The New Feature I Mentioned On Twitter

I was having a conversation with Grant the other day about the new Blu-ray/Surround Sound System he purchased. He had it all set up and asked what the most audibly and visually impressive movie I had seen on the format was. I gave it some thought and I didn't really give him an answer, or rather I gave him 30 (ish) answers. You see, up to that point, I hadn't really considered that there are tons of movies out there that I had no interest in genre-wise that were probably glorious on Blu-ray. We have this amazing way to present films and the technology is such that filmmakers can take full advantage of it and I've had my system for a year and I had barely scratched the surface.

So I considered the movies that I had seen and hit the internet to do some more research. What I found was that there are people out there who take this stuff really seriously. Like really seriously. I'm not really one of those people, I don't know anything about audio/video encoding, audio formats, bitrates or megahertzes. What I do know is that I like movies and I can tell when something looks and sounds awesome. During my research I stumbled upon a list of films ranked by their video and audio quality by the crazy people who know all about this shit and have better systems than me. So I compiled a list for Grant of 30(ish) movies spanning 14 genres so he could pick his favorites. And that's when I had the epiphany I mentioned so I decided to watch all the movies on the list I sent to Grant that I had not already seen.

For reference, here is the list I sent Grant:

Animated
Coraline
Ratatouille

Sci-Fi
Sunshine
Blade Runner (Final Cut)

Western
3:10 To Yuma
There Will Be Blood

Mythic Fantasy
The Fountain
The Fall

Dark Fantasy
Sin City
Planet Terror

Action Fantasy
Transformers (or Transformers 2 or both)
Watchmen (because super hero was already full)

Thriller
No Country For Old Men
Tell No One

Modern Action
Shoot 'Em Up
Casino Royale

Period Action
Apocalypto
Hero

Horror
30 Days of Night
The Host

Super Hero
Iron Man
Batman/Dark Knight

Documentary
Planet Earth
Baraka

Pirates
PotC (all, because pirates fucking rule)

War
Black Hawk Down
Rescue Dawn

--

This is not a list of movies that I think are awesome (though many are) and the genres are assigned loosely in spots, but that's not what this is about. These movies take advantage of the Blu-ray format in such a way that they stand out from other films on Blu-ray. The ones in bold are one that I have already seen on Blu-ray. I have seen some of the other ones but only on DVD.

Now, some of you likely couldn't give a shit on what format your movie is presented because you believe that ultimately audio and picture quality are secondary to good story and good direction. And some of you probably don't care about Blu-ray because you're not going to spend a grand on a player and surround sound system and perhaps two more grand on a new TV to take advantage of the system. But for those of you who do have Blu-ray players and systems that take advantage of the format (or are thinking of getting one), you should not only check out that link above but also read this if you want an ordinary guy's take on it.

The first movie I received from Netflix:

Sunshine

I had never heard of the 2007 British sci-fi flick, but every Blu-ray forum I checked said that regardless of whether or not you like the genre you should experience it on the format. So I queued it up first.


Starring:
Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins/Dark Knight)
Chris Evans (Fantastic Four 1 & 2/Push)
Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies/tons of Kung-fu movies)
Cliff Curtis (Live Free or Die Hard/The Fountain)
and approximately 5 other actors who you may have never heard of but were all very good.

Extras Include:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Production Diaries
Short Films (very cool)
Enhanced Viewing Mode with the Filmmakers (which is a sort-of Picture-in-picture thing with the movie and behind the scenes stuff or interviews playing concurrently)
Journey Into Sound: Surround Sound Enhancement (allows you to move the audio around you in a surround sound setting. Pretty neat.)
HD Trailer
Fox crap

The story is pretty straightforward and starts with a bunch of pieces already in place. The sun is dying and "top scientists" have built a "stellar bomb" that will restart it. Our 8 heroes are on a mission to deliver the payload. That's basically the long and short of it.

I'm pretty tired of the monsters in space genre of Sci-fi and I was glad to see that this movie was more about human nature and god vs. science than anything else. But there is still plenty of action and ultimately a villain, of sorts.

With only 8 cast members, the surroundings become almost as important as the actors themselves. And in this regard, Sunshine does not disappoint. Basically everything about this film is beautiful. The scenes are stunning, the ship is realistic and the props are well done. Most of the CGI is space and not ship which is much appreciated. Though there are a couple scenes with interactive computers and a "holodeck" for lack of a better word, but even these are very believable. It's not hacky at all.

The audio will knock your balls off. The music and sound effects are used to set the mood very effectively. As movie-goers, we have been so inundated by background music in movies that we hardly even notice it anymore. And when we do notice it, it's because it doesn't fit or it's absent. You don't think not having background music would be a big deal, but when used right it can be as suspenseful as really well done music.

The last, like, 5 minutes were a little strange and I'm not sure what was going on with gravity (or even reality for that matter) but it sort of turned into MC Escher in Space. I think it has something to do with quantum mechanics or general relativity or something sciency. The ending might be overly tidy for some, but what's the point of watching people struggle if there's no pay-off.

All in all, I liked this movie very much. If you are a sci-fi fan I think you will enjoy it. It feels more like 2001 than anything else. Or Moon, if you've seen that. It is absolutely beautiful to look at and listen to, it's a shining example of what the Blu-ray format is all about and if you have a player, you should rent/Netflix it right away. The crazy people on the internet were not wrong to recommend this movie so highly.

Audio: 10
Video: 8
Story: 6.5 (Director Danny Boyle goes all film-school at the 49 minute mark but it's brief)

I give it 3.5 out 5 tacos. Food in place of stars so no one pulls an irony muscle.

A much more technical review can be found here, for you A/V nerds.

(This feature will be much shorter going forward, but thanks for reading if you got this far.)

Next up: The Fountain