Iron Man

One might expect a comic book movie to be full of heightened colors but Iron Man maintains a fairly realistic look on Blu Ray. It’s kind of cool to see fantastical characters and special effects in a grounded color scheme. It’s not like Transformers where everything looks unusually vibrant.

Desert scenes look like real deserts, not cinematic deserts with special lighting. Street scenes look like real streets, only now big metal monsters are hurling cars at each other. Colors hold up well in nighttime scenes, letting the silver of the Mark II or the complex interaction of battle elements in the finale appear as real things that were photographed in camera, even though they are CGI most of the time.

Iron Man himself is perfectly clear, and details like the scuffs and damage each of the suits endures in combat appear. Of course he’s shiny, as are many things in Tony Stark’s lab, but none of them are pushed to show off. It’s just a polished car has a bright spot, and the Mark III suit in certain angles has a glint, but you would believe they exist in three dimensional reality. That’s clearly the aesthetic they were going for.

Speed Racer

I know I’m the only one who liked this movie, but maybe you’ll all give it another chance on Blu Ray. At least you know it’s going to look great. The visual pallet was made for high definition exhibition.

These are colors that don’t exist. They’ve been fabricated for this cyberworld. Take a world constructed in pastels with everything reflecting off those sources, from the source in pure HD and it looks like this world is real right in front of you. It doesn’t even have to be in 3D. The brain is too busy processing all the colors to care about depth perception.

It’s a beautiful film and when the action revs up, the Blu Ray can preserve all the distinct flashing lines. Those light flashes from impacts and tight turns pop out. All the details of the race tracks, cross country vistas and evil headquarters are there, so everything you thought would look great in hi-def really does. But lots of movies have those details. What really stands out in Speed Racers are the amazing colors, somewhere between pure primary and total pastel.

Daredevil: Director’s Cut

They’ve done the best they could with Daredevil. It wasn’t a particularly well made film, and Blu Ray highlights some of its flaws, but it also preserves its strengths.

Many scenes look artificial with a glazy polish like the Blu Ray’s trying to get details that aren’t there. Many scenes are so darkly lit you still can’t see what’s going on, and Blu Ray’s specialty is detail in darkness. Or maybe there just wasn’t any detail, because they figured those shadows would never be seen.

There is a nice shine to things like Daredevil’s uniform, those things that are supposed to be polished. It’s cool to see on a dark maroon rather than a bright red. He cuts a nice figure in the action scenes. Jennifer Garner’s green eyes glow as they’re enhanced. Colin Farrell’s scenes are gritty in HD clarity. They might have even retouched the visual effects, which looked blurry in theaters and DVD. They still look fake, but no longer blurry.

Blind vision looks pretty cool. Not especially detailed, since it’s only hints of images, but solid. It’s all sharp. I mean, this is probably the best version of Daredevil they could have done. Most importantly, the Coolio scenes look fantastic, and that’s what all the fans are looking for in the director’s cut.

John Carpenter’s The Thing

As the oldest of Universal’s catalog movies yet to come out on Blu Ray, The Thing gives us great hope for more of their releases. This 1981 film holds up with all their new releases. The Antarctic snow is a pure white with details in all the imprints. Closeups on body parts show the distinct hairs sticking out. All the scuff marks on the floor of the station are noticeable.

Bloody gore is shiny as expected, but what’s particularly cool is watching the wisps of smoke steam off of it. The set isn’t particularly colorful but it impacts the lighting with blue and lavender touches. If they can make an old ‘80s B movie look like this, there’s no excuse for anyone else.

The only thing that could be perceived as a negative is that it’s so clear, sometimes the blood looks like corn syrup, but I like that. Of course it was corn syrup, so this clarity is giving us a peak into the process of old school horror. Come on, you can suspend disbelief, right?

Kill Bill

Even with the storage capacity of Blu Ray, they’re still releasing both volumes separately, as theatrically exhibited. Guess we’ll still have to wait for the ultimate composite version. At least the two volumes look awesome.

