Blu-ray Review HTF Blu-ray Review: Wanted (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

Gotcha, Todd.

I think (although a smiley was absent) that Jason was ribbing Sam with the "messed-up system" remark.

I think it would be quite a can of worms to start trying to define the differences between a 4.5/5 and a 5/5 subjective rating for SQ on a BD release. To me ( a guy with a very modest HT set-up), to read 2+ HTF members (and the reviewer) give such high grades simply means the SQ is something I have to look forward-to when I get my chance to spin-up this disc!

 

[Southpaw]

No need to get hot and bothered - I was merely having fun with my "messed up sound system" comment. And I hope that Sam gets that without including a .
Look, we all know measuring a picture's sound quality or picture quality is highly subjective. What sounds awesome in my home may just sound okay to you in yours. I get that and I respect that. By the looks of it, you have a kick-ass system and you have a right to judge this picture's aural qualities any way you see fit. Perhaps I haven't seen or heard the 20 film scenes that you feel are better. And by the way, I didn't say it was the best sounding film of all time.
But I do stand by my reference comment. I thought the overall presentation was dynamic and hit all the ranges. And my sound system isn't half of what yours is. I can only imagine what my opinion would be if I heard it in your room.
I don't know - maybe I'm just easier to please?

 

[Southpaw]

Thank you Mike. It's nice to know someone can take a tongue-in-cheek comment without having those darn smiley faces everywhere.

 

[Todd smith]

I did not perceive his comment that way, but maybe you are right.

The dif between a 4.5 track and a 5 track is noticable IMO. 5 star tracks IMO would be TIH, HB2, Cloverfield, Transformers, Kung Fu Panda to name a few and Wanted is clearly not on that level to my ears. Still a very good track no doubt, but 4.5 tracks are clearly in a dif class compared to reference 5 star tracks IMHO.

 

[Todd smith]

Then I am sorry. I took your comment the wrong way.

 

[Southpaw]

No problem, it happens when you just read words and not know the tone in which I was saying them.
I'm still interested to know some of the 20 scenes that you believe are better than the train scene in Wanted. If I have never seen/heard them, I'd like to take a look.

 

[Todd smith]

Thanks

Some scenes that I would put on as demo material before that train scene (which I think is still very good) are the highway chase scene (Matrix Reloaded), lobby shootout (Matrix), the desert atack scene with the scorpion transformer (Transformers) Iron Hide flip till the end of the movie action wise (Transformers), The Elemental scene (hellboy 2) the entire ending battle (hellboy 2) and the opening ferrie scene (hellboy 2), the last battle with the dragon (Beowulf) King Kong (T-Rex fight) The last battle (Iron Man) the whole scene right before Iron Man is fighting with the jets (but including that part as well, Campus scene (Incredible Hulk) end battle (Incredible Hulk) Escape scene (Kung Fu Panda) scene right before they go into the subway (Cloverfield) Helicopter crash sequence (Cloverfield) End of Matrix Revolutions, jet/semi scene (Live Free or Die Hard) Tunnel Chase sequence (I, Robot)

These are most of the ones that come to mind. Again though, just my opinion and I am sure some will disagree with my choices

 

[Sam Posten]

I've got a thick skin, don't worry about hurting my feelings. HTF prides itself on being a FRIENDLY place tho, just try to keep that in mind especially in the banter between other posters. You can rip my reviews to shreds but be nice to each other. =)

Remember that my scores are for 'the whole package'. You can have the greatest sound mix in the world but if what is getting mixed together isn't up to snuff then what good is it? Wanted missed perfection on at least two seperate things for me. The mix wanted (heh) to be as immersive as something like Shoot Em Up but fell a little short of it for me. And the score wasn't really all that engaging either. I noted the tracks that I thought worked and the rest of them kinda fell into the background for me. If you want to take a listen to all the tracks, Amazon has free previews of the whole CD and you can listen for yourself.

Scores are subjective tho, and your scores and my scores are likely to never match up 100%, and that's expected and OK! That's what makes the HTF Review Crew so great, in my opinion anyway. We have a whole team of folks all of whom give solid dependable reviews and each person brings different strengths to what they type up.

 

[Sam Posten]

Not to derail this thread even further, but that's a pretty good list of demo scenes if all you care about is the surround effect =) Remember there's usually 90+ minutes left in the rest of the movie too. =) Disney/Pixar really gets that right in a lot of ways, if you want to see what I'm talking about watch the first 10 minutes of Tarzan in a well set up room.

Oh, and you didn't list my favorite surround/bass scene of all time, that's when Jean Grey blows up the house in Xmen somethingorother. I thought my house was going to blow up watching that scene.

 

[Todd smith]

Or better yet (than Tarzan IMO) what about the King in this area (IMO) M @ C......

