The Big Trail & Barbarian and the Geisha - Blu-ray - Wal Mart Exclusive (1 Viewer)

[JParker]

James, thanks for the detailed response.  It's a Panasonic 50" VT25 plasma, on THX setting, in a low-lit room with zero reflections.  Nothing has been changed, as best I can recall, except for selecting their "Size 2" for the least amount of overscan. It's not yet calibrated -- that's something I will definitely treat myself to -- but after however many months I've had this screen, I'm still amazed and thrilled by the gorgeous black levels on just about everything. Most of my Blu-rays are very carefully chosen, and this one kind of stuck out in that regard.
I'm afraid I haven't yet sat down and watched the film straight through yet, so that was my impression on spot-checking the disk, nothing more. As to the "delightfully bad" comment, that also was a quick impression inspired by someone's description somewhere above, or in another thread, and I will be more than happy to change my tune on that. I'll try to get to this over the weekend.

Well, I've an older model Panasonic S series. And although we started out with Jack Burden's calibration, we've modified, and play with brightness (I found his setting too high) and contrast a little. Here are his calibrations for your unit:
http://reviews.plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatvreviews/panasonic-vt25-calibration.html.
I suspect his + 72 for brightness may be too high. But start out from here.
From Home Theater Forum, see here: http://www.hometheater.com/content/panasonic-viera-tc-p50vt25-plasma-3d-hdtv-settings
Of course, professional calibration is an option but it's easy to hit "restore settings". Then you're back to "square one".
Yes, the blacks are weak to some extent but to me the picture was fantastic 99% of the time. Again, the color to me is far superior to modern (recently released and photographed) Blu-rays, e.g., Thor, Iron Man, Transformers II
So, take a look at the above, see if adjusting the display according to the calibrations provided above helps.
As to the film itself, then if my reading of the "time" was incorrect, it's a shame we don't have the longer version. As it stands, I thought it was great motion picture and to clarify on my "Wayne is Wayne", he's always unmistakeable but in every role that he plays, his portrayal creates for me different living, breathing characters. That is, his voice, posture, etc. are Wayne but there are subtle touches that makes me see, quite often, entirely different human beings.
Best wishes,
J.

 

[JParker]

Just watched, and loved it!
I also figured out how to describe what I'm seeing:  It's as though I'm viewing it on the crappy 5-year-old Vizio LCD in the other room, insofar as black or anything approaching black is  concerned.  They're all grays, and in some scenes much detail or differentiation is lost in the gray.  There was one scene near the end of the film when I suddenly thought, wow, there it is, something closer to a real black.  But not really.  Probably a fluke of having gotten relaxed and into the film, and accustomed to the way it looks.
So, no one else sees this the way I am?  Off the top of my head I can't think of any other Blu-ray I have that has made that impression on me, or any that have even remotely tried to turn my Panasonic into a Vizio!      But I'm delighted to have the film ("delightfully bad" comment duly retracted), and I look forward to watching it again and to sharing it with a couple of Wayne aficionados who know nothing of it.
EDIT:  Player is the Oppo BDP-93.

My system is more antiquated than yours but I didn't see the issues you did; 3D displays may be a little more garish than my old 2D, i.e., brighter; however, see my prior response.
Note Burden and Wiley wrote:

Picture Quality and Performance:
With both HD sources and standard definition content the VT25 produced a very vibrant, colorful, vivid image even after being toned down during our calibration. This TV is like a difficult to control race horse, that doesn't know when and where to focus its energy. The panel light on the VT25 is extremely powerful. The plasma 3D TV has a tendency toward over saturation with tons of light flowing through color information – providing a bright picture. Motion artifacts and background noise are present, more with standard definition programming than with HD.

Try the settings from the websites that I provided you (and if this site has similar reviews and calibration advice, someone please add links for Charles, I'm just unaware of them). Then watch the film again.
Let me know how it works (assuming I've given you links to the right model).