The opening grindhouse logos of Vol. 1 are curious. They’ve been restored to perfect clarity of their faded glory, with natural scratches and dirt the standout HD details. Vernita Green’s suburbs are insanely bright. Hospital scenes look like ER’s complete seasons probably will in HD.

The anime sequence is fairly muted color-wise. In my slight anime experience, that seems consistent to the aesthetic to me. Hanzo’s sword shop is packed with detail, particularly the multi-colored handles of his weapons. The House of Blue Leaves kind of has normal colors so the yellow track suit and the blood spatters stand out. The snow looks like artificial flakes on a soundstage, a detail much more pronounced in hi-def.

The black and white openings of both volumes is amazingly distinct. Then the actual wedding scene in Vol. 2 is grainy. Man, you can see all the different cinematic effects Tarantino was using.

The desert vistas are totally clear, with a reddish hue. The Pai Mei flashback is grainy but clear, a weird hybrid of ‘70s homage and modern restoration. All the trashy details of Budd’s trailer are as clear as the ornate ones of Bill’s villa, and the gore of the squishy feety eye goo.

It actually makes the slower paced Vol. 2 easier to sit through because you’re looking at all the visual details. Throughout both films, the ladies look fantastic, especially Uma with all her crusty blood and dirt caked on her face. Even the Tarantino close-ups of her feet.

The Godfather

It took a lot less time to get these classics on Blu Ray than it did on DVD. Remember that petition? Parmount has so far done better by their catalog releases than their newer ones, Transformers notwithstanding. While films like The Untouchables and Trading Places had shocking detail and color, The Godfather strives more to replicate the original look, not enhance it.

The opening Paramount logo has been colored sepia. That’s awesome. Otherwise, they haven’t gone overboard. Many scenes preserve the natural film grain so it still looks like The Godfather. They go easy on the colors so the wedding isn’t suddenly all bright and vibrant. It’s just clear.

When they go to Italy you start to see more detail in ornate buildings and the countryside. It’s still not enhanced, but it’s starting to show off what original theatrical exhibitions might have looked like. Part II looks pretty much the same. It was only made two years later, so it’s the exact same aesthetic.

Part III, if anyone cares, is a little shinier, a little more vibrant. It’s modern day so there’s a polish to the cities, to the churches, to the old age makeup. They’ve kept it consistent with the previous two so that it’s not a huge shock. It’s not like going from The Godfather to Transformers. It reinforces that the presentation of the first two films was deliberate, and that Blu Ray doesn’t have to shock and awe. It can just preserve.

If you’re still not convinced, pop in the standard DVD. You think it’ll upconvert the same? No, it looks like a first generation dub. Holds up, sure, but you’ll see the value in going Blu.

Heroes

HDTV is not as HD as Blu Ray, so when I watch Heroes each week, it’s only a little better than normal TV. Blu Ray makes Heroes look much grittier. All the city scenes have a crisp blueness and all the details of concrete, gravel and other building materials stand out.

Lighting and shadow are also more pronounced. Normally television lights flat, because they just need you to see everything and do lots of setups quickly. Heroes looks more like a movie, not like David Fincher elaborate but definitely noticeable uses of light in the frame.

Standing sets like Mohinder Soresh’s apartment, the Bennet household and others have slightly more detail, probably because they were constructed with more details since they’d be used a lot. They could set permanent light, color and other fun tidbits. Other locations are a bit more rushed since they’re only used once. Still awesome on Blu Ray of course, just something to notice in the intricate detail.

TV is also about actors’ faces. There are lots of close-ups. The younguns shine with their smooth baby faces, and the supporting elders show their life experiences, but it is glorious detail. That’s a character sharpness I don’t get on Charter.

It’s interesting to see the alternate ending to Season Two. Since they had three simultaneous units shooting, they shot the virus outbreak before deciding to close the season with its prevention. Four minutes into the 18 minute clip, the virus gets out. It ends with a different press conference, but still Nathan in trouble. A quarantine story with superheroes might have been cooler than Outbreak, but it doesn’t seem we’re missing too much. Just a cool alternate reality glimpse in the world of Heroes.


