DC's
Legends Of Tomorrow: The Complete First Season
(2015 - 2016/Warner Blu-ray Set)/DC
SuperHero Girls: Hero Of The Year
(2016/Warner DVD)/Hee Haw:
The Collector's Edition
(1969 - 1973/Time Life DVD Box Set)/The
Huntsman: Winter's War
(2016/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray + Blu-ray w/DVD
Sets)/Lucifer: The
Complete First Season
(2015 - 2016/DC Comics/Vertigo/Warner DVD Set)/The
Wonder Years: The Complete Series
(1988 - 1993/Time Life DVD Standard Box Set)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/C+/C+/B & C+/C+/C Sound:
B/C+/C+/B+ & C+/C+/C Extras: C+/C-/C-/C/C/B Main
Programs: C+/C+/C+/C/C/C+
Here's
a look at a new wave of fantasy, comedy, family and franchise
releases, from the big screen to television, old and new...
DC's
Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete First Season
(2015 - 2016) brings together some characters previously shown in
other DC series, add new ones and have them traveling thru time and
space as if it were a Star
Trek
spinoff meets Guardians
Of The Galaxy,
but on the lite side to some extent. The material is
comical-leaning, though some might like that after so many too-dark
entries in the genre, its too much for me despite a really good cast.
I like
Dominic Purcell (Heat Wave, then...), Wentworth Miller (Captain Cold)
and Victor Garber (half of Firestorm), plus Brandon Routh finally
finds a good fit as The Atom. They are joined by White Canary,
Vixen, the upgraded Hawkman & Hawkgirl and led by Rip Hunter.
The mostly unknown (until now) fellow actors are up to the task.
We
also get the classical Jonah Hex (versus the theatrical film
supernatural version that did not work) at one point, Lance Henriksen
(Millennium,
Aliens)
adds to the show and we get visits from Arrow
and Flash
characters too. However, you have to be a big fan of the whole
family of characters to get the most out of the show, but you can
tell the makers love the world, characters and material as much as
the actors, so the energy and fun is real. This 2-Blu-ray disc set
has all 16 episodes and is as high quality as the fans would expect.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other
cyber iTunes capable devices
and print episode guide inside the disc case, while the Blu-rays add
DC's Legends of Tomorrow: 2015 Comic-Con Panel,
Jonah Hex: Hex Marks the Spot,
A
Fantastic Voyage: Touring the Waverider Set,
History
in the Making
featurettes and a Gag Reel.
DC
SuperHero Girls: Hero Of The Year
(2016) is a new animated comedy project (possibly a pilot) that has
all of the publishers female superheroes and villains going to high
school in an attempt to come up with a competitor to Bratz, Barbie
and the new teen Dora. Young versions of Wonder
Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Harley Quinn, Bumblebee, Poison Ivy,
Katana and others meet each other for the first time. Needless to
say it stretches credibility and realism, to is consistent for what
it is and is not bad in that. Male DC characters also show up, but
this runs under 80 minutes, is really aimed at a young audience and
might just get it.
The
only extras are six animated shorts: Hero
of the Month: Wonder Woman, Fall into Super Hero High, Hero of the
Month: Bumblebee, Hero of the Month: Poison Ivy, Clubbing
and Saving
the Day.
Hee
Haw: The Collector's Edition
(1969 - 1973/Time Life DVD Box Set) expands on and includes the
Collection 7-DVD set I reviewed here...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13695/A+La+Mala+(2015/Lionsgate+DVD)/The+Encore
We
get an expanded version of Kornfed
Klassics
(a single disc version was issued earlier in 2016) which gives us
more of the same corny jokes (they were so trying to be Laugh-In,
but with little point) offering 6 DVDs with 12 episodes. Jerry Lee
Lewis, Conway Twitty, Lynn Anderson, Waylon Jennings, Roy Rogers,
Dale Evans, Roger Miller, Loretta Lynn, Bill Anderson, Tanya Tucker
(singing ''Delta Dawn''!), Tammy Wynette, Kitty Wells, Mickey Gilley,
Melba Montgomery, Freddie Fender and Johnny Cash supply the music
through these choice shows. The single DVD Laffs!
Collection
is a collection of favorite skits by fans and the makers of the show.
Though
that might not be the full season sets die hard fans might want, it
is a solid if repetitive set that gives one an idea of the show at
its early peak (it did go on a bit too long) and as was the case
before, booklets on each of the contents inside each DVD case are the
only extras. The 1.33 X 1 color picture and lossy Dolby Digital 5.1
upgrades are consistent with the quality we covered before. They
represent nice attempts to upgrade the materials, but the limits
show.
