Monday, August 2, 2010

Just arrived...

6:27 PM / Blu-ray / Comments13 Comments

BD

DET FEMTE ELEMENT [THE FIFTH ELEMENT] (BD, SF Film, Region B, Denmark)

Hmm, Sony's US re-release doesn't look quite so spectacular any more...

The Fifth Element

 
13 Comments

1. Kram Sacul said:

Too bad it looks like someone left it out in the sun.

(Posted on Monday, August 2, 2010 at 7:41 PM)

2. Kentai said:

I seem to remember the Sony and Canal DVD masters having different color timing too. I don't really know if the yellow/contrasty "look" is intentional manipulation, or just the nature of the beast.

That said, LEON looked much the same on BD as the new TFE disc does, and that's just how Besson wanted it...

(Posted on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 1:06 AM)

3. FoxyMulder said:

Visually an impressive film which i gave two stars out of ten on IMDB, the reason is i just cannot stand Chris Tucker in this movie, if not for his annoying "comedy" i would probably give the film a solid 7.

(Posted on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 1:51 PM)

4. Bleddyn Williams said:

I can see the merits and demerits of the new version, but just had to face facts -

I bought the Superbit version of this film, and upgraded to the remastered Sony BD. That's enough, because while this film is fun, its not worth spending anymore money on in my book. I've upgraded plenty of films in my time, but have to apply some restraint somewhere.

...and Chris fucking Tucker makes this easy!

(Posted on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 3:16 PM)

5. David S.H. said:

Well I've only bought this on VHS and DVD so this looks a pretty good option for the Blu-ray upgrade.
Can I ask where you imported Danish version from Michael? Any language issues navigating the menus?

(Posted on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 4:22 PM)

6. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Kentai:

I believe it was confirmed on Home Theater Forum that Luc Besson personally approved the new LEON transfer. All the recent transfers of Besson's films have had the contrast boosted (including SUBWAY and NIKITA), so I'm inclined to believe this is simply how he wants them to look now. Can't say I'm particularly happy about it, but I suppose it's his prerogative.


David:

I got mine from dvdoo.dk. The menus are actually in English - the only setup you need to do is disable the subtitles before starting the film.

(Posted on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 11:44 PM)

7. Kram Sacul said:

I had a feeling that was the answer. Bummer. The detail does seem to be fantastic though.

(Posted on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 12:51 AM)

8. Kentai said:

I wonder if Besson likes the blown-out contrast because it makes it look more like an actual release print? Whatever the negative may look like, if his opinion is that the literal theatrical experience circa 1997 is what matters, then I guess TFE looks about perfect.

I can't understand why he'd want to do that when Blu-ray offers him more natural contrast, but as you said it's his film, and thus his to dictate how it should appear on home video.

Kinda-sorta-unrelated, but THE FRENCH CONNECTION looks absolutely dreadful on BD. Saw it for $15 (with Patton*) and figured the special features alone were worth that. The Technicolor inspired smeared/desaturated colors are bad enough on their own, but the contrast boosting just makes the underlying problems that much worse.

*Patton certainly has some DVNR issues, but it's nowhere near as bad I was expecting. I only *wish* Dawn of the Dead, American Psycho and The Terminator looked half that good...

(Posted on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 5:35 AM)

9. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

I think "The French Connection" BD offers a great visual presentation, so I'm very much sided with Robert Harris there (in his review), but I would most certainly love to have on BD the way the film originally looked. I'm fine with a director tinkering with things the way they please as long as the original is offered in the finest quality possible. (It's like with how I recently bought the redone "Batman: The Killing Joke" comic with new colors by the artist, though I now want to have one of the earlier reprintings as well to have the original coloring.)

(Posted on Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 9:41 PM)

10. Steini said:

So, if I understand this correctly, there are three different transfers on Blu-ray? What are the differences between the US re-release and this one?

(Posted on Monday, August 9, 2010 at 5:45 PM)

11. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Steini:

The difference is that this Scandinavian release is taken from a completely new master created at around the same time as those for LEON, NIKITA, etc. I still think that both Sony's releases (the horrible original one and the better-looking re-release) actually came from the same master, but that the second one was simply subjected to less tampering. The re-release certainly seems to have come from a 1080i source originally (remnants of combing are visible in numerous frames - see here), and I would be very surprised if Sony created a 1080i master in 2007 intended for a BD release.

The main draw of the Scandinavian release is less edge enhancement and more true detail, and a generally more film-like appearance. This comes at the expense of some noticeable contrast boosting, although it's nothing like as bad as LEON in that regard.

(Posted on Monday, August 9, 2010 at 5:54 PM)

12. Kram Sacul said:

The Sony remaster has different framing and geometry than the first release so that would point to them being from different transfers.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=10979045&postcount=35

(Posted on Monday, August 9, 2010 at 9:26 PM)

13. David Mackenzie said:

>> Hmm, Sony's US re-release doesn't look quite so spectacular any more...

Did it ever?

(Posted on Monday, August 9, 2010 at 11:59 PM)

 
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