Transporter 3 (Blu-ray) Official AVSForum Review - Page 2

the mix was perfect. great demo material! my 7.1 setup was put to good use.

You do realize that you do not have a Blu-ray player and this disc we are talking about is Blu-ray.

Do you have a blu ray player?

Great movie and PQ was outstanding.

I was hesitant to get this flick due to the overwhelming complaints all over the web about the annoying girl--- but thanks to Ralph's review of the PQ and AQ this will be my next purchase.

Just got done watching this and WOW, what a audio track! The crashes and explosions in particular are some of the best I have ever felt/heard....amazing!

Ralph,

Great review and once again I concur with you.

Like Toe, I just watched this last night and here are some comments I gave on the PQ thread after viewing it:

I just found myself repeating the words "Don't build up too much hype on this one Denny," but quite frankly, I may not succeed in this. Let me begin by echoing the words of Hugh, "This IS reference quality PQ!"

I really don't know where to begin, so perhaps I should start with FACIAL CLOSE-UPS. In Transporter 3 we are treated to a plethora of them, and I would challenge anyone to find a title that is any better in this category. They easily match the facial close-ups in Man On Fire....and there are more of them! Every stubble, pore, wrinkle, freckle, mole, age spot, etc. can be seen in all their glory!

Colors were vibrant, contrast was strong, black levels were deep, shadow detail was impressive, details were amazing, and there was plenty of depth.

The only flaws that I noticed (on this first viewing) were a couple of isolated shots with minor digital noise and one or two instances of crushed blacks. But these were so insignificant in the whole scheme of things that I don't know that it can even be penalized for them.

Before I give my view for placement, I want to add that the AQ is also reference quality. It will give your sound system a real workout, especially in the car chase scenes. I was absolutely floored by the following two scenes:



Denny

mine should arrive hopefully tomorrow with bolt also.

Spot on with the score Ralph especially the Audio absoulutley fantastic. Everything was perfect. I was going to add the DTS HD MA advert(like the THX but there version) is awesome. My Pre-amp comes up with 96khz and some other spec that I did not get a chance to read.

Ralph,

I agree, great sound, great fun. Jason is the man and Natalya Rudakova is off the hook HOT! Throw this film in your player, turn up the volume and hang on!!!

A good looking and sounding disc - but the upconverted DVD looks pretty good too. Anyone looking in on this review usually does so because they are familiar with the first two 'Transporter' films and by now everyone knows what to expect. This movie does not disappoint, it's full of action and although the bratty female slows the pace down at times by the end of the film all is forgiven.

Viewers have to remember that 'Transporter' was Jason Statham's break-out role, up to this point he had been in several films but as a supporting actor. Because of this I think there is a certain loyalty to writer/producer Luc Besson and no matter whether the script is good or bad - Jason is onboard. Usually you find this kind of loyalty between actor and director, an example of this is Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott, who incidentally are in pre-production to do the next Robin Hood movie - odd as it might sound.

Having watched the original Transporter' recently I marveled at Frank Martin's butt kicking proficiency in the garage scene where he took on 8 thugs at one time. In the 'Transporter 3' garage scene (evidently a favorite place to fight) he took on 10 thugs (not counting the leader with sunglasses) and finished by beating up on the giant thug! Now that's acting.

The Audio Format(s) : English DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio, French Dolby Digital 5.1
If you don't have DTS-HD 7.1 you only get piss-poor Dolby Pro Logic in english, not 5.1 in english !!!!!! I find this unacceptable and hope this is not a trend for BR discs. Good thing I just rented this BR disc, and I will be sure to check all audio format(s) of BR discs in the future !! I will be upgrading in the future, but I hate to be forced into it !!!

""Transporter 3 isn’t great cinema but if you like mindless, high octane action flicks""

I agree 100%, the plot could of been written by a eight year old !!!

This is one of my favorite genre and I enjoyed the first Transporter but I thought this one was terrible. As Ralph mentioned, be prepared for disbelief. I was and it delivered disbelief in spades. Unfortunately for me, all the superhuman buttkicking that Jason dealt out couldn't save this from being totally craptacular.

The minister's daughter was extremely annoying and should probably be playing tennis wearing hot outfits, instead of acting. Prison Break alum, Robert Knepper just wasn't bad enough for me. Maybe they should have given him a prosthetic hand with a hook in it.

For me, the only positive attributes of this flick were excellent PQ, absolutely outstanding AQ and Frank's car.........I want one of those!

Mike T

I watch Transporter 3 on blu-ray last night and I fell asleep.
So, I put it back again, and fell asleep again!
Put it back for the third time (all the same night, playing 3 times the entire length of the movie), this time not falling asleep.
Almost 6 hours later, I was left numb.

The story was nothing much, probably why I fell asleep.
The picture was excellent for the most part, with lots of details, very sharp and good colors. No complaint here.
The audio soundtrack have some very nice pumping music, but the special effects feel too mechanical, prefabricated, out of balance. I was disappointed by this low quality, that was out of sync with the action.
Also, I should add that the camera work was also poor in the action scenes, with too many cuts and a you can't see what was happening. Plus the film was accelerated for a very crude trick to make you believe that everything was faster than it actually was.