Cedric
Nicolas-Troyan's The
Huntsman: Winter's War
(2016) is the sequel to the surprise hit Snow
White & The Huntsman,
in another attempt to do a darker take on that mythos and as a not
unsimilar Sigourney Weaver 1997 theatrical film (which landed up
qualifying as a TV project too, oddly) where Weaver got acclaim for a
film few saw. With Kristen Stewart (and some off-screen controversy)
gone, Chris Hemsworth (Thor) is back as the main title character,
joined by Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain against a very formidable
foe in Charlize Theron.
This
all sounds good and possibly like a sequel that could outdo the
original, but sadly, the talent exceeds the script and in either
version here (a longer 2 hours or 6-minutes shorter cut), this just
drags on too much and offers nothing new to the genre, no matter the
money on the screen (its there) or the undeniable talent that also
includes Nick Frost. I waited to see if this would pick up, but it
never does, though I can see why Universal would make this its first
day-and-date 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray title since it makes for a decent
demo and not enough people saw it. Thus, see it for the actors and
the few moments that work if you must, particularly in 4K, but I was
disappointed.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other
cyber iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds Blu-ray
exclusive featurettes Two
Queens and Two Warriors,
Meet
the Dwarfs
and Magic
All Around
while both formats (including DVD) Deleted Scenes with Commentary,
Gag Reel, featurettes Dressed
To Kill
and Love
Conquers All
and a feature-length audio commentary by director Cedric
Nicolas-Troyan.
Lucifer:
The Complete First Season
(2015 - 2016) is another one-joke TV series despite being based on
the Vertigo/DC Comic created by Neil Gaiman. Playing like another
Constantine
to some extent, Tom Ellis is a Satan under a new name having fun in
the sin... sun and darkness of Hollywood. Right there we''re in
trouble. Then the episodes run on and on as he may have to go back
to actual hell (no obvious jokes please) and this runs a predictable,
cynical, unlucky 13 episodes. Maybe someone will like this, but it
went nowhere for me and is for fans only at best.
Extras
include a
print episode guide inside the disc case, while the DVDs add Lucifer:
2015 Comic-Con Panel, Character Profile: Amenadiel, Character
Profile: Linda, Character Profile: Chloe Decker, Character Profile:
Dan, Devilish
Duo, Lucifer Morningstar,
Deleted Scenes and a Gag Reel.
And
finally
we have The
Wonder Years: The Complete Series
(1988 - 1993),
now reissued in a simpler DVD box set versus the special metal locker
packaging we covered at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13070/The+Wonder+Years+-+The+Complete+Series+(19
We
also covered most of the separate seasons as follows....
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13274/Kill+Or+Cure+(1962/MGM/Warner+Archive+DVD
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13587/The+Wonder+Years:+Season+3+(1989+-+1990/Ti
Four
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14112/The+Wonder+Years:+Season+Four+(1990+-+1991
Five
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14217/The+Wonder+Years:+Season+Five+(1991+-+1992
If
that does not give you every point of view on the show and this set,
nothing will. Needless to say I was the least impressed with the
picture and sound transfers, but this box contains all the extras in
what is a for-fans-only item as far as I'm concerned, but at least
the original music has been rightly restored.
The
2160p HECV/H.265, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced 2.35 X 1 Ultra
High Definition image on Huntsman
is pretty consistent and clear for an all-digital shoot and is easily
the best performer on this list, but by not using some large-frame
format film they did on the previous film that looked so good, the
overall look here is rendered a bit more generic by comparison.
Still, this surpasses the decent 1080p Blu-ray and the really soft
480p DVD included in the non-4K Blu-ray set.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Hero
(with nice color range for the format) and episodes of the HD-shot
Lucifer
are a little better, tie with Huntsman
as best DVDs here, followed by the better parts of the 1.33 X 1 Hee
Haw
and disappointing 1.33 x 1 Wonder
Years.
That
leaves the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on
the Legend
episodes tying with the regular Huntsman
Blu-ray as second-best performer on the list. Both have their issues
with artifice, but that's par for the course with their genres.
As
for sound, the DTS: X 11.1 sound on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and 1080p
regular, standard Blu-ray editions of Huntsman
has its moments and can be state of the art, but not as spectacular
all the way as I had hoped. Still, it is the best performer here.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Legends
impresses on its own terms and is on par with the sonics on Flash,
Arrow
and Supergirl
in the best way.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the Huntsman
DVD, Hero,
Lucifer
and even Hee
Haw
are about even with each other, though Haw
obvious shows a little age. The other three sound limited, knowing
they would (and in the case of Huntsman,
definitely does) sound better lossless. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo on Years
is the sonic dud and disappointment.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
