kal
Forum Administrator
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 18114
Location: Ottawa, Canada
TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:01 am Post subject: Snowpiercer |
|
|
Snowpiercer
Disclaimer: Using the affiliate links above helps support our forum at no extra cost to you. CurtPalme.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
| Quote: | For once, there's a movie that deserves all of the fanboy hype it's received. 'Snowpiercer' is a creative, original and thought-provoking social commentary film that's disguised as a futuristic action thriller. Yes, there's action and, yes, it's thrilling – but there's so much more to it than that. It contains everything required of a noteworthy film: an excellent screenplay, a capable director, strong actors (Chris Evans actually delivers one of his best performances to date), characters worth giving a damn about, et cetera. The Blu-ray itself contain near-perfect audio and video – the flaws being minor and inconsistent – and enough special features to warrant them being housed on a second Blu-ray disc. With a high amount of rewatchability, the 'Snowpiercer' Blu-ray comes highly recommended.
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
'Snowpiercer' features a 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode and a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. It's not entirely perfect, but it's almost there. The only faults stem from the low budget shining through.
Because there's so little wrong with the video quality, let's start with its flaws. These issues are hardly consistent and they're not fatal - but they're there. Both stem from the movie's overtly dark beginning. In the rear section of the train, there are no windows. Its passengers haven't seen daylight in 17 years. Sporadically throughout the first act, you'll notice instances of crushing and some inconsistencies with black levels due to contrast issues. The constrast faults will leave some should-be black areas of the screen looking gray. Aside from those mostly first-act flaws, the rest of the picture quality is fantastic.
Sharp details are ever-present. The tail-enders live in absolute poverty. As we tour their filthy cabin, you'll see the detail put into the high quality set decoration, including stains, smudges and tattered clothing fibers. Shots of the actors' faces reveal grease and grime embedded into their individual facial pores. Bloodbath battles feature soaring spatter. The tiniest individual droplets can be seen amongst the globs. The details never let up.
The dreary back section is almost entirely void of colors. The palette is black and gray with accents of warm lighting. As we move forward through the train, the palette gets more and more colorful. One nightclub car features explosive neon lights. An orange sauna section of the train carries a glowing vibrancy. Crushing pops up a little bit more in the end, but not often and not nearly as much as the first act.
The Audio: Rating the Sound
'Snowpiercer' carries a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks that's also nearly perfect. The film kicks off with an opening credits sequence that allows the fitting score to boom through all channels. Once we get into the train, the natural creaks and rattles can be heard randomly emitting from different speakers. Effects are always well-mixed like this. Be it gunfire, clanking metallic weapons during chaotic barbaric battles or the expected train sounds, the effects are always fantastically mixed. Great amounts of rumbly bass and LFE are peppered throughout the track.
The vocal mix is where the one flaw lies. The levels are always great. No dialog is lost. Background "peanut gallery" dialog is fun to hear as it plays through the back speakers. Because of the boxcar settings, during scenes where voices are projected loudly through the car, the voices sound narrowly confined. It's a fantastic small touch that adds to the experience. The only problem comes from dialog being flatly mixed when it absolutely shouldn't be. An instance will offer an opportunity for voices to be spread through the channels, but they will be flatly confined to the front instead. Luckily, just like the video flaws, this one audio flaw is rare. |
Kal
_________________
Support our site by using our affiliate links. We thank you!
My basement/HT/bar/brewery build 2.0
|
|
