![Prophecy [Blu-ray]](http://cdn.hometheaterforum.com/d/dd/50x50px-ZC-dd2ac67e_prophecy.jpeg)
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The Prophecy 1080P 1.78:1 AR*** AVC CODEC 23.7 AWBR DTS-HD 5.1 Audio LPCM 2.0 Audio 97 Minutes Distributed By: Echo Bridge Single Layer BD-25 disc.
The title lists 1.78 but is wrong; it is not quite 2.35 in a basic measurement using post-tools |
The Film Overview:
“The Prophecy” is one of those films that, at least for me, found it’s life on cable. I first watched The Prophecy on HBO, I believe, long after its release and found it to be a far better than expected horror/action film. To give you the short run down: there is a war in heaven; the Angels, with God seemingly absent (or maybe dead?) have begun to fight amongst themselves, causing a civil war that now imperils all humanity. The sides in the war have begun to use humans as pawns, but they also are hunting for human leaders who, once dead can lead them to victory. This stars with the most horrible, evil soul they can find, who will be called to aid Christopher Walken’s cause in the fight to take over heaven. Mix in the devil, the possession of a little girl with a dark soul, a fallen priest who can see the war in heaven though he can tell no one, and you’ve got a sometimes scary, sometimes laughable but generally fun time.
Walken chews up screen time in his over the top performance as Gabriel. Virginia Madsen, a teacher who stumbles across the now possessed child becomes a protector for an innocent (now possessed) against his capture.
It’s hard to call “The Prophecy” great filmmaking, but it’s a film I have always enjoyed, in spite of the problems it has. Walken is entertaining; the battle scenes are fun and good camp, and there are some moments that do come as real surprises. It’s not fantastic script wise, but it’s passable and the film itself is good fun.
Video Quality 1 / 5
Video is presented in 1080P, AVC CODEC at an AWBR of 23.7Mb, with a high of 40Mb/s. This should seem passable, but there is something very terribly wrong with this encode. The picture quality here is frankly not acceptable. At times, this looks worse than any Blu-Ray release I have ever seen; the picture has a very, very grainy feel to it – almost as though it was scanned straight from the source and there was a bunch of debris all over the film. Film spots, stray crackles within the film make this look like a B-level production, and it really struggles to make me come up with a reason why I’d accept this over the DVD.
Images are blurry, there is a red cast to them that I don’t ever remember seeing when I watched this before; what appear to be MPEG type-artifacts happen often, and on every single player I tried (from my Oppo & PS3 to Arcsoft TMT5). The image just looks.. bad. Really bad.
I rarely find a moment where I try to say to myself: how would I describe the video of a film, especially when I’ve had the joy to review so many that were spectacular. Well, if I ever needed a reminded that Blu-Ray can also go horribly wrong, “The Prophecy” is it. I can’t think of a single reason I would call what is presented here as “acceptable”.
Audio Quality 1 / 5
Audio is presented in DTS-HD 5.1. Let me say something about this mix: 95% of everything comes from your center channel. LFE is near absent from this title.. even in crashing, big scenes.. it all comes from the center channel. The audio stays focused so much it’s near mono. I tried multiple players to see if this was some setting. I checked on the Theater in a Box in my bedroom in comparison to my living room, and same results. So, once I had eliminated issues with settings, I decided to give the other audio option, LPCM 2.0 a try. The LPCM mix is more fulfilling; audio seems to do a better job filling a room and it is not nearly as focused. But that doesn’t necessarily make it good. Dialog is still not crisp & clean; it is often muddy and difficult to sort out.
How bad is the audio? When there is a gunshot here:
It is SO QUIET and makes no movement (again, focused entirely in the center channel) that I didn’t realize it had happened. Zero LFE, no bass at all to the scene, and no way to really sort out the soundtrack which drove it.
Extras 0 / 5
The disc provides no extras. None at all.
Overall: PASS (No Score)
I have a hard time doing this because while I want to do a truthful and strong review of product for buyers, it’s hard to really give a review and be frank when I title is presented as poorly as “The Prophecy”. The film itself is one I enjoyed in the 90s. It’s a fun story and it can be played well. This presentation, frankly, is far worse then I remembered. It looks terrible, the audio is very poor, and there are no extras at all. I can recognize that this title will also be sold cheaply, but no matter the cost, it’s hard to advise anyone to throw their money away on a product like “The Prophecy”. Every week I get to watch films presented on Blu-Ray and I’m reminded how truly spectacular the format is. Then, as though to remind me, I sit through a film I enjoy like “The Prophecy” that shows me everything that can go wrong. If you have a friend or family member getting a Blu-Ray player for Christmas this year, and you’re making up a list of titles to show them the power of Blu-Ray… let’s just say: leave “The Prophecy” off that list.
