Critical Film Condition

While the movie “The Dark Knight” suffered with an overwhelming accumulation of hype, most would say it lived up to it. This Blu-Ray is probably the most anticipated release in the history of the format, and while the fact that “The Dark Knight” is one of the greatest movies in recent memory is only a part of that.

One of the great things about Blu-Ray is picture quality. Those fortunate enough to be able to enjoy movies in a FullHD rig have noticed that some movies, especially Visual Effects loaded spectacles, tend to look amazingly crispy clean on their TV sets, and this is due to the fact that 1080p picture has four times the amount of pixels on the screen than a regular DVD. And “The Dark Knight” marks one great exception, because some parts of the movie were shot in 70mm IMAX film (for laymen out there, think of this as FullHD with about a ton of nitrous oxide). The problem is that for some this may be a double-edged sword. Yes, the IMAX shots are by far the most amazing thing EVER in a Blu-Ray disk. The opening shot of the movie, with a total shot of the city, will be the thing to show jealous friends who haven’t yet joined the world of High-Definition. The Batpod chase is the action sequence of the year, and it too has been shot in IMAX format. But my grudge with this is that the 70mm and 35mm sequences have different aspect ratios (with x height of the picture). It didn’t trouble ME specifically, since the transitions are very well done and not off-putting in any way. But since Critical Film Condition is written with the public in mind, this Blu-Ray lost one point in picture quality. The fact that the IMAX shots fully occupy your screen, while the 35mm ones have black lines along the top and bottom of the screen might be troublesome for others (not likely, though). On a side note, some might say that they could have scaled the 35mm segments to fill the screen, but that wouldn’t give you the full presentation, so I think the right decision was made, with the small sacrifice of having to change aspect ratios.

Not the same with audio, though. While some studios might be getting the little kinks and tricks with Dolby FullHD sound, “The Dark Knight” excels by presenting crystal clear sound, with powerful moments. Seriously, the Joker dialogues where he explains his scars shook the ground, and I don’t even have a sub-woofer installed. This is one line delivered. The explosions are at the limit between powerful and clear, and I really have yet to find a grudge with the audio on this disk… It is, for lack of a better word, perfect.

My biggest problem with “The Dark Knight” Blu-Ray, though, are the extras, or lack of it, thereof. I bought the 2-Disk Blu-Ray, expecting a second disk loaded with documentaries and making-offs, and while it does have something, it is far from living up to the hype of the movie itself. There is no documentary whatsoever about Heath Ledger’s preparations for his creation of the Joker character, and the first disk doesn’t have a commentary track by director Christopher Nolan. I know they did the online joint-session of the movie, but that was reserved to only a few people, and with such an epic movie, we do want do know curious things about the production from the director’s point of view. I’m not saying that there aren’t many extras in this Blu-Ray presentation, it’s only too “common”. With an exceptional movie as “The Dark Knight”, you expect an exceptional amount of extras.

I, for one, buy Blu-Rays to watch the movies. Of course, being in the movie business, I watch all the extras, but I do it once, maybe twice. But it’s most important to me that the movie is scaled right, the audio is good, etc. And “The Dark Knight” doesn’t disappoint. It sets a new benchmark for the Blu-Ray format in terms of video and audio quality, with the tiny problem of the changing aspect ratios throughout the movie. The extras are nice, nothing exceptional, but if you want to watch an epic movie, already among the best in history, with the best audio and picture quality in a Blu-Ray disk yet, “The Dark Knight” is a definite must.

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