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Sunday 3 June 2012

Weekly Blu Ray Review: Warrior, Iron Sky, Predator, Predator 2, Toy Story and Tarzan

Continuing the new weekly blog post I started last week, again I will be reviewing all of the blu rays I have watched throughout week. Again the numerical rating is not to with the quality of the film itself but of the quality of the blu ray. Also if I have reviewed a film on a previous weekly blog post and then watched it again, I won't review it again on another post, that would be wasting both your time and mine.

Here's an overview of the blu rays I've watched this week:

Warrior (2011)
This was easily one of the best films released last year, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are brilliant in it. The blu ray release of this is almost of great as the film itself, especially during the fight scenes, you can clearly see every emotion, every bead of sweat, it looks really good, the only thing that lets it is that when there's a dark scene, like one set at night, there are a few sections that a bit fuzzy, a bit grated, it kind of lets it down. Overall it's really good, it's just disappointing that the quality isn't consistent throughout. 8/10.

Iron Sky (2012)
For a non-mainstream film, it looks really good. Even though the films quite dark in places, the quality stays the same throughout, I've noticed that with a few blu rays, when it gets darker, it tends to get fuzzy, this one doesn't fall into that trap. The one thing that looks really good is the actors faces, you can see every detail, every emotion. The only place where the quality falls is with some of the scenes on the Moon, which may also be due to some bad visual effects. The film even comes with a digital copy, although as usual it is in standard definition, but for a non-mainstream film I can forgive them for that. Altogether it is definitely worth getting on blu ray, check out full review of 'Iron Sky' posted on 30th May. For blu ray quality, I'd give this film 9/10.

Predator (1987) Ultimate Edition
This film is a classic, one of Schwarzenegger's best films, when I saw this blu ray on special offer, my debit card slipped and it was bought, along with 'Predator 2'. The blu ray does the film justice, everything looks really good, I was worried because trees and bushes are the most common things that are lazily brushed over, they tend to come out fuzzy, but not with this one, everything is crystal clear. The only complaints I have are with how the Predator in its active camouflage looks, but that only looks bad because the films 25 years old. I mean the effects don't look bad, just a bit dated, and the blu ray brings that out. Also the sound quality isn't that much different from the DVD, it also comes with the same special features as the DVD. The special features are also quite good, with interview from the cast, an introduction to the Predator and its design and a look into the special effects. So I'd give 'Predator' on blu ray an 8/10, mostly because there wasn't a single blurry moment throughout the whole film.

Predator 2 (1990)
Danny Glover stars in the sequel to Schwarzenegger's classic 'Predator', which, as I mentioned above looks really good on blu ray, and I can confirm that this one does too. It's looks and sounds about the same as 'Predator', but there are a few minor moments where it's blurry, it's hardly noticeable to be quite honest. Some of the special effects look really good too, with the exception of a few (the film is 22 years old so we must bare that in mind) including the plasma blaster, but that is  a result of the change in design, it looks more like he's shooting a rocket at them. Again the sound could have been better, but it still sounds pretty good. The special features are really good, they take you through all of the complicated scenes where the Predator is in camouflage and explained to us how they achieved the final result. There's also a section that explains how different the Predator is from one in the first movie, and they go through its equipment, talking about how they work differently in the film, and how they're designed and made differently so that they're more practical fr the actor to use. I'm going to give 'Predator 2' a 7.5/10, a really good blu ray for the collection.

Toy Story (1995)
This is one of my favourite childhood movies, I was watching it on Thursday and all I could think about was how much I still love it, and this is possibly the best blu ray I've seen so far. Everything is sharp and bright, and it sounds great! For a movie with such a good soundtrack, they really went to town on it. There's also a decent amount of special features on it, it's the first animated film I've watched on blu ray, and I'm really impressed. Not much more I can say about it, nothing bad least, so I'm going to give 'Toy Story' 10/10.

Tarzan (1999)
This blu ray is such a disappointment! I love the movie, but you know they've been lazy when the main menu is in better definition than the actual movie. I'm being serious, the menu looks great, all defined, and bright and colourful, but the film just looks like a DVD rip. They've wasted an opportunity with the sound as well, because that sounds like it's straight off the DVD too, which is a real shame because the soundtrack by Phil Collins is one of them best soundtracks in Disney's collection (in my opinion). It says its supposed to have the same picture quality as 'Toy Story', but it really doesn't, and just looking at the description, you can see the difference in the effort that the converters of 'Toy Story' have put into the sound on their blu ray compared to whoever did it for 'Tarzan'. It doesn't even come with a decent amount of special features.So overall, it's a wasted opportunity and a lazy piece of work, it gets a 2/10 (and I'm being generous).

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