Okay, well, I watched this disc this evening. I am familiar with the work that went into it and I had been anticipating this release since I heard about the director going back and completing this film twenty years after it was rushed to the theater.
First, let me say that I am all for his changes. I understand why he did them and it makes perfectly logical sense!
However, I have to comment on the quality of the revisions...
These new CG effects shots look just plain sloppy! They look as if they were rendered at 30fps and stuck into a 24fps film... I know it doesn't make sense and there are probably a lot of things that contribute to this. I must say the new shots look very video-like in quality. The new shots have no film grain whatsoever and the contrast is different from the surrounding scenes.
In fact, there are some scenes where old elements of the film were brought into the new CG elements... there is clearly something afoul as the film elements clearly do not match the CG elements in terms of grain and contrast... the framerates look a little off as well.
Audio wise, there's huge problems with the 5.1 dialogue. 90% of the time the dialogue is very unfocused or way too quiet for the ambience from the front and rear surrounds. I found myself reaching for the volume control several times when we go from internal bridge shots with Shatner immediately to external V-GER zone shots... the music overpowers the dialogue nearly everywhere. I found the 2.0 track to be fine.
I appreciate the efforts of everybody involved but these new CG effects look extremely amateur and the 5.1 remix feels like little to no effort was made to keep dialogue at a level volume.
Image quality wise, overall, the disc look good! It's no Superbit disc, but it sure looks excellent for a film of its age! I did not see much, if any, EE... but I was not really looking for it.
This is a good effort by Paramount but it could have been done much better. I appreciate all the work that was done on bringing us this release but I wish I had the original theatrical cut available without the sloppy new CG elements. I can't help but feel upset that I purchased this disc... it should have been treated better.
On the technical merits of finishing this movie and the new CG, I have to give it a D.
Sound: C-
Image: B
Story: A (I've always liked it!)
I've not gotten into the extras yet, but I am sure they are cool as hell! That's for another page.
-- Robert
First, let me say that I am all for his changes. I understand why he did them and it makes perfectly logical sense!
However, I have to comment on the quality of the revisions...
These new CG effects shots look just plain sloppy! They look as if they were rendered at 30fps and stuck into a 24fps film... I know it doesn't make sense and there are probably a lot of things that contribute to this. I must say the new shots look very video-like in quality. The new shots have no film grain whatsoever and the contrast is different from the surrounding scenes.
In fact, there are some scenes where old elements of the film were brought into the new CG elements... there is clearly something afoul as the film elements clearly do not match the CG elements in terms of grain and contrast... the framerates look a little off as well.
Audio wise, there's huge problems with the 5.1 dialogue. 90% of the time the dialogue is very unfocused or way too quiet for the ambience from the front and rear surrounds. I found myself reaching for the volume control several times when we go from internal bridge shots with Shatner immediately to external V-GER zone shots... the music overpowers the dialogue nearly everywhere. I found the 2.0 track to be fine.
I appreciate the efforts of everybody involved but these new CG effects look extremely amateur and the 5.1 remix feels like little to no effort was made to keep dialogue at a level volume.
Image quality wise, overall, the disc look good! It's no Superbit disc, but it sure looks excellent for a film of its age! I did not see much, if any, EE... but I was not really looking for it.
This is a good effort by Paramount but it could have been done much better. I appreciate all the work that was done on bringing us this release but I wish I had the original theatrical cut available without the sloppy new CG elements. I can't help but feel upset that I purchased this disc... it should have been treated better.
On the technical merits of finishing this movie and the new CG, I have to give it a D.
Sound: C-
Image: B
Story: A (I've always liked it!)
I've not gotten into the extras yet, but I am sure they are cool as hell! That's for another page.
-- Robert