Criterion Press Release: The War of the Worlds (1953) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[dpippel]

I ordered my copy directly from Criterion, and it was delivered yesterday.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

I ordered just in time from Best Buy last week because it is currently sold out.

 

[Reed Grele]

Mine's supposed to be arriving from Amazon this Thursday.

I already have the Australian BD which is very nice. It will be interesting to see if Criterion has done anything different with the transfer.

 

[David Weicker]

My Target order is supposedly Out For Delivery today.

When I went on the website over the weekend, there was no indication it was near Shipping. But hey, I'm happy - rather be surprised than frustrated.

 

[dpippel]

I've been doing some A/B comparisons between the new Criterion Blu and the 4K Dolby Vision streaming version on iTunes this afternoon. While I'm happy to have the 4K, the Criterion looks MUCH better, particularly color-wise. The 4K stream is absolutely dull, almost brownish, in comparison. View the Blu-ray and you KNOW you're watching a 3-strip Technicolor production. It's gorgeous.

 

[BobO'Link]

I can hardly wait! My copy from Target was transferred from UPS to the PO this afternoon (had they used the USPS from the start I'd have had it yesterday - I really don't like UPS "Mail Innovations" as it always adds 2-4 days to deliveries). It'll be delivered tomorrow!

 

[Nelson Au]

I guess there will be some discussion if the color adjustments to the film include making Mars look red. So I went back to the oldest copies I own to make screen caps while I await for my Criterion copy to arrive.

This is the 1993 laserdisc. I was surprised how good the disc looks and realized the movie is spread across 3 sides, so its a CAV disc.



The next image is from the 1999 DVD:



Of course, iTunes won't let me make screen caps. So I had to do it the crude way, with a camera off taken off the screen. I thought it would look redder!

 

[John Sparks]

Can't wait to view mine tomorrow. Thanks for pics Nelson.

 

[Nelson Au]

You’re welcome John. Will be interested in hearing more people’s impressions of the new disc. If mine arrives on time this week, I’ll save it for the weekend.

 

[AlexNH]

I guess there will be some discussion if the color adjustments to the film include making Mars look red. So I went back to the oldest copies I own to make screen caps while I await for my Criterion copy to arrive.

This is the 1993 laserdisc. I was surprised how good the disc looks and realized the movie is spread across 3 sides, so its a CAV disc.

View attachment 75194

The next image is from the 1999 DVD:

View attachment 75196

Of course, iTunes won't let me make screen caps. So I had to do it the crude way, with a camera off taken off the screen. I thought it would look redder!

View attachment 75198

Is that a fireball or somep'n?

 

[David Norman]

Rather impressive difference in the starfields around the planet too

 

[Nelson Au]

Its unfortunate I was not able to get a better capture of the iTunes version. That photo is a lower resolution version playing on my iPad Pro. I wasn’t able, without taking more effort, to take a good photo off my large screen TV. Maybe I’ll try again later.

edit at 10:45am, I just saw the other WotW thread asking if a blu ray would ever be released. There was a video there showing the 4K blu ray version verses a 2005 version. I think I’m confusing myself about what the color of Mars is supposed to look like!

I never saw WotW in 1953 in the theaters, I wasn’t born yet. It appears the color of Mars in the iTunes edition is closer to the 4K edition in that video in that thread. There is still red, but the image is tinted cooler. So I don’t really know what I’m talking about. . My only reference is the first laserdisc releases and the 1999 DVD which I took screen caps shown above. I have not looked at my 2005 DVD yet, but I assumed it’s color is the same. Mars is very red in the earlier video releases.

 

[BobO'Link]

I just finished watching my copy. Mars is red as it should be. It's brighter than Nelson's screen caps of the LD and DVD releases yet it looks like I'd expect it to look with good color. And... the wires are gone, a move I'm happy with. The colors are well saturated as they should be. IMHO it's an excellent looking disc.

 

[Tino]

the wires are gone,

They’ve been gone since the 4K version showed up on iTunes.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey Howie, thanks for the post and insights on the color of Mars.

last year, HTF member Carabimero was posting in the 4K thread of War of the Worlds who had a 4K file on his computer where he was tweaking and making a blu ray from. He hasn’t been active here in a while, it might be interesting to see what he thinks of the Criterion blu ray. And also what Robert Harris thinks of the disc too.

From Howie‘s post and some others I’ve seen, this release sounds like a home run in terms the color reproduction.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Just received a notice from Best Buy that my shipment has been "delayed" which is a first for me on a movie order from them. I might cancel and do the Barnes & Noble sale.

 

[AlexNH]

War of the Worlds, The (1953) (Blu-ray Review)

The War of the Worlds took a long time to make it to the big screen. Written in 1897 by H.G. Wells, the novel had a number of producers and scriptwriters assigned over time, but those projects never saw fruition. It was George Pal at Paramount Studios who succeeded in transferring the book to...

thedigitalbits.com

 

[BobO'Link]

Hey Howie, thanks for the post and insights on the color of Mars.

last year, HTF member Carabimero was posting in the 4K thread of War of the Worlds who had a 4K file on his computer where he was tweaking and making a blu ray from. He hasn’t been active here in a while, it might be interesting to see what he thinks of the Criterion blu ray. And also what Robert Harris thinks of the disc too.

From Howie‘s post and some others I’ve seen, this release sounds like a home run in terms the color reproduction.

I really miss Alan and would love to get his input on this release.

I watched it again, this time with the commentary (which I found a bit boring). I continue to be quite impressed with the overall video quality. Colors are excellent and well saturated. I hesitate to say "as expected from a Technicolor print" as I just don't have enough experience with that process to know how accurate this might be. The colors aren't those "bright cheery" colors in other Technicolor productions but they are very accurate with excellent flesh tones and how I expect things to look. I looked for grain and it's there but quite small and almost inconspicuous, even in some of the darker scenes. I'd be quite OK calling this a "home run" in terms of color (and really the overall image).

**EDIT**
I wish they'd ported over the commentary with Gene Barry and Ann Robinson from Paramount's "Special Collector's Edition" DVD release. That means I'll have to keep the DVD for that one and a few others that weren't ported over (or if they were I've not found them yet).

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Howie! I can’t wait to see this disc! Thanks for Digital Bits review Alex.

I got bad news from Amazon, my shipment is delayed too. Expected on the 14th now. Maybe I can ask for a price match with Barnes and Noble.

 

[Craig999]

Just watched my copy (received yesterday) last night. It's absolutely GORGEOUS. Nice to finally see a disc look as good as you hoped it would. If you grew up loving this movie, like I did, you owe it to yourself to get this Criterion. The colors and clarity are so good, it was like I was seeing it for the first time.