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Thursday, March 4, 2010

BD impressions: Triangle

11:07 PM / BD Impressions / 2 Comments

I wasn't really a fan of Christopher Smith's first feature, CREEP. Actually, that's putting it mildly: I thought it was, on the whole, dull and not particularly well-made or acted. I haven't seen his middle child, SEVERANCE, yet, but TRIANGLE is a quantum leap forward for him from CREEP. To be honest, saying anything about the plot whatsoever would ruin it completely, as it's one of those films that you really are better off knowing nothing about before watching it. However, I WILL say that he takes a potentially very tricky concept and pulls it off extremely well, aided in no small part by an excellent turn from Melissa George, who has a rather challenging role on her hands. Although the style couldn't be more different, I was reminded on numerous occasions of Kubrick's THE SHINING, if not in terms of quality then certainly in concept. While I found the characterisation and dialogue to be pretty thin (as was also the case with CREEP), and I can see some people finding the premise itself a bit frustrating, this was a pleasant surprise for me, and I definitely recommend giving it a look. Just try to ignore the dodgy CGI and green-screen...

Image quality: TRIANGLE was shot in high definition (Panavision Genesis HD) by Robert Humphreys (who also shot the sublime-looking SOMERSAULT), and it looks very good indeed on this BD from Icon. The level of detail on display is frequently jaw-dropping, and the compression is handled well for the most part, barring a bit of mosquito noise in the ocean and a single major encoding screw-up at 00:39:26. At times, the blacks look rather too grey, but this is by no means a constant issue, so I'm inclined to blame the photography or the colour timing rather than the transfer itself. A very fine-looking disc. 9/10

By the way, the UK release definitely seems to be the one to go for. From these screen captures, it's pretty clear that some scenes in the US version from First Look Studios have been filtered (though oddly enough, others appear unaffected).

Triangle
studio: Icon; country: UK; region code: B; codec: AVC;
file size: 19.8 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 28.74 Mbit/sec

2 Comments

 
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