Gothika
(Warner HD-DVD)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: C+ Film: B-
NOTE: This title is now available in a
very similar version on Blu-ray.
As part
of the crowd that sees Halle Berry as the talent she is, I thought Mathieu
Kassovitz’s Gothika (2003, from the
director of Babylon, A.D., reviewed
elsewhere on this site) was a better and more interesting commercial
supernatural thriller than most took it as during the mixed success of it
original theatrical release.
Sadly, it
did not spawn any sequels or become a minor classic as I thought it had the
potential to become, yet it is a film people still talk about, ask me about and
still sparks interest simply because thriller films about the spiritual world
are few and far between. Worse still,
few work and among a cycle of recent such films (Skeleton Key and The Reaping
come to mind), especially with female leads tend to get lost before the
narrative has a chance to survive. Gothika holds together, more obviously
so since those other films did not work out.
I still
enjoy the film, though its attempts at youth appeal via marketing may have cut
into a larger audience taking it seriously and even hurting suspension of
disbelief, which is why it is being discovered on video and the like years
later. It is no surprise that Warner has
made it a relatively early HD release.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 image is unfortunately from an older digital master, with the studio
no doubt making this an early HD release for broadcast/cable HD knowing they
had some momentum. Unfortunately, it is
softer throughout than it should be and the effective cinematography from
Director of Photography Matthew Libatique, A.S.C., is undercut versus how good
it looked in the 35mm release print I screened upon first release. Though better than the DVD-Video version,
this film needs and deserves an HD upgrade down the line. The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix is better
enough than the previous Dolby versions, though I wonder if we would get better
playback results if the soundmaster was retransferred for Dolby TrueHD and/or
DTS MA playback. This mix is missing
detail I know I heard back in 2003. The
combination is disappointing, but I expect this film will continue to gain
popularity enough to call of an upgrade in a few years.
Extras
include a good audio commentary track by Kassovitz & Libatique, two making
of documentary/featurettes, Music Video with Berry of the Limp Bizkit remake of
The Who classic Behind Blue Eyes, a
making of piece on the Video and Berry tormented on the MTV Punk’d show. That is a more commercial set of goodies than
ones with serious depth, but they have their moments. The main thing is the film, which you should
catch if you have not yet seen it.
- Nicholas Sheffo
