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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

BD impressions: Jenta som lekte med ilden

3:20 PM / BD Impressions / 8 Comments

For my thoughts on the film itself, please see my previous post. A quick summary:

It's hard to put my finger on why, but THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE definitely FEELS like a TV movie rather than a theatrical production. Perhaps it's the overly dialogue-driven nature of the narrative (lengthy scenes unfold in which one will character simply sit and talk to another about events which occurs in the past, with no visual cues whatsoever) or the near complete lack of action (a car chase and a narrow escape from a burning barn aside). Or perhaps it's the fact that this is clearly the middle child in a trilogy, setting up a whole lot of strands that will hopefully be tied up in the third instalment, and therefore feeling less like a stand-alone event than a stepping stone in a lengthy serial. Either way this is not, as some have suggested, a pale shadow of the first film, though in any event I didn't think part one was as great as many claimed. Either way the ending, almost as open-ended as that of the novel, will doubtless disappoint some but left me eagerly anticipating THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST...

As with THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, the Norwegian BD release (the same disc was also released in Sweden and Finland) does not contain any English subtitles. However, HTPC users can easily download some gramatically dubious but perfectly coherent subtitles and sync them up using Media Player Classic Home Cinema or another suitable player.

Image quality: Unfortunately, the encoder didn't cope at all well with the drop to 16mm. The fact that, unlike the previous film, this one has been crammed on to a single-layer BD-25 doesn't help matters either. The bit rate is woefully inadequate throughout, and artefacting is a continual problem, albeit affecting some scenes worse than others. 16mm can look perfectly good in high definition (just look at THE COUNTERFEITERS or the Middle Eastern sections of BABEL), but it needs room to breathe - something it didn't get here. It's serviceable up to a point, and I've seen far worse, but it's far from a shining example of the BD format. 7/10

Jenta som lekte med ilden
studio: Nordisk Film; country: Norway; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 21.1 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 23.35 Mbit/sec

8 Comments

 
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