Cloverfield Blu-Ray Review
June 22nd 2008 07:37
When I got my PS3 back in November, the bitter, childish format war between HD DVD and Blu-Ray was still in full swing. I was nervous to buy a Blu-Ray for obvious reasons (And also because I read somewhere that Sony wasn’t allowing pornographic content to be produced on Blu-Ray, which didn’t matter to me except that it may or may not have contributed to the death of Betamax back in the day.) But now that the war is over, I decided to delve into the Blu-Ray universe with Cloverfield.
The first thing that attracted me to this was the price, ($20 on Amazon) about the same as your standard new release DVD. With Blu-Rays running anywhere from $20 to as much as $45 in most of my searches, this was either a warning or a selling point.
The film itself looks great in HD. The effects are convincing and the action seemed more intense and engrossing. Even on my 32″ TV I was a little woozy with all the camera movement, but overall it was a pretty decent visual experience. The 5.1 TrueHD Surround Sound added a ton to the engrossing effect of the visuals. It was very appropriately selective on the sounds it put through the back two channels, which is a disappointment with most DVD’s, and I almost had to turn my sub-woofer off half way through, because the intense bass was scaring my dog.
The supplemental features are much like the rest of everything that has to do with the film, very secretive, although there is one feature with the effects supervisor where you finally get to see a scaled down model of the monster. The blooper reel is entertaining, I wasn’t exactly rolling on the floor, but it might be something you want to check out if you’re bored. The big feature of the Blu-Ray was the “Special Investigation Mode” which is a mode that plays the movie in the top right hand corner of the screen while the left hand side has a map Manhattan complete with icons displaying the current in-movie locations of the group of main characters and the monster (referred to as the Large Scale Aggressor or LSA). It also displays little tidbits of information at the bottom of the screen pertaining to the current scene which the CIA has supposedly learned (or assumed) since the events of “Case Designate Cloverfield”. This mode, for me was a big disappointment in that the assumptions on the origin of the “LSA” seem pretty convoluted and only add to the ridiculous confusion. Great for fanboys (or fangirls) but not for someone who just likes the film.
I’ve heard there’s plans for a sequel, but I hope if they make one it doesn’t reveal too much else. This story was great by itself, and I know a lot of people probably will disagree, but I don’t want to know what it is or where it came from and why. Reveals on things like this are always disappointing. No one ever attempted to explain why there was a giant gorilla and a T-Rex on an uncharted island in King Kong. Mystique breeds enduring art. JJ Abrams, if you care what I think, (HA) please, for the love of great storytelling, don’t try to mess with this reasonably good idea.
Visuals: 8/10
Audio: 9/10
Supplements: 6.5/10
Bang for the Buck: 8/10
Overall: 7.9/10
Click here to buy this Blu-Ray
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