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The Dragon Tattoo Extended Trilogy 4 BD-25 Discs 1.78 AR, Presented in MPEG4-AVC
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The Dragon Trilogy Retold.
Before we proceed much farther, I think ti's good to go back and look at some of the great reviews of the individual films themselves. Previous reviews are here:
The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet's Nest
For those that have already imported the extended Swedish Editions, you'll find that these are the exact same titles just packaged into a very nice packaging. This does make for the first release into the US of the extended versions.
If you've never seen the films, let me start off by welcoming you to an international phenomenon and trying to explain why the films succeeded as they did. Our story follows two distinct characters: Lisbeth, a girl with a haunted past (The Girl..) and Mikael, the editor of a rebel rousing newspaper, Millenium.
As the story begins, Mikael finds himself on the wrong end of a libel suit that accuses him of making slanderous statements about the powerful - leading to him being sentenced to a heavy fine and a term in prison. But before he is to serve his prison term, he has six months to set his life in order. If you've read the books, you'll recognize the storyline, but it's amazing how well the films hold to them - without trumping up beats or appealing to the audience need for action.
If there is any genre in Hollywood that suffers like suspense films, I don't know what it is. Modern Suspense films are toned down actioneers; gore-fest or drama that never pays off. But this presentation of The Dragon Trilogy is everything that a Hitchcock level suspense is supposed to be; a mystery that has a slow, rising action that draws the viewer in without resorting to big action sequences. There aren't huge explosions; there are action sequences but they are quick and are used to move the story forward, not to become the story on their own.
The first time I sat through "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" I was mesmerized by the performance and the attention to small details, and performances that absolutely stand out. Noomi Rapace delivers a stunning, all cards in performance as Lisbeth, and throughout all of the titles, her performance absolutely shines. While I feel as though "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" is the home-run title, the other two by extension would be solid doubles.
This moment from "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" clearly presented in 1.78:1
For people who've seen the films, the big question is how is the presentation changed. Well, these extended editions don't drag, they often flesh out and provide better context for the movements. I find even at 3hrs, "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" is a tight well woven work that never feels tiresome. What may stand out most, though, is that this presentation has been segmented. Instead of 3 movies, you have "SIx Parts", broken into 6 1:33 minute segments, it provides great stopping points for six straight nights of action/adventure. And when TV in the US is on repeats, this can easily seal off a week.
One of the title card leadins that occur when you reach the beginning of a segment
The capstones and title cards for each segment are uniquely produced, provide us a great feel for these films and act as great leadins. It's no doubt that the trilogy is getting an extended release here in the states in time to match up with the release of the US adaptation of this work. On that same point, I'm sure many will pass on this, waiting for it to be released at the theater with actors they "know". But I have to say that this version for me will always be the definitive version -- the feel of a production made in country gives it a level of authenticity that is hard to recapture. The performances are spot on, and more then that, the heart of the story lends itself to this kind of production. A tale of youth misguided by his nazi-sympathizing older family members who were alive or Hitler Youth during WWII? We sometimes forget how many in around the world were touched by WWII..
The packaging itself is a treat, neatly laid out into a dual-fold slip case, the artwork is spectacular and provides a great look for your library.
The Presentation
Video 2.5 / 5
There is one level of real concern here, and that is that we are provided with 4 Blu-Ray 25 discs, meaning that you get 3 hours of video per each BD. In order to make sure they could get a semi-decent bitrate, there are no extras on any discs, and the menu is very sparse. While I appreciate how fast these discs load - and believe me, they pop up to a menu FAST, and their clean menus make it a pleasure to work with, it leaves little room for effective video. At between 15.3 and 16.9 Mbps, the video at times is not nearly as good as it needs to be. Oh, it's definitely High Def, and as a transfer goes, there are moments where it looks very good - but you always get the feeling that it's not where it should be. Digital artifacts abound, clear signs of over compression and noise mar most scenes.
The Girl Who Played With Fire, also 1.78:1 AR
Michael Reuben, in his prior reviews here had commented that the bitrate didn't satisfy for a 147 minute film on a BD-25. Here, you are presented with a 185 minutes on the same BD-25, with a much heavier DTS-HD Audio track then the prior DD. They simply don't look quite as sharp or crisp as prior versions released - those versions, offered at 25Mbps, offer a noticably better look and so it's unfortunate that these are presented in BD-25, when the room to really allow them to breathe could only be accomplished by BD-50. As you can imagine, if reviewers found fault with the 25Mbps data compression applied to previous editions, this new 15.4Mb compression certainly won't win their hearts and minds.
But why still a 2.5? Because for all the compression, it still looks far better then I expected. I had expected terrible, and frankly, it looks better then the online streamed versions.. though not by much. When I first saw the bitrate counter, I was very concerned this would not look good at all. So, to damn with faint praise: it could have looked much worse, and I've seen BDs with twice the bitrate that didn't look as good.
Audio 4.5 / 5
Increasing to the pressure on disc space is the fact that this is now presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Audio. The audio mix here is VERY good, vocals are solid and easy to understand (well, in Swedish), and the soundtrack makes for an effective setting of scenes. In many moments, direction plays with audio - a chase scene in the woods, the use of ominous heart beats or the sound of wind rustling behind you. I find the soundtrack here to be fantastic, it completely sets the mood for what a suspense thriller should be.
Extras:
Please note, the extras are identical to the previously released extras as set on the Dragon Trilogy BD Set, so I won't rank or rate them as a result. They occupy one BD-25 disc, though the total content on that disc is presented in MPEG2 and occupies less then 4.83Gb.
My Thoughts:
It's hard to give a real number based review for this, because collectors may already have these versions, though not quite organized in this format. Fans of the series may also have the prior single releases, which while not extended are in a higher bitrate and do look better then this presentation. For those that are completists, though, this is a welcome box set and it will be in the must own category. If you've never seen the series, and you want to see it as a long form series, this is a great presentation of the media, and those new to the series may find this presentation from a story standpoint more fulfilling.
The one thing that is true about this, no matter how you look at it is that the reason why these films succeeded is because the story is fantastically told, the direction is spot on, and it features some great performances. And all of the statistics I could provide about the discs themselves wouldn't change anything about that. If you already have the prior releases, though and you're on the fence, the video quality here is going to be a compelling factor to just rent for the differences, there are no extras or anything else to draw you to this title otherwise.
