A Few Words About A few words about...™ Lucy -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Especially as a fan of Luc Besson's work, there are a myriad of things I find myself latching on to in his latest directorial effort.

If you're reasonably steeped in Monsieur Besson's work, you'll find that Lucy (with a superb Scarlett Johansson) in the title role, fits right in.  If not you should be ashamed, and immediately access copies of Leon: The Professional and La Femme Nikita as required viewing.  That would be a good place to begin.  Then pick up The Big Blue, Extraordinary Adventures...

Lucy is a mash-up of genres that works.  Going along with Samuel Goldwyn's possibly apocryphal comment regarding how long a film should be -- "As long as it's good" -- the film comes in at an exceedingly quick paced 90 minutes.  I ran it last night for a friend that would not normally see a film of this type and she walked away smiling -- although still wondering precisely what she had just viewed.

​There have been numerous discussions on line regarding current Blu-ray vs. the coming "4k" or UHD technology, and I've been advocating that 4k doesn't fit all needs or all films.  Sit at a normal viewing distance from your panel or screen, and in most cases you won't be able to tell the difference.

Lucy, from Universal, is one of those film that will absorb that UHD technology, and shine on screen.  Audio is DTS-HD MA, which is basically a very nice bucket into which anything can be placed, but this particular bucket, when decoded, will push you back in your seat and clean the lint out of your speakers, much like we'll be hearing when the Interstellar Blu-ray arrives.

But I bring up UHD, as that's an area where Lucy's imagery (as captured by cinematographer Thierry Arbogast, who has also shot La Femme Nikita and Leon) will shine.

Even in standard old, off-the-shelf Blu-ray, the visuals found in Lucy are magnificent for their color, power and resolution.  Keep in mind that Lucy was shot digitally (Arri Alexa XT Plus, Red Epic, Sony CineAlta F65) and imagery was prepped  not only for standard 35mm and DCP, but for actual (as opposed to faux) IMAX.

You see where this is going.  The filmmakers' ability to create freely with first generation composites of various digital effects is in full play here.

Lucy is a terrific movie.  A superb entertainment -- please view with suspension of disbelief in gear -- and a magnificently presentation on Blu-ray.

Also, at its current under $20 street price on amazon, one of the best buys going.

A final point.  I'm not a fan of slipcovers.  Many of them are flawed, as the slick blue plastic box held within will simply fall out.  Others are created from cheap paper, simply replicating (for no apparent reason) the same artwork found within.

Universal's artwork and packaging on Lucy is, in a word, gorgeous.  One slipcase out of thousands, worth retaining.

Highly Recommended.

RAH

 

[CraigF]

Saw the commercial for this BD on TV yesterday and decided I needed to look into this one for sure (those are good Luc Besson recs you made, my faves anyway). I don't recall if or what I heard about this movie before...I think it might have been at TIFF and I was about to start rummaging through my stuff from that to check. And coincidentally you post about it and say it's as entertaining as the impression I got. Thanks.

 

[john a hunter]

Saw this last night and while not a fan of everything Besson does, this was an enjoyable and fun film. Superb image and
sound though surprised it was not 7.1.
A great title to show off your system if you are so inclined!

 

[OliverK]

Thanks RAH for pointing out that Lucy should shine in 4k as I will certainly seek it out once it rolls out in whatever delivery format allows for a quality 4k experience.


And regarding the work of Luc Besson I feel compelled to also point out The 5th Element which was and still is a lot of fun although its special effects look rather dated today.

 

[Michel_Hafner]

I watched "Le grand bleu" last night. First time on BD. The French BD. The only film about a trans species person I know (not counting horror/fantasy films). Still a very unique film. Approaching 30 years a new 4K scan would be nice. The current transfer is ok but not more. And there is a problem with clipping whites. I suspect this disc uses whiter than white data and I'm not calibrated for this. I'll have to check this in more detail.

 

[DP 70]

The Big Blue has a great soundtrack and its looks and sounds fab in 70mm Dolby Stereo, I saw it again last year in Bradford in 70mm the print had a few joins but was great from the middle of the front row.

 

[Michel_Hafner]

Watched "Lucy". Very Luc Besson. It's fun for sure. And a film that uses "Koyaanisqatsi", "Samsara" and "Baraka" all in the first few minutes has my attention. It's kind of a brother of "Transcendence", just far more playful, far less serious, even silly at times. And it shares Morgan Freeman with that other film. Milla has been replaced with Scarlet, but at the climax she still opens her mouth and out comes light. Must be a Besson fetish, these light spewing females.

I personally am not too fond of the idea that we need to reach 100% of brain capacity. I think zero percent is far more beneficial. Once we reach that things get really interesting.

