing sonic character of this soundtrack. Dialogue in some scenes are too forward for my liking but is occasionally well integrated in the wild or some larger rooms. A loud hiss frequently accompanies Jolie’s voice and there are other instances of high frequency noise appearing in certain speaker locations for no apparent reason. Bass is palpable but lacks definition and tightness in all channels including the LFE. In fact it’s a bit of a disappointment. For those interested in a DTS vs. Dolby Digital comparison…as mentioned, it’s negligible. By ear it seems Dolby Digital is -4dB lower than DTS. The soundtrack appears a bit brighter with DTS and a little more authoritative with whatever bass the soundtrack has. Dialogue on the Dolby Digital version is a bit “quieter” and not as upfront as the DTS encoding. What is more accurate? Beats me. TACTILE FUN!! / TRANSDUCER ON/OFF?: ON I don’t think you’ll miss it if you don’t use it. Even though there is some low frequency information I don’t think it’s powerful enough. Rarely did ‘bass shaking’ add to the enjoyment of this film. SPECIAL FEATURES / The special features on this Blu-ray disc are the same as on the HD-DVD and on both releases, all features (except for the inclusion of the theatrical trailer in HD) are identical to the DVD. This is excellent consistency with other Paramount titles. On this disc you will find about 75 minutes worth of features. They are not HD nor are they enhanced for widescreen displays:
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