Why does it seem like the most awaited Blu-ray catalog titles so often arrive on the format surrounded by controversy? Is it really that hard to do a film-to-video transfer without messing around with the essential look of a famous film? Apparently, it is.
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First off, here’s the week’s release list:<\/p>\n
Let’s dispense with the day-and-date titles quickly, since there’s so little of interest here. The week is dominated by box office bombs from earlier in the year, such as ‘Sucker Punch<\/strong>‘, ‘Season of the Witch<\/strong>‘, ‘Beastly<\/strong>‘, ‘Barney’s Version<\/strong>‘ and ‘The Warrior’s Way<\/strong>‘. These should all safely fall into the “Maybe I’ll rent it”<\/em> category for most viewers. If you really want to watch ‘Sucker Punch’, enter our contest<\/a> and we might just give you a copy for free. There’s no sense in wasting money on stuff like this, after all. <\/p>\n Now then, the biggest title of the week is certainly the ‘Lord of the Rings<\/strong>‘ trilogy extended versions box set. When the ‘Rings’ trilogy first arrived on Blu-ray last year, fans were disappointed both by the lack of the extended cuts for each film, and also by the dated and mediocre video transfers that the studio recycled for Blu-ray. This new box set would seem like an opportunity to rectify both complaints. All three films have been remastered in their full extended versions, and the box is chocked to the gills with bonus features. <\/p>\n So, what’s the problem? Early reports claim that the new transfer for the first movie, while a big improvement in terms of sharpness and detail, has been greatly teal-ified (much like the ‘Alien Anthology’<\/a>). Supposedly, the second and third films have not been affected. How severe this problem is has been the subject of much debate. Some viewers claim that the entire movie looks like it’s covered in puke, while others say that the weird green-blue tint is hardly noticeable for the most part. I have not seen the disc for myself yet. Also unclear is whether this was an artistic decision made by Peter Jackson, or an authoring screw-up at the studio. If it was Jackson’s call, this unfortunately would not be the first time a filmmaker has intentionally screwed around with the colors of his old movie. (That’s right, William Friedkin and James Cameron; I’m talking about the both of you.)<\/p>\n In other news, Universal seems to be reissuing practically every title it ever released on Blu-ray in new Blu-ray + DVD combo packs for some reason. Also notable: the early Julia Roberts breakout hit ‘Sleeping with the Enemy<\/strong>‘, both ‘Stuart Little<\/strong>‘ family flicks, and the anime feature film spin-off ‘Cowboy Bebop: The Movie<\/strong>‘.<\/p>\n