“Doomsday” is a movie that is all spectacle with no heart.
Video:
I received "Doomsday" a couple days earlier on Blu-ray than I did on DVD, so my first experience watching the film was on the high-definition format. The picture quality is quite good and I imagine I may be a little fussier when I review the film on the old standard. This was also the first release I had the opportunity to enjoy from Universal Studios on the rival format to the now dearly deceased HD-DVD format. I had previously reviewed nearly every Universal title on the beloved HD-DVD format and some of their early efforts stood out for having wondrous coloring and solid detail in their imagery. While I am still a little saddened at the early death of the Elite Red cases, I was happy to see Universal remain in the high definition game and embrace the format they once opposed. The big question was how they would fare on Blu-ray.
While "Doomsday" did not shake me like "The Chronicles of Riddick" did on HD-DVD, I can state that this is a very good looking title and while it may not be the cream of the crop, "Doomsday" is a solid first effort. Of course, I have been covering high definition media since the very first day of HD-DVD and have seen hundreds of films between the formats, but I still find some titles just blow me away in their glorious 1080p visuals. I´d say that "Doomsday" is not the top tier of releases on Blu-ray, but it´s above average. The level of detail of this release is quite good and Universal sticks to the VC-1 compression on Blu-ray and manages to fit the disc on a BD-25 platter.
The palette is vibrant and detail is pleasant with "Doomsday." The post-apocalyptic landscape of Scotland looks quite good and in the ruined city inhabited by Sol and the gang, the strong level of detail helps the rubble and ruin look quite impressive. Once the scenery switches to the lush green hills of Scotland, the warm hues paint a beautiful picture! When the pricey Bentley finally makes its well-heralded appearance, the clear coat just shines in high definition. Black levels are also quite strong and the dank and dark dungeons never lose detail amongst the shadows. Source materials used for the digital Blu-ray transfer were quite pristine. There is a little film grain to be found once in a while, but it is uncommon and never intrusive. While this may not be the best film, it is a very fine looking picture.
Audio:
While Universal stood fast with the Microsoft created VC-1 compression codec for the visuals, the studio took an about face with the surround sound and brushed aside Dolby TrueHD in favor of the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 format. While Warner Bros. has released a few titles on Blu-ray with the TrueHD format, it seems more and more common that DTS is gaining a strong lead in market share for next generation sound formats. With Universal seemingly changing camps, I tend to wonder what the reasoning is. They didn´t fully support TrueHD on the HD-DVD format and towards the end of the format´s life it seemed that catalog titles were more likely to be given next-gen sound instead of the bigger and newer blockbusters.
This is a wide ranging and dynamic soundtrack. During my initial viewing, I found that an early gunshot was causing my receiver to output so much power that I was getting a brownout effect and my Panamax line conditioner was shutting things down. With air conditioning, lights and some other things running, the power in the house seemed low, but every time the first gunshot rang out, I´d lose power to the receiver and television. I managed to remove some of the load, but when a topless blonde decided to blast away with a shotgun, this happened again. I finally unhooked my receiver from the line conditioner to correct the problem that was caused by this very dynamic mix.
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is quite good with "Doomsday." This is another instance where the effort is above average, but the disc is not among the top tier releases of the format. However, It is closer to top tier in sound than visuals. The soundtrack makes effective use of all six channels. The primary three speakers are rarely silent and nicely showcase the full audio spectrum with deep bass and sharp treble. Dialogue moves smoothly between the three channels, with nice directional presence. The rear surrounds are given a solid amount of work to do during the picture and many very nice effects pan across the rear channels and move from front to back. The .1 LFE channel is not forgotten either. Bass is quite deep. The sound is crisp and clear, with intelligible dialogue that never suffers during the loudest action sequences.
Extras:
The feature set between the DVD release and the Blu-ray release of "Doomsday" is deceptively different. I say this because many of the bonus materials that one would surmise to be absent from the Blu-ray release are simply rolled into the ´Picture-in-Picture´ portion of the Blu-ray interactive experience. The Blu-ray does contain a commentary that is not part of the DVD release. The biggest difference between the two releases is that the DVD features both versions of the film via seamless branching. I would assume that the commentary and seamless branching are reasons why the two releases differ in content. The familiar U-Control returns to Blu-ray and utilizes Profile 1.1 for some of its functionality.
The commentary and interactive content will please fans of the film. The Feature commentary with director Neil Marshall and cast members Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Rick Warden and Les Simpson finds four actors that had roles more akin to cameos joining the director for a discussion on the film. The fun of this commentary is listening to Marshall discuss the pictures he loves and the influences on the film. This is a good listen, but only those that really loved this film will find it an easy sit through. The U-Control functionality includes Picture in Picture in eight of the films chapters, Tech Specs in nine of the chapters and the Reaper Files is accessible for all twelve chapters. The PiP stuff is good, but the Tech Specs and Reaper Files are more of a novelty that does provide some nice backstory, but provides only a few minutes of entertainment.
Closing:
I´m kind of torn on "Doomsday." On one hand I find the picture has a number of serious flaws in its writing and acting and complete lack of originality. On the other hand, there was a lot of fun to be had in these rehashed and recycled action sequences. If you loved "The Road Warrior" or "Escape From New York," then you will find yourself in the same company as writer/director Neil Marshall and you will either love or hate his tribute to those classic science-fiction action films. It really boils down to whether or not you can enjoy a film for its high octane action or demand good acting and good writing. The film is fun, but it is kind of dumb. This early Blu-ray release from Universal finds itself with strong visuals and even better sound. The supplements rekindle the well-loved "U-Control" functionality from the studio´s HD-DVD days and includes a commentary as well. This isn´t a bad disc and at the end of the day, this isn´t too terribly bad of a film.