I was expecting better. But I was very disappointed by the all affair.
So, for the picture quality, I agree with Ralph.
For the audio, I feel that Ralph is way too generous.
I guess that I don't have the same criterias.
In my book, it is a poor job done on the audio department. The music is OK, but feels overloaded sometimes. And the rest of the soundtrack is a mess of pro mixing.
The editing is also a mess, poorly done as if it was just rush out.
This is the new low for the Transporter trilogy.

One of the stronger aspect of this movie was the very beautiful facial look of the actress.

That's my personal opinion.

Bob

I'm with you too on that one. I agree with all your observations.

The first one was fun because it was the first one.

The second one was more entertaining with cooler stuff and better quality all around.

And the third one is an absolute mess of sound mixing and editing.

Bob

You should watch it, and tell us what you think. It's transporter 3, what do you expect?

Bob

I have been good about not buying crappy movies with reference audio lately, but I broke down and bought Transporter 3 with the awesome sales this week on it since I loved this audio track....

I enjoyed this film.

I'm glad Target had this in their last BOGO. Otherwise I wouldn't have made the gamble. After seeing the last film in the franchise, and having no knowledge that this one was even being made until the home video announcement, it was a pleasant surprise. The European ambiance and flavor helped quite a bit, but the film's production values seemed a step up from the first two films. The stunts seemed more convincing than the last film especially and more elaborate than the first. I don't know anything about Statham's martial background. His fighting is still a little too flexed, but he's seeming less and less like an actor pretending to know how to fight or the cinematography was better at hiding his weaknesses than the last two films.

I also rather enjoyed the inflated soundtrack. The bass didn't seem too unbalanced to me, but I don't mind a bass heavy track, except for concerts. There were a few very cool surround demos as well. The video looked great (at calibrated levels). But, you can see the limitations of the BD25 when you raise black levels. Any display that has gamma set too high will show some serious blocking in the darkness. Subjectively tweaking the last BD I watched a couple days ago, I still had my gamma too high for the first half of the film. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed.

BTW, is it just me or does anyone else think that $40 SRP is asking too much for a BD25? The studios need to better justify their pricing. It makes no sense to me how a two disc set for a film that's only 1-2 years old, both discs being BD50s, can be priced (SRP) $10 less than a single BD25 of a new film. That indicates that production costs has nothing to do with BDs still inflated, 3-year old pricing structure. I won't even start on why Australia (a single disc release) costs the same as The Day the Earth Stood Still, a poorer reviewed film from the same studio that comes with 3 discs, the remake on BD, the original on BD, and a digital copy DVD. Studios can't lower prices, but they seem to be able to justify the expense of adding extra discs for the same price as one. Milking BD with bonuses that only a limited percentage of buyers want, as if it's still just a niche format for those with deep pockets will not further mass adoption as quickly as lowering prices to better compete with DVD.

Bought this because of the great reviews on its audio & video quality.
Was very disappointed on the movie. Never saw the previous movies before.
I was hoping this would be like Cloverfield where I purchased the movie, never hearing about it and came away greatly surprised and really enjoyed the movie. Sadly, it didn't happen with this one. Oh well, only $20.

You guys are lucky with your nice prices.

Transporter 3 cost me the full retail price of $29.99 + 13% tax = $33.89 total!
I feel very disappointed by this very high price from Lionsgate Studio (Canadian distributor) in my own country!

I have more sad feelings about blu-ray pricing, but I won't elaborate on this subject here.

Cheers,

Bob

Transporter 3 retails in the states for $39.95.

Yes, but its only the retail price (that doesn't count). When Amazon have their sale and everyone else all across North America (United States and Canada), all the Lions Gate blu-ray titles sell for $15.

It just doesn't make any good behavior from this entire business. It's the same old game of greed by all the usual suspects.

Why can't we live in a world of common sense and good reason, instead of making profit over profit?

How long we'll have to wait till prices are reasonable right of the "gate" (Lions Gate) and get in line with DVDs? 10 years? Or till a new format comes along?

I guess the internet is the place to really do your shopping. In the near future, we won't see our cities infested with so many retail stores. There will be more housing for people living below poverty line. But we will see more and bigger hotels, casinos, condos, appartments, skyscrapers, business buildings, stock market buildings, insurance buildings, etc.

Yesterday was Earth Day, did anyone felt it?

Food for thought.

Bob

The prices will dropping alot this year, i would say in the next 2 months & definatly before xmas

Thanks for the review Ralph. And yeah, a nice high score for this one. I'm going to be picking this one up for sure.

While the colors and details on this disc were outstanding.

The blown up contrast did bug me a couple of times.

There were a few scenes where the whites were just white hot, and the blacks were so crushed at times there wasn't any detail to be had in them.

But again, most of the time, the detail is incredible, and the skin tones were spot on.

As for the sound, I really had it cranked, and LOVED IT, Its been a while since I've watched a true action flick, and man, my 2 subs were busy. And so were my picture frames on the wall

I just moved this BD title to the top of my Netflix queue. I just ran across this review. It's an older review, I know. However, it looks intriguing. Any movie that Ralph gives a 100 for audio quality is worth checking out. I can handle the over the top stunts and plot contrivances. I really enjoyed the original Transporter. However, I'm getting this just because I'm looking for a sonic treat. Anything that can be compared to Cloverfield in the bass department peaks my interest.