Planet of the Apes Blu-Ray Set - Nov. 4 (1 Viewer)

[Jim_K]

Thanks. After finally getting to this set I tried this last night and it worked like a charm. Deceptively simple.

BTW - How many HTFers does it take to screw in a Lightbulb Planet of the Apes BD?

 

[Geoff_D]

I'd just as soon use the cases and covers from the remastered DVD boxset (which I can't shift on ebay). So that's what I did, and the BD box will be safely tucked away once I've gone through that lovely little book.

 

[cineMANIAC]

This set is severely overpriced at $109.99 - lucky for me I was able to sell a few DVDs and put the receipts toward the set and get it for less. I'm a huge 'Apes" fan so this set was a no-brainer; However, I really have to say I'm not terribly impressed with the whole thing overall. Picture quality is very nice for the most part, especially the first film. But these are essentially the previous DVDs, just re-released on Blu-ray with no significant new content added. The main reason I bring this up now is I've been reading lots of reviews for research (I'm a BD newbie) to decide what to buy and a large number of Fox titles have received mediocre reviews. I've got about 3 Fox BDs and am not impressed with any of them. Next year they're releasing the Alien films on Blu, an exciting prospect no doubt. But I really hope they do it right and not just "port" the current material over and call it a day. It seems that's what many studios are simply doing AND they want us to pay premium prices for this stuff?

 

[David Norman]

For $110+ I'd maybe expect more, but Amazon has had this set for as low as $58 when I bought mine and fairly regularly at or below $70. As a matter I can't see that Amazon has had it more than $90 anytime in the last year.

Given the cheap production values of the sequels I wasn't expecting it to look great (and they don't), It was still a significant step up from the DVD set which I still have. Unfortunately I'm old enough to have most of these in theaters at a decent first run and they weren't the prettiest films even then though the original was always by far the best of the lot. The extras aren't as much as I would have wished for, but I've certainly seen far worse.

What Fox transfers are you unhappy with? Mostly catalog titles or newer things. Unfortunately some of the limitations are source determined like with the POA sequels (sometimes intentional, sometimes just the initial cost savings of the production).

 

[cineMANIAC]

David I picked up Broken Arrow, Cast Away and Big Trouble in Little China - none were a significant step up from regular DVD in terms of PQ. I was expecting Cast Away to be a great hi-def transfer because it's a relatively recent film but it isn't. I was about to order The Fly but I wisened up and read a review and it basically said to stay away especially if one was happy with the current DVD. I don't know, maybe some studios just aren't motivated enough to do their best

 

[David Norman]

Cast Away was a bit less than I expected by a little, but still a big step up from the DVD in my eyes anyway (at least on the Island), The Memphis/non-Island scenes were intentionally subdued

Broken Arrow simply never looked all that great (Laserdisc even the DTS release, DVD, and I've only seen bits of the Blu) and I'm not sure why. I'm sure Fox is using a pretty old master by this stage and isn't willing to spend a lot of money on a title that isn't beloved.

BTiLC was just a low budget, cheap film stock movie that turned into a B-movie cult so it;s going to a little difficult to make it look much better.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by David Norman

BTiLC was just a low budget, cheap film stock movie that turned into a B-movie cult so it;s going to a little difficult to make it look much better.

By no means am I an authority but I thought Big Trouble In Little China looked pretty darn good on Blu-ray. I compared the DVD and Blu-ray and there was a pretty big difference to my eyes.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I agree that BTiLC looked much better on BD. The 2-disc edition from 2001 was riddled with EE and very soft where EE wasn't used. The darkness of the majority of the film also benefited from the added resolution on the BD.

 

[David Norman]

Originally Posted by TravisR



By no means am I an authority but I thought Big Trouble In Little China looked pretty darn good on Blu-ray. I compared the DVD and Blu-ray and there was a pretty big difference to my eyes.

I probably misphrased my comment -- it does look a lot better to me as well, but it's not going to be a demo disc except for those who like the movie. This is about how it looked in the theaters from my long ago memory of seeing and a whole lot better seeing it a year later in the same theater (FWIW the DVD was better than that and reminded me of watching the intentionally marred Planet Terror). Filming in low light situations limits what you can do just like in real life.