The Eye 3 (Lionsgate DVD)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C+     Film: C+

 

 

Having recently reviewed the Americanized The Eye (reviewed elsewhere on this site) on both DVD and Blu-ray I was interested to see how this franchise has turned out since its initial film from a few years ago.  This is also a Pang Brothers film, who have directed all of the films at this point and also the Internal Affairs series (remade with brilliance by Martin Scorsese as The Departed).  They are becoming bigger names, even in American and there seems to be a following to find the counterpart to the American version of these films. 

 

Even though this is the third installment it is still superior to the Americanized butchering of the first film, but runs out of steam towards the end and you can tell that this concept is starting to wear too thin that even the filmmakers are getting bored.  Or at least that’s the way it would seem.  This time around we get this alter-universe plot that involves those who can ‘see’ what others cannot see, which is something that has always been a topic of interest in the horror genre (i.e. The Shining).  However, The Shining, this is not as the execution of its plot begins well, but inevitably runs too thin and doesn’t know where to go once it’s painted itself in a corner.  Some say that the same thing happened in Stanley Kubrick’s version of Stephen King’s The Shining, but this critic feels that just the opposite is true. 

 

In Kubrick’s vision he simply didn’t allow the story to go through modern conventions of what was typical.  Here we fall back on the tired trend of trying to tie up all loose ends in predictable, even laughable ways.  I give Lionsgate credit though for putting energy into getting these films exposure in America and taking risks as well on these titles.  If anything these films will have a cult following for fans of the original. 

 

The DVD release features all the common elements starting with an average 1.78 X 1 anamorphic transfer that seems dated on arrival due to the technical limitations of DVD, hopefully a Blu-ray will be available with the entire franchise.  Colors feel muted and blacks are softer than one would hope, but again this is standard definition working against the film.  Also, the Dolby Digital 5.1 Chinese mix feels heavily centered and doesn’t give the full surround effect that an uncompressed mix would offer on Blu-ray.  I’d hoped that Lionsgate would at least give us a DTS mix here, but sadly it’s a compressed Dolby mix instead.

 

Extras are light as well, which only include a featurette and a making-of, which are fairly standard fare at this point.  One can only wonder if a box set might be on its way at some point, but until then these individual discs are all that are available in the U.S.

 

 

-   Nate Goss