Kick Ass - Page 9

And I hope it has a new transfer.
I'll buy, if that is the case.

This is a brand new film, and people were noting the DNR issues brought up back when the film was in theaters. For better or worse, the BD is representative of what the film truly looks like.

Perhaps they will change their minds with regard to digital editing issues if and when they ever get around to a new cut, but that would be an active decision to change that aspect of the film.

Has there ever been a new transfer of a movie mastered digitally in the first place? I can't think of one.

Watched this tonight. Great movie. I'm glad I bought it. It took me three tries to get it to work in my player though. A little frustrating, but the third time was the charm.

It was shot on film, just tweaked to death in the digital intermediate. The encode can be a lot better.

When I saw the trailer for this, I thought it was going to be a superhero gag movie mixed with Napoleon Dynamite. After reading some favorable reviews, and seeing the blu-ray tonight, I was pleasantly surprised.

Yes, beating up an 11 year-old is a horrible thing, but part of what helped create a sense of real danger was that the villains were not going to give the nerdy weak kid or little girl the benefit of the doubt. That sense of danger, that real possibility that the heroes might not make it out alive, and that their decision to go up against these people could have serious consequences is something that really elevated this movie above the genre.

It is a decision that could have really backfired, creating a high tension movie that might have still been good, but a chore to watch. They maintain a good sense of comic fun helps to keep that tension from dominating, and do so in a way that does not clash with more serious elements. For example, in once such scene where the heroes are in real danger and tension is high, the film manages to pay a humorous tribute to first-person shooters and have it meld seamlessly.

Viewing this with a PS3 hooked up to a 1080p 42" plasma, I did have some loading issues. It took a while to load, but eventually did. I also noticed some compression artifacts, and a smoothness that reminded me of the bit-starved T2: Skynet Edition, stylistic choices or not. Still none of these ware distracting, and the look did seem to fit the material.

Blue blacks are a symptom of aging film that is routinely corrected when any film is restored. Why any director or dp would consciously chose to destroy black levels in the manner that this film does, as represented by the BD, I can't even fathom, but I imagine its most related to excessive color-correction. In a darkened, theater-like environment, black levels were distracting to the point that I would be leary of future films by the director or dp just because of it. It wasn't as objectionable on our small 52" LCD in a brightly lit living-room, but, even there, it was still hard to miss in some scenes, like where the police officer/friend walks into the armory and confronts Cage.

I didn't see the film theatrically, but you can't miss the blue blacks on the BD, unless you're just not paying attention, which many people don't the first time they see a movie. My guest didn't notice it, eventhough I was fiddling with my settings for the first half of the movie. It's so inconsistent and prevalent in more than a few select scenes that it can't even be satisfactorily addressed by tweaking ones calibration without unreasonably severe compromise to the rest of the film. I don't mind pumped saturation, and can even live with the inconsistent fuzzy shots, and the near absense of fine textures and facial features in much of the photography, since it's supposed to be that way, but the black levels were beyond ugly - nothing like a comic book, which even the cheapest comics have sported inky blacks for well over a decade, which I assume this film is trying to mimic with it's overblown, vivid look, as it's nothing like the flat, dull similitude of the $1 books that died out in the late 80's, early 90s.

I've never seen a dvd or Blu-ray that had black levels anywhere near this skewed and hope I never do again. I thought maybe something happened with my bulb or calibration at first. Checking my settings, another BD, and then trying the BD on another display, thankfully proved that my bulb wasn't shot or my system didn't suffer a massive surge or something.