 

[McCrutchy]

After releasing a BD (apparently) with Dolby TrueHD 96k upsampling back in January, Panorama will shortly be re-releasing Lucy on Blu-ray in Hong Kong with Dolby Atmos audio:


http://www.yesasia.com/global/1039049740-0-0-0-en/info.html

 

[DP 70]

That should sound fab in Dolby Atmos.

 

[McCrutchy]

I received my Hong Kong Dolby Atmos BD of Lucy today. I don't have Atmos capabilities right now, but I'm hoping to be able to test out the disc shortly on a retail Atmos system. This being said, I thought I would share some info on the disc here now.


I also own the US BD. Most unfortunately, the Atmos BD does not port the US BD master, so all English subtitling is handled via the subtitle track. This means that, in order to get English subtitles for the extensive non-English dialogue in the film (mainly Korean and French, with a few lines in other languages) you have to watch the entire film with English subtitles, or be very quick on the remote turning them on and off. For those that care, this is also a 24.000 fps release, as opposed to the "proper" 23.976, though I've never noticed a difference between the two on my system.


Aside from that, I can confirm that the disc carries a 48kHz, 24-bit Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core track. There are also four Dolby Atmos trailers ("Amaze" "Leaf" "Conductor" and "Unfold") on the disc, which are playable from the menu. The "Unfold" trailer plays before the disc loads its main menu, and is actually encoded twice on the disc. All of the trailers also carry a 48kHz, 24-bit Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core.


All menus are entirely English-friendly.


The two featurettes from the Universal disc are present, presented here with optional English and Traditional/Simplified Chinese subtitles, There are even a few additional extras on this release, mostly consisting of short, English-language interviews with the cast and crew, which have burned-in Chinese subtitles only. A look at the chase scene, from storyboards through VFX to final composite, is also available under its French title "Cascades rue de Rivoli", and is in English with optional English and Traditional/Simplified Chinese subtitles. The English-language Hong Kong (identified as "US") trailer comes with optional English and Traditional/Simplified Chinese subtitles, while a different Hong Kong trailer with English audio and Chinese/English graphics comes with burned-in Chinese subtitles only.


Finally, this is supposed to be a Region A locked disc, but on both Regions B or C on my Multiregion Oppo BDP-103, I saw both Chinese and English region-error screens...and then the disc booted straight to the copyright warnings and onto the main menu. So it seems that this may be effectively a region-free release, though that may depend on your system.


BDInfo scan:

                                                                                                                Total   Video                                            
Title                                                           Codec   Length  Movie Size      Disc Size       Bitrate Bitrate Main Audio Track                          Secondary Audio Track
-----                                                           ------  ------- --------------  --------------  ------- ------- ------------------                        ---------------------
00002.MPLS                                                      AVC     1:29:04 23,357,491,200  37,043,758,819  34.96   26.47   Dolby TrueHD 7.1 5233Kbps (48kHz/24-bit)

DISC INFO:
Disc Title:     LUCY
Disc Size:      37,043,758,819 bytes
Protection:     AACS
BD-Java:        No
BDInfo:         0.5.8
PLAYLIST REPORT:
Name:                   00002.MPLS
Length:                 1:29:04.708 (h:m:s.ms)
Size:                   23,357,491,200 bytes
Total Bitrate:          34.96 Mbps
 
VIDEO:
 
Codec                   Bitrate             Description    
-----                   -------             -----------    
MPEG-4 AVC Video        26471 kbps          1080p / 24 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
 
AUDIO:
 
Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description    
-----                           --------        -------         -----------    
Dolby TrueHD Audio              English         5233 kbps       7.1 / 48 kHz / 5233 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Embedded: 5.1-EX / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
 
SUBTITLES:
 
Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description    
-----                           --------        -------         -----------    
Presentation Graphics           Chinese         18.516 kbps                    
Presentation Graphics           Chinese         17.143 kbps                    
Presentation Graphics           English         24.658 kbps                    
 
FILES:
 
Name            Time In         Length          Size            Total Bitrate  
----            -------         ------          ----            -------------  
00003.M2TS      0:00:00.000     1:29:04.708     23,357,491,200  34,962         
 
CHAPTERS:
 
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10              1:05:26.208     0:09:38.041     28,826 kbps     37,915 kbps     01:14:41.041    35,025 kbps     01:14:40.916    33,760 kbps     01:14:38.000    150,138 bytes   421,771 bytes   01:07:45.708   
11              1:15:04.250     0:07:14.958     28,200 kbps     38,190 kbps     01:18:55.708    33,706 kbps     01:18:53.833    32,419 kbps     01:18:53.833    146,876 bytes   471,879 bytes   01:17:14.666   
12              1:22:19.208     0:06:45.500     5,072 kbps      19,310 kbps     01:28:26.833    16,745 kbps     01:28:25.250    15,277 kbps     01:28:21.833    26,422 bytes    326,238 bytes   01:28:26.875   
STREAM DIAGNOSTICS:
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----            ---             ----            -----           --------                --------------          --------------          -------------   -----          
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