The Princess Bride (MGM Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: B Film:
B+
Although
we were disappointed with the Anniversary Edition of The Princess Bride on DVD, we have higher hopes (and standards) for
this newly released Blu-ray. For more in-depth
coverage of the film and that previous DVD, you can read about it here. There is little doubt that this film has
charmed audiences now for over two decades and perhaps even second generations
of viewers, which is why this modern day classic needs to be treated as such
and given proper treatment for home viewing.
While the DVD’s never satisfied those needs, this Blu-ray experience
should bring the magic back. Or will it?
As much
as I was hoping that this Blu-ray could rectify many of the issues that plagued
all of the home video releases to this point, and especially the DVD’s that
have been released, the Blu-ray fails to ultimately impress. That being said, it’s certainly sharper, more
refined, and the 1.85 X 1 anamorphic transfer looks superior on the 1080p High
Definition Blu-ray, and yet still suffers from some of the same issues from the
previous DVD we covered. In fact if you
want a direct comparison, you need not go far as Fox has included the same
Anniversary Edition DVD along with the Blu-ray.
Same poor transfer, same supplements, but here you can get a quick idea
of how soft the image is and how dated it looks, even though it’s not
necessarily that old.
The
Blu-ray mainly suffers from softness that is particularly abundant in shots
with greater depth, close-ups are not nearly as bad, but overall the film has a
lackluster appearance and colors seem even smudgy, even the contrast on the
colors appears to be set really high, this is noticeable on certain colors like
red and green. Reds appear far too
bright and near-bleeding, while the greens are unpronounced and look lumpy. Skin tones are natural looking, but do not
have the overall refinement that we are seeing on Blu-ray and we are well-aware
by now the capabilities of the format, even on older titles.
Since the
picture is still problematic that leaves us with the sound, which is improved
over the DVD as we finally get the film in DTS, not to mention a lossless
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix that delivers the best audio presentation of the
film to date on home video. While the
mix is still rather forward heavy, the articulation is finally as coherent as
the film is probably going to get, this is a film that has moments where the
speaking parts can be difficult to understand, even though it’s one of the most
quoted films of it’s time, that is perhaps only because people who can quote
the film have seen it enough to know all the lines. Andre the Giant has several moments where is
audio is faint due to his accent and booming voice, even Inigo Montoya (Mandy
Patinkin) has moments where is accent is difficult to hear his lines, and
especially moments with Miracle Max (a nicely disguised Billy Crystal). The Blu-ray corrects this though with
lossless audio that restores the pristine nature of the vocal track from the
studio and while the overall fidelity is still limited, this is perhaps as good
as we’ll ever get. More active scenes
send the surrounds into a greater frenzy and the overall soundtrack is
pleasing, sweeping at times, and never dull.
Extras
are plentiful and repeats of what we’ve seen before, but it’s good to get both
the Blu-ray and the DVD edition here, even if there are still issues with the
overall quality of the transfer and we can only hope that one day this will
finally be resolved, in fact a 25th anniversary restoration wouldn’t
hurt. Fans will buy this film no matter
how many times it gets released, so that’s not an issue. In the meantime this should hold over even
the leanest appetites.
- Nate Goss