On another note, I'm glad I played the movie on the PS3; due to the online junk (time and temp) the disc has to upload, it would have taken my Panasonic at least 5 minutes to start the actual film. Studios need to seriously stop over-complicating this format for the sake of gimmicks that nobody really cares about, but are no doubt an aggravation to anyone with an older or cheaper player and many with brand new models. My father doesn't even borrow discs from me anymore because he doesn't have the patience for the BDs to load. He wishes I would go back to buying DVDs that he doesn't have to fuss with. If the tech is more "advanced" it shouldn't be so annoying and impractical to actually use. If the time was that important to consumers, the players would already have the feature built-in. And who cares that it's 78 degrees outside when your sitting down in a climate controlled room to watch a movie? I'm all for innovation, but most of this junk is little more than a waste of money, all-to-often trying to sell the format on useless novelties instead of putting the funds into insuring the movie itself is the best it should be, or creating lasting extras of real substance.

I'm a colorist/editor by trade and I have to say I enjoyed the movie enough that it really never bothered me at all.

While I do struggle at times to 'leave my work at work' and turn that switch off while at home, I'm very grateful I don't obsess over it to the point of avoiding films based solely on their color timing/correction. For me it's about the story first and foremost. Being a big fan of this film, the thought of avoiding the director's future work because of some bluish blacks is just absurd...for me.

Watching the blu-ray of 28 days later on a large screen can be a bit of a strain on the ol' eyeballs. But I still watch it at least once a year because it's a damn good movie.

Edit to add: I actually thought the blacks on The Imanginarium of Dr. Parnasus were more elevated/blue than this title. It could be I noticed it more because the story didn't grab me nearly as much.

Loved the scene using the Banana Splits Tralala song. Had me rolling.

Will be interesting to see the Universal disc

28 days later is an ugly film for sure, but I still enjoy it too. It's visuals, ugly as they are, still suit the film and thus can seem justified. I didn't find that to be the case with Kick-Ass.

Kick-Ass was better than I expected but I hardly "loved" it, which wasn't nearly enough to be able to forgive the black levels, and I'm nowhere near as anal about this stuff as I was when I reviewed. Actually, if the film were one of my favorites, I'd probably be really upset at what I perceive a very sloppy visual design, evidenced most by its inconsistencies.

I can usually get lost in a good movie like this again these days, rather than constantly examining the A/V quality. But being in a dark review studio, with black walls, and no light other than a projector broadcasting onto a 92" screen, the blue blacks just glared at me. They weren't remotely subtle enough to ignore, and like I said, I couldn't even compromise my calibration to fix them. It was enough to deter me from investing in the film, if I hadn't already bought the BD, blindly, as I usually do for films I'm interested in. If you're watching on a smaller display in a room with sun streaming through the windows or overhead lights on, I imagine the blue blacks wouldn't be as objectionable.


I wouldn't actually hide from the director or dps future work, if the concept actually held more appeal. But if I was only passively interested, as was the case here, I'll definately do my homework before plopping down $20 on a BD. But, again, it was only blacks that I found too objectionable, and unjustified to forgive in this film, assuming the rest was intentional. Thanks for the warning on Dr Parnasus. I knew there was a reason I was waiting for that one to hit the bargain bin.

I blind-bought this last week (and went to the midnight release party at MovieStop and got a free T-shrt) not knowing what to expect and ended up loving the hell out of it. I've now watched it three times in the last week. I thought that the video was good considering the blown-out visual style, and the sound was very nice as well, though I only have a 5.1 setup for now. The extras were plentiful and great (especially the BD-exclusives), and thankfully lacking in EPK fluff pieces. My only real complaint was that we don't get the interesting-sounding deleted scenes that get alluded to in the commentary. A great disc overall.


What was wrong with the encode?

I'm holding out for a director's cut, which will hopefully be announced (officially).

Where did this movie come from! What a great movie, went in not knowing a thing and what the heck? One of the best movies of the year for me. Take that Inception!

Didn't really notice the black level issue, but I've worn out on the whole topic. My Panny 50 S1 isn't the best for blacks anyway, but this movie didn't distract me like some of the others BR's I've seen of late.

So I hear a possible DC? I'll def buy. Thumbs up for Kick Ass.

Ditto that.

I'm just waiting for the price to come down. IF I waited for "director's cut" editions of every movie then I'd never own any movies.

