2005 War of the Worlds 11/22 (1 Viewer)

[Harold Wazzu]

Well, this week you should take notice. Both BB and CC are offering bonus discs for copies of Stealth.

So it is possible.

 

[Brent M]

Well, I'm relieved to hear that the blooming is only bad for a few shots and that it doesn't look that way throughout the entire film.

 

[Ben J Loews]

Hmm, some people are saying that the blooming is entirely intentional and is a direct representation of the cinema print, and others are saying its totally OTT and has been exaggerrated on the DVD.

Similarly, some reviews I have read state that the image quality in general is bad, with lots of grain present and the colours are too washed out - even more than they were theatrically. Whereas other peeps say that the image is totally authentic to the way we saw it in theatres... :rolleyes

 

[Joe Wong]

Robert,

what did you think of the soundtrack?

Cheers,

Joe

 

[Travis Brashear]

Originally posted by Harold Wazzu:

Well, this week you should take notice. Both BB and CC are offering bonus discs for copies of Stealth.

So it is possible.

Yeah, and both Best Buy and Wal-Mart are offering separate exclusives for FANTASTIC FOUR, so consider me re-educated.

 

[PaulP]

Not to offend anyone, but that's just because they're uninformed. Steven Speilberg's last few films have all had that washed out, overexposed look to them. And yes, it did indeed look this way in the theaters, so those complaining about the blooming must've not been paying attention to the cinematography.

 

[Richard Kim]

I agree. I wonder if the blooming in WOTW is intentional like the streaking effects on Saving Private Ryan (which like AI/Minority Report/WOTW has Januz Kaminski as DP).

 

[Holadem]

The "blooming" on the pictures on page 2 is more reminiscent of the infamous last scenes in Boston than the begining of the movie, at least in my mind. That said, it is very possible tht the begining looked like that as well.

The whole movie had this blueish tone to it.

In the end, I would have to check out the DVD itself, I doubt anyone could conclude anything from those screenshots, with a movie with such a distinctive visual style. People tend of overestimate their memories on these matters.

--
H

 

[BrettB]

His name is Kaminski. No fear. Bring it on.

 

[Robert Anthony]

Joe: It was very immersive and almost transparent. Low end definitely kicked in, especially when that overpass got blown out, and none of the dialog nor the surrounds came off harsh or overcompressed. THe surround work ESPECIALLY was butter-smooth, made my viewing room feel a lot wider than it really was. A great soundtrack. Maybe not as wholly immersive as Revenge of the Sith's, but RIIIIIGHT next to it.

 

[George_W_K]

I saw this twice in the theater. The first time, the picture was very washed out, the second time, not too bad. Same theater, different houses. From the screencaps, it reminds me of the better house I saw this in. I remember the blooming because I was thinking how Spielberg used the Minority Report look. I think it helped the CGI blend in better.

Geo

 

[Joe Wong]

Those who have bass transducers are in for a treat...I've had my Buttkickers for almost 18 mths and this is the first time I've felt something very different in the way the transducers vibrate...most other movies I feel the bass...but in WotW, I was not only feeling it, I was (as I mentioned in my initial post) riding it!!

Cool stuff...

Cheers,

Joe

 

[Anthony Neilson]

With respect to Tony Stark, those MEDIA shots will have been taken by an on-set photographer and are not comparable in any way with how the film itself ended up looking.

FWIW, I think the DVD's fine. I'm not sure I LIKE the blooming effect but I'm 100 percent sure that's how it was intended to look.

 

[Matthew Clayton]

The R2 screencaps look better than the R1 edition, in my opinion. It fully represented the way I saw the film in theaters - but I'll check out the R1 edition and see how bad the blooming is before a buy/not buy decision.

 

[Ben J Loews]

My R1 should arrive tomorrow im hoping (post depending), so I can do a direct comparison to the R2 aswell.

 

[Tony Stark]

Anthony Neilson:

Thanks for the clarification. That helps with the large discrepencies.

 

[Ben J Loews]

My R1 did turn up today, a miracle!

 

[Martin Jeeves]

Great. Let us know what you think. I have the Region 2 and was very disappointed with the image and the packaging. The sound was awesome.

The Region 1 packaging looks great, so I am eager to see what the sound and in particular the picture quality is like on the Region 1.

Let us know when you can. Cheers.

 

[Ben J Loews]

Well I watched WOTW today, and compared the R2 to the R1 and to be honest, I can't see much, if any difference, perhaps the colour is ever so slightly better on the R1, seems more accurate, other than that the releases look identical to me.

All this talk of bad image quality really irks me aswell, its a fantastic transfer of what we saw theatrically, sure if you are talking "absolute image quality" then it deserves a 7 or 8 out of 10, but in terms of representing what we saw at the cinema, it deserves a 9 without doubt, nice high bitrate transfer too, constantly hitting the 7's and 8's and rarely dipping below 5 mb / per sec.

Great transfer in my book!

Oh and the sound, is to die for! Awesome DTS track, one of my favorites, right up there with T2 / Saving Private Ryan / Jurassic Park R2 Superbit for sound dynamics and clarity.

 

[Martin Jeeves]

Thanks Ben.

ANy differences in sound quality?

Which is the better packaging in your view?

Cheers again!