Home – A Stunning Visual
Portrayal of Earth (Fox Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: D
Film: B-
Ever
since the advent of HDTV’s there has been a fascination with people seeing
nature shots, which has caused for both celebration and extended interest in
nature shows of all sorts. When
something becomes popular like this, you have your fair share of good
programming, which many of the productions shot for IMAX have capitalized on
for years utilizing the 70mm format, and then you also have poor productions,
especially in the digital age, who think that showing a few scenic pictures
with a voice-over are going to be enough.
Thankfully the bar has been set pretty high though, in particular when
the BBC put forth their tremendous Planet
Earth production, which we have reviewed here.
So that
leaves us with Home – A Stunning
Portrayal of Earth, which focuses again on the beauty of our planet and
captures some magnificent images from dozens of countries and is narrated by
Glenn Close and her voice-over connects life together in some interesting ways
while the visuals make sense of this and give the viewer material that is more
specific to human interaction, whereas Planet
Earth focused more on the planet and the creatures that inhabit it, not so
much mankind. At times I was reminded of
Ron Fricke’s masterwork Baraka,
which we have also reviewed on Blu-ray, you can read about that here.
So while
nothing here might be super-original, that does not disqualify the program from
being strong and in particular this Blu-ray release offers some fantastic
visuals presented in 1080p High Definition and framed at 1.78 X 1, which
showcases the improvements in the digital world and while many of the shots
cannot compete with the depth found in a 70mm production like Baraka, the fine detail and overall
resolution look superb. One aspect of
this production that I did notice that stood out among various HD programming
is the color, often times high definition cameras offer sloppy color rendering
with bleeding reds and blacks with little-to-no depth, but that is not the case
here, in fact colors are saturated, lush, full, and natural looking, which is
quite a feat considering how many poor transfers we have seen where digital was
messy.
Audio is
another highlight with a lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix that represents
the film very well. Most of the mix
feels centered with some occasional swelling in the surrounds depending on the
score at times, Close’ voiceover is natural sounding and fits well over the
film, there is a good fulfilling low-end presence in the LFE channel, which
brings a thickness and punch to the film, which draws the viewer/listener in
and aids in the films impact. The score
is dynamic and full, almost constantly moving in some direction or another,
this keeps the pace of the film from dragging and the crispness is a high point
that will make audiophiles happy.
No
supplements here, which it would have been nice to at least have some sort of
making-of feature, but fortunately the material is strong enough that it won’t
deter you from wanting a copy.
- Nate Goss
