Cirque du Soleil: Journey Of Man in 3D (2000/IMAX/Sony Blu-ray 3D w/Blu-ray 2D)
3D
Picture: B+ 2D Picture: B Sound: B
Extras: D Feature: B-
Cirque du Soleil has become a phenomenon and seems
to be in a new period of popularity where the work (ever expanding to new kinds
of shows) has gained increasingly larger audiences as they move their
performers across the country and beyond in various shows. The
Beatles - Love show helped this expansion and among other new venues, they
have issued yet another one of their performances on Blu-ray and their first in
the Blu-ray 3D format, choosing an IMAX release: Keith Melton’s Journey Of Man in 3D. At
first, this may seem like the early sequences of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the IMAX short Ring Of Fire or other such “rise of man” visuals, but it moves on
into fantasy territory and has some amazing performances.
There is
limited dialogue and this is also here in 2D, which plays just fine, but it is
designed for and takes advantage of the 3D format in a way that makes it worth
seeing that way and you get more out of it because of the clever way this is
designed. Running 39 minutes, this is
about as long as any other IMAX short and as satisfying as the better ones
(which are many) demonstrating an interesting use of casuals, an advanced use
of color and other interesting visuals (swimming fish while underwater) to
create a world onto itself like all the Cirque du Soleil programs do, making
this one of the first special interest releases in Blu-ray 3D and one with demo
material any such system should have.
Fans of the troupe will consider it a must own no matter what.
The 1080p
MVC-encoded 1.78 X 1 3-D – Full Resolution digital High Definition image on the
Blu-ray 3D version and 1080p digital High Definition image on the 2D Blu-ray
version come from a 65mm film negative IMAX Solido Dual Strip 3D shoot that holds
up very well 11 years later. The makers do
not gut the color, detail or definition.
Instead, they push all those factors in ways that embarrass many HD-shot
feature films (and lesser HD 3D shoots) that try to be fancy and fall on their
face in the process. I like the 3D more
because it offers more, but the 2D (save some moments where edges are soft
since this was a 3D shoot and trading down to 2D sometimes does not work as
well) also looks good. The DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.0 lossless mix has a consistent soundfield, is well recorded,
well mixed and is warm throughout, though the mix is not as intense as the 5.1
mix on the DVD of The Beatles - Love DVD-Audio/CD set which features
regular DTS 5.1 and even better MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing for those who
have the player and receiver to play that rarely-produced format) 5.1 sound
mixes that remain the best digital representation of The Fab Four’s music to
date sonically. I like the sound and it
enhances the visuals instead of trying to outdo them or become gimmicky and can
imagine this going through the 64-speaker system at a 70mm IMAX theater. Sir Ian McKellan narrates.
There are sadly no extras, but you can read about the
Blu-ray for the Cirque du Soleil’s
Corteo at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7641/Cirque+du+Soleil%E2%80%99s+Corte
-
Nicholas Sheffo