Sure, but for a quick 5-10 minute demo I have found that people want to be pummeled over the head with audio! Also, we were comparing demo scenes to the train scene in wanted which falls in this same category. Getting out of my list, I would also put some of the more quiet parts inside the ship from Master and Commander as some of the best ambience type effects as you truly feel as if you are in the ship and the more quiet scenes in KFP are just full of detail and life and is truly impressive. Immersive is the right word and again Wanted was very good in this area, but could not hang with the likes of KFP, M @ C, etc.....in this area and both of these titles I would consider Reference in this particular area.

GOOD CALL on the X-Men scene, and I agree 100% on that one as I forgot about it. First time I saw that was shocking! I assume you are talking about in X-Men 3 where she lifts the house off the ground? Truly gives the sensation of a house being torn from its foundation and is extremely impressive!

Like I said, my list is just that, my list

As you guys could probably tell, my list is heavily influenced by movies with BIG LFE and top notch surround activity as that is what does it for me so to speak and what impresses me the most. I realy did not feel Wanted was a standout in either of these categories compared to some of my favorites, but again I still thought it was VERY good even if nothing in it would go on "the list" so to speak

 

[Southpaw]

Take a look at what FilmMixer had to say about Wanted's audio quality:
Tier thread for audio - Page 70 - AVS Forum

Nuff said.

Edit: Post #2075
Of all the films I have heard this year so far, "Wanted" has the best sound design I've heard... cohesive and creative to the extreme (some of the coolest dialog design with the slo mo voices and treatments... )

It is also a great example of a a picture editor who understands sound... the entire movie has an incredible rhythm.... textbook in my opinion.

I won't be surprised if they received nominations for sound editing and mixing.. I'll be disappointed, frankly, if they don't.

(For full disclosure, I've worked with the picture editor and the sound editorial was done at our sister company, and I've done many films with the sound designer and supervising sound editor.... no bias, just pure appreciation for their work.)

 

[Mike Frezon]

Unfortunately, Jason, links aren't a "happenin' thing" right now between the HTF and AVS.

You may need to drop a short quote into a post...

 

[Todd smith]

Link you gave does not work, but here is a cut and paste of what FM said about this track............

Of all the films I have heard this year so far, "Wanted" has the best sound design I've heard... cohesive and creative to the extreme (some of the coolest dialog design with the slo mo voices and treatments... )

It is also a great example of a a picture editor who understands sound... the entire movie has an incredible rhythm.... textbook in my opinion.

I won't be surprised if they received nominations for sound editing and mixing.. I'll be disappointed, frankly, if they don't.

(For full disclosure, I've worked with the picture editor and the sound editorial was done at our sister company, and I've done many films with the sound designer and supervising sound editor.... no bias, just pure appreciation for their work.)


You can read my comments in that same thread (I am toe over there). I dont agree with FilmMixer which is OK

Like I said, we all judge soundtracks dif and have certain aspects that we look for (or dont look for) in what we feel is a ref track. If you read that thread there are also a few others who dont agree with him which is OK. He is just one opinion in the end and in a sense is no better than anyone else considering we all hear things dif.

 

[Southpaw]

Todd - I understand. I was just providing a little more proof for my argument.

I edited the above post to include Mixer's comments. I hope that is okay. I forgot about the HTF/AVS tiff.


Edit: Todd - I agree 100% with your Police Certifiable assessment.

 

[Todd smith]

I hear ya (no pun intended

)

My only point is I dont need anybody to tell me (even a profesional mixer that is as well respected as FM) what track is and is not ref. I let my own ears be the judge which is what you do as well from the sounds of it

I will say from my many posts back and forth with FM and other various members over the years, I have broadened my listening abilities and have been able to appreciate dif tracks for dif reasons from these conversations to which I am thankful.

 

[Todd smith]

Oh man, dont even get me started on that one! This Police show blew me away yesterday. Hands down best video of any BR concet I have seen and most likely the best audio as well (at the very least it is equal to my 2 or 3 farorites)

LOVED that one!

 

[Sam Posten]

Again, you guys are missing the point. Mark (Filmmixer) and I agree on the sound design

Reread what I wrote about that:
Sound design is not the be-all, end all, of what goes into an overall audio score. You can disagree with my final score all you like, and I will nod along and say 'yup, I can see why you'd be justified in giving it that score if thats how you feel', but that's not how MY score works.

Sam
PS - I thought the warped sound was cool, but again I thought other films did that kind of thing better. Crank for one example.

 

[Todd Erwin]

This disc just arrived from Netflix.

My PS3 (with latest firmware) will only load the disc every other time.

Anyone else having problems getting it to load?

 

[mattCR]

Loads perfect here. This disc has dropped to $10 at Walmart near us, so I picked it up. Much, much better then I ever expected. Sam's review and mine are pretty much in agreement. Film is not quite there for the story, but the effects and fun level are very good.