Night Watch/Day Watch

These Russian movies look as good as the standard current movie with a little bit of indie grit. They’re not totally polished like studio movies, though they have the visuals to match. Perhaps that’s intentional, but the gist is you get a clear picture, some shiny stuff and some touches of color.

I mean, a lot of Night Watch takes place in a slummy apartment. Not much to look out. It’s not even scenic Russia, it’s the crusty parts. Some vehicles and uniforms add a bit of color, and sweaty brows shine a lot. The visual effects totally pop. They’re the added elements which are perfect, set against the gritty backdrop.

Day Watch has a bunch more shiny parts. The historical China sequence is lavish and golden. There’s a whiter pallet with snowbound scenes and stark meeting quarters. It provides some crisp settings for action sequences. All the cruddy parts are still there, there’s just a few more things to look at.

Unfortunately, you lose the coolest part of the theatrical experience. In theaters, the subtitles interacted with the film. Now they’re standard electronic subtitles on the bottom. That’s a bummer.


Forgetting Sarah Marshall

This Hawaii set comedy has a glossy sort of polish on Blu Ray. It’s not the Hawaii you see on HDNET bikini shows. The ocean is a deep blue and the brush is a mild green. Nothing quite pops, but it’s all solid. It would seem like a potential visual treat for an otherwise simple comedy, but it’s kind of toned down. It’s almost like Hawaii was too much for Blu Ray, but more likely it was just the aesthetic of the film and the actual filming materials they used.

It’s actually the Hollywood scenes that look sharper. Also not extravagant, even in red carpet sequences, but it does look like those locations when you pass them by. The Dracula musical looks like you have a front row seat to live theater. Jason Segal will be happy to know that his schlong looks enormous and healthy in hi-def.

Hulk

This is the original Eric Bana one, not the new Edward Norton one. I never thought it looked cheesy. I always bought into it, and it certainly holds up on Blu Ray. It’s also one of the most clear Blu Rays I’ve ever seen. Just basic lab scenes and institutional hallways are perfect. But that’s not what you’re watching Hulk for.

Hulk definitely looks like a real entity, being CGI in a practical world. He’s a little blockier than the new one but he’s still a convincing Hulk. You can see details in his face just like in the actor’s close-ups with pores and wrinkles. His green is even subtle, blending in with shadows and not standing out ridiculously in broad daylight.

The split screens, however much they worked for you, don’t seem to lose any resolution when they decrease the window. It’s just a smaller portion of clarity. Then you have desert landscapes and San Francisco as Hulk’s perfectly clear and colorful playgrounds.

Dawn of the Dead/Land of the Dead

Universal is putting out their two recent zombie movies on Blu Ray. Two different aesthetics, the modern fast running zombies in present day vs the original George Romero zombies in a post-apocalyptic future. Same great Blu Ray editions.

Dawn’s main setting of the mall has a green florescent hue, except in very specific stores. Characters stand out from that green with their outfits, even the makeup for women. It’s kind of the like the horror equivalent of Michael Bay’s orange hue. Since this Dawn plays like an action movie, it’s appropriate.

Now malls don’t have a lot of detail to see. The point here is the crispness of images to glorify the production value. Opening shots of suburbia are awesome though. That overhead shot of the van slamming into the car and the gas station finally looks right on an HDTV like it did in theaters.

The main set of Land is the walled in city, though they venture out a lot more. It’s got gritty ghettos and a shiny luxury tower, both with more detail to observe. Romero sticks to a normal lighting scheme to just display all his production value.

Most of the film takes place at night, which takes advantage of Blu Ray’s ability to show detail at night. You won’t miss any of his gore shots, or any of the Mad Max-y equipment and gunplay. It shows Universal is handling their recent movies as well as their classics.