kal
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Joined: 06 Mar 2006
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Location: Ottawa, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:51 pm Post subject: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [Blu-ray] |
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Another reference disc!
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + UltraViolet Digital Copy) (2012)
(Hover over link for price, click to purchase and support our forum at no extra cost to you)
| Quote: | Is the second better than the first? I'd rate them somewhere in the same ballpark. Maybe 'A Game of Shadows' is a tad better, simply because Holmes is now battling his famous nemesis instead of someone else. Downey's presence is really the reason to get this movie though. He's created his own quirky version of Sherlock Holmes and it really works. He's as fun to watch in these films as he is in the 'Iron Man ' movies and in 'The Avengers.' The audio and video are simply astounding. One wishes that the special features would've been more extensive and exhaustive, but oh well. This one still comes recommended.
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
'Game of Shadows' indeed. This is a very shadowy video presentation that features great detail even though much of the movie is spent lurking in dark places. Warner has offered a 1080p AVC-encoded transfer that looks, well, perfect.
This is a demo-quality transfer through and through. When you can have a movie as dark as this, honestly, I'm pretty sure that there are only a handful of well-lit scenes (the wedding being one of them), the rest of the scenes play out in darkened clubs, alleyways, balconies, parties, and forests. This is a very dark movie with a color palette dominated by grays and blacks. It could've easily been a movie fraught with crushing and banding, but it isn't. Blacks are some of the inkiest you'll ever see on this format. Shadows are perfectly delineated. Just check out the close-ups during the scene where Holmes and Watson sneak into the weapons factory. Even though it's under thick darkness, shadows still accentuate facial features like lines, pores, and stubble. These are easy features to lose in a really dark film, but they aren't lost here. The same holds for textures as well. The woven texture of Watson's suits stand out no matter what lighting situation the guys find themselves in.
The rest of the film follows suit. The few well-lit scenes sparkle with clarity. Skin tones appear to be genuinely natural. This is just a great presentation all around. There wasn't one instance of source noise, not one instance of banding or aliasing that I saw. This is one of the best looking Blu-rays to come out this year.
The Audio: Rating the Sound
The movie's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presentation is just as impressive as the video. Seriously, this is a heavy, thundering audio mix that will grab your eardrums. Booming bass rolls through the soundtrack during many of the movie's intense scenes. As a towering structure comes crashing down in a weapons factory you'll notice the entire room shake like something is falling down on your house.
Sound effects are used with great frequency, especially during the slow-mo action scenes and Holmes' flashback scenes. Whenever Ritchie's signature "wham, bam," sound effects take over they are localized perfectly in the speakers that they need to be in. The slow-motion scene with Watson, Holmes, and others running away from the weapons factory, being fired upon, features some wonderful directionality. Bullets whiz by, the camera stops and watches a bullet splinter a tree trunk as the sound is produced with perfect clarity in the front channels. Explosions happen in front of, to the side of, and behind the characters, each time with the heft of the sound coming from the necessary place in the soundfield.
Like the video the audio will easily impress. Ritchie's soundtracks have always been chock full of special sound effects and there's no difference here. The entire track, from front to rear, is alive with action and doesn't stop until the credits have finished rolling. |
Kal
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