DVD Review HTF REVIEW: The Fountain (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Reynolds]

I've read this a few times; I noticed some compression artifacts in some of the darker scenes and it prompted me to revisit the calibration of the projector, which, it turns out, was running a little iight. With my blacks back down where they're supposed to be, those artifacts vanished on my hundred inch screen.

Are we just seeing some imperfect reviewer calibration, or is it genuinely badly compressed?

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

My opinion, expanding on my comments from the review, is that the scenes that exhibited compression artifacts were the scenes that were, ... well, ... difficult to compress. It is not a pervasive issue on this DVD presentation, which, as a whole, does not suffer from the wire to wire softness exhibited on, for instance, the "Superman Returns" DVD.

Regards,

 

[Felix Martinez]

I author DVDs. Believe me. Baaaaad. Not unwatchable - static shots and close-ups look real nice, but pretty bad IMHO, especially for a 2007 release of a 90-odd minute film. Something has gone south, compression-wise with WB's new DVD releases over the past year or so. Doesn't seem to have affected their catalog titles ("The Other" comes to mind).

Ken has mentioned before that perhaps it is affecting those releases that use DIs (digital intermediate process), which may explain the compression anomalies on new titles. But other studios are doing bang-up jobs on their new titles and DIs are not relegated to WB features. Honestly, something is wrong. Either they're recompressing a compressed master, or they've set the bitrate too low...all speculation, but I haven't had time to demux these things and see what in the world could be going on. But I've been incredibly disappointed with WB's new DVD release output for some time now.

I think Blood Diamond was another affected title; haven't seen that one, tho.

Was hoping this title would snap back to their previous high benchmark of quality, but alas, not the case.

 

[Dougieha]

I finally got around to watching this last night, and I've got to say that I'm still thinking about it today at work. The first 20 minutes had me very confused, but I stuck with it, and I was simply floored by my emotional response by the end of the movie.

What a fantastic combination of visuals, sounds, and thoughts on film! I think I'm going to watch it again this weekend just so I can enjoy the beginning more.

edit: And I've already ordered the score from Amazon...what a masterpiece!

 

[PopBodhi]

Ken, thanks for the review. I love this film.

 

[Richard_D_Ramirez]

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Neither can I, Richard. I noticed no compression issues, but I haven't watched it yet on my 16:9 Toshiba. I'll let you know if they show up on that display when I get a chance... which will be sometime in July. :frowning:

 

[MichaelGH]

I went into The Fountain in the theater with very high expectation as I loved both Pi and Requiem for a Dream; this movie far and away exceeded my expectations and confirmed my belief that Arronofsky is a director with a singular and unique vision. I truly hope he continues to make films a interesting as he has up to now.

I also loved Soderbergh's Solaris (can't believe I decided not to see it in the theater) and could not stand the Tarkovsky version (I know it's blasphemy but it bored me to tears). I would definitely agree that these two movies would flow together very well as companion pieces.

Great cinema and I truly hope this movie finds the audience on dvd it could not garner in its theatrical run.

Michael

 

[David (C)]

Rented this with an open mind and heart. I stood by the film until the God awful Zen Buddhist ending with a flying Hugh Jackman that killed the entire movie for me. Brad Pitt saved Warner some serious money by backing out of this ________ I can’t even think of a word best to describe how I feel about this movie.

 

[Al B. C]

Sorry - I agree with Roeper, it's a complete mess.

I don't need to be beat over the head in a movie to understand it, but this film to me didn't have one drop of glue in it anywhere to hold anything together.

I really don't like waisting the first 20 to 30 minutes of a film saying to myself "What the hell is going on". Only to find at the end I'm saying to myself "What the hell just happened".

Really sorry for this blind buy.