I received "Doomsday" a couple days earlier on Blu-ray than I did on DVD, so my first experience watching the film was on the high-definition format. The picture quality is quite good and I imagine I may be a little fussier when I review the film on the old standard. This was also the first release I had the opportunity to enjoy from Universal Studios on the rival format to the now dearly deceased HD-DVD format. I had previously reviewed nearly every Universal title on the beloved HD-DVD format and some of their early efforts stood out for having wondrous coloring and solid detail in their imagery. While I am still a little saddened at the early death of the Elite Red cases, I was happy to see Universal remain in the high definition game and embrace the format they once opposed. The big question was how they would fare on Blu-ray.
While "Doomsday" did not shake me like "The Chronicles of Riddick" did on HD-DVD, I can state that this is a very good looking title and while it may not be the cream of the crop, "Doomsday" is a solid first effort. Of course, I have been covering high definition media since the very first day of HD-DVD and have seen hundreds of films between the formats, but I still find some titles just blow me away in their glorious 1080p visuals. I´d say that "Doomsday" is not the top tier of releases on Blu-ray, but it´s above average. The level of detail of this release is quite good and Universal sticks to the VC-1 compression on Blu-ray and manages to fit the disc on a BD-25 platter.
The palette is vibrant and detail is pleasant with "Doomsday." The post-apocalyptic landscape of Scotland looks quite good and in the ruined city inhabited by Sol and the gang, the strong level of detail helps the rubble and ruin look quite impressive. Once the scenery switches to the lush green hills of Scotland, the warm hues paint a beautiful picture! When the pricey Bentley finally makes its well-heralded appearance, the clear coat just shines in high definition. Black levels are also quite strong and the dank and dark dungeons never lose detail amongst the shadows. Source materials used for the digital Blu-ray transfer were quite pristine. There is a little film grain to be found once in a while, but it is uncommon and never intrusive. While this may not be the best film, it is a very fine looking picture.
Audio:
While Universal stood fast with the Microsoft created VC-1 compression codec for the visuals, the studio took an about face with the surround sound and brushed aside Dolby TrueHD in favor of the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 format. While Warner Bros. has released a few titles on Blu-ray with the TrueHD format, it seems more and more common that DTS is gaining a strong lead in market share for next generation sound formats. With Universal seemingly changing camps, I tend to wonder what the reasoning is. They didn´t fully support TrueHD on the HD-DVD format and towards the end of the format´s life it seemed that catalog titles were more likely to be given next-gen sound instead of the bigger and newer blockbusters.
This is a wide ranging and dynamic soundtrack. During my initial viewing, I found that an early gunshot was causing my receiver to output so much power that I was getting a brownout effect and my Panamax line conditioner was shutting things down. With air conditioning, lights and some other things running, the power in the house seemed low, but every time the first gunshot rang out, I´d lose power to the receiver and television. I managed to remove some of the load, but when a topless blonde decided to blast away with a shotgun, this happened again. I finally unhooked my receiver from the line conditioner to correct the problem that was caused by this very dynamic mix.
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is quite good with "Doomsday." This is another instance where the effort is above average, but the disc is not among the top tier releases of the format. However, It is closer to top tier in sound than visuals. The soundtrack makes effective use of all six channels. The primary three speakers are rarely silent and nicely showcase the full audio spectrum with deep bass and sharp treble. Dialogue moves smoothly between the three channels, with nice directional presence. The rear surrounds are given a solid amount of work to do during the picture and many very nice effects pan across the rear channels and move from front to back. The .1 LFE channel is not forgotten either. Bass is quite deep. The sound is crisp and clear, with intelligible dialogue that never suffers during the loudest action sequences.
Extras:
The feature set between the DVD release and the Blu-ray release of "Doomsday" is deceptively different. I say this because many of the bonus materials that one would surmise to be absent from the Blu-ray release are simply rolled into the ´Picture-in-Picture´ portion of the Blu-ray interactive experience. The Blu-ray does contain a commentary that is not part of the DVD release. The biggest difference between the two releases is that the DVD features both versions of the film via seamless branching. I would assume that the commentary and seamless branching are reasons why the two releases differ in content. The familiar U-Control returns to Blu-ray and utilizes Profile 1.1 for some of its functionality.
The commentary and interactive content will please fans of the film. The Feature commentary with director Neil Marshall and cast members Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Rick Warden and Les Simpson finds four actors that had roles more akin to cameos joining the director for a discussion on the film. The fun of this commentary is listening to Marshall discuss the pictures he loves and the influences on the film. This is a good listen, but only those that really loved this film will find it an easy sit through. The U-Control functionality includes Picture in Picture in eight of the films chapters, Tech Specs in nine of the chapters and the Reaper Files is accessible for all twelve chapters. The PiP stuff is good, but the Tech Specs and Reaper Files are more of a novelty that does provide some nice backstory, but provides only a few minutes of entertainment.
Closing:
I´m kind of torn on "Doomsday." On one hand I find the picture has a number of serious flaws in its writing and acting and complete lack of originality. On the other hand, there was a lot of fun to be had in these rehashed and recycled action sequences. If you loved "The Road Warrior" or "Escape From New York," then you will find yourself in the same company as writer/director Neil Marshall and you will either love or hate his tribute to those classic science-fiction action films. It really boils down to whether or not you can enjoy a film for its high octane action or demand good acting and good writing. The film is fun, but it is kind of dumb. This early Blu-ray release from Universal finds itself with strong visuals and even better sound. The supplements rekindle the well-loved "U-Control" functionality from the studio´s HD-DVD days and includes a commentary as well. This isn´t a bad disc and at the end of the day, this isn´t too terribly bad of a film.
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[release]23748[/release]