Reading the interview in the link Brian-HD posted, it sounds like we got the DC already, lol. Yeah, he mentions having had to trim some funny/good stuff out but it was material that "killed the flow." Surely we'll get an extended edition but it doesn't sound like it'll enhance the flick much, if at all - the studio allowed them to put out exactly what they wanted the first go 'round...and so they did.

That said - if they build it, I will come. ;-)

Yes, but when the director mentions that one might be in the offing, I can hold out. Given the high sales of this title, that's becoming more likely. If I double-dipped for every feature then I'd have too many!

Chad, thank you for saving me a lot of typing; I don't know how to agree more.

And what is this increasing trend of NOT allowing the viewer to skip ahead of the Previews, etc. to the main screen?



I double-dipped so many DVDs...
So far, I have had much better control of my wallet with BDs.

Probably time for my semi-regular post of confusion over why some "extended editions" are prized while others are hated.

I've began to believe that it isn't about "artistic integrity" or "director's true vision" but just about what version of the movie each person particularly liked... because we have lots of movies on both sides of the fence... where only the original OR only the "director's cut" are preferred, while the other edition is reviled.

Meanwhile... if a new version comes out before the price comes down... I'll consider it... otherwise I'm mainly waiting for the price because I already know I'd like to have it.

Chad for president.... best quote of the day

I can't play this film on my main player- I'm tired of the firmware updates, clearing storage blah blah blah
In so many ways this format is a step backward from DVD- I got my parents a BR player for christmas last year- and I hate to say- this is worse than getting them a windows laptop

The studios better clue in fast- I have stopped purchasing discs for awhile, only renting until this situation gets better

BD-Live and all these stupid Java mandatory internet programs should DIE.

DIE. They will destroy the format. They are NOT features but PITAs.

I think the difference here is that the director actually said he had plans for one...

Actually he said there might be a version with scenes added back in, but what we have IS the director's cut.

Technically, that would be PsITA. (*shrug*) I'm just sayin'...

My PS3 is my one and only BD player so even the slowest of the slow loading BDs load reasonably quickly. So far, the only BDs I have seen that disable the chapter skip feature for chapters that contain previews are the "Rental Editions" that Blockbuster gets 28 days earlier than Netflix receives them. I have managed to get around that satisfactorily by fast forwarding through commercials at 120 X. They aren't a problem that way.

Last night I watched Kick-Ass for the second time and then watched it again with Matthew Vaughn's commentary. I liked it even better the second time than I had the first. I didn't see anything wrong with the video transfer but thought the cinematography, with a few exceptions, was pretty uninspired. The DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack is as good or better than any I have ever heard, even in a first class theater.

Vaughn has no use for Hollywood and gave up on getting financing through the studios because of the restrictions they tried to place on him. He financed the film independently and made it for an estimated $28 million. He said a lot of interesting things. Among them were that Cage's use of the same weird inflections Adam West used as Batman in the old TV series was Cage's idea. Anyway, I loved it and laughed out loud the first time Cage spoke as Big Daddy. Vaughn also said that most theater viewers missed the sight gag

Vaughn got ownership of the custom built Mistmobile written into his contract and paid the builders an extra $20,000 to give it a 600+ horsepower engine. What does that tell you about making a movie on a so called, "shoestring?" Vaughn also said that there would be no "Director's Cut" because this version was the director's cut. He also said, however, that there would be an extended version later so that they could make more money.

No extra money from me. That's why I'll wait for the extended version. As I said earlier at the very least the cover art will be better.

I have been running in to this more often on NF disks.
The "menu" button on my Oppo rarely takes me to the main menu anymore.
I can, of course, usually "fast forward," but I am still a hostage to their damn ads.



You didn't find the blue-blacks or the vaseline shots of Red Mist irritating?



This shows me he is a car-freak...like me.



As long as we get a new encode, I'll be happy.