Blu-ray Review: James Bond on Blu-ray - Page 4

The beginning is excellent, with its hovercraft chase scenes and Bond ending up in a North Korean prison – it’s grittier than most Bond films, and it’s a nice change of pace to see Bond more disheveled than he’s ever been. Unfortunately, the rest of the story doesn’t match the excitement level of the beginning. Bond’s journeys to Cuba and Iceland seem more perfunctory than anything else, and Halle Berry gives a truly uninspired performance as Jinx.

The climax, which takes place in a burning airplane hurtling towards Earth, finally picks up the pace that was sucked out during the boring ice castle sequence, but it’s too little too late to make Die Another Day that memorable.

The Blu-ray Disc:

Honestly, for a film as recent as this one, I expected better from the Blu-ray transfer. Like the movie, the quality is variable depending on the scene. The colors and blacks usually look great, but the clarity wavers, and there is far too much noticeable grain in many shots near the end of the film.

Sound-wise, the disc delivers as the DTS mix sounds superb with the right balance finally being found among all the tracks.

Special Features:

The features are pretty typical fare by today’s standards – a couple of featurettes, a couple of commentary tracks and some still images. The highlight for me is a trivia track that plays with the movie, displaying facts on the screen. Some people will find this obnoxiously obtrusive I’m sure, but I prefer it to an audio commentary if I’m not that interested in a film.

The Bottom Line:

Right now, no one’s in a rush to convert their DVD collection to Blu-ray because there is little danger of the DVD format becoming obsolete anytime soon. If you don’t own the most recent DVD releases of the Bond films, then Blu-ray is the way to go, but otherwise waiting can’t hurt. The picture and sound quality just don’t necessitate an upgrade at this point.

Each Bond Blu-ray is available separately, in three-packs (Volume 1 has Dr. No, Die Another Day, and Live and Let Die and Volume 2 has For Your Eyes Only, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball)m and in a single six-pack with all the films.

Article Author: Dusty Somers

Dusty Somers hails from Seattle, and is a journalism student at the University of Oklahoma. He enjoys spending time and watching films with his wife, and looks forward to their imminent return to the great Northwest.

Visit Dusty Somers's author page — Dusty Somers's Blog