Creation
Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms
(*)/Jack
Ryan: The Complete Series 4K
(2018 - 2023/Paramount 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Set)/Noryang:
Deadly Sea
(*both 2023/Well Go USA Blu-rays)/Pandemonium
(2023/MVD/Arrow Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/X/B-/B- Sound: B Extras:
C Main Programs: C+/C+/C+/C
Now
for a new group of action releases, including war, fantasy, battles,
spying, the supernatural and surrealism...
Wuershan's
Creation
Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms
(2023) is another huge Chinese feature film production in the fantasy
and epic genres, but unlike most of them that I have actually managed
to see only to forget them on the most part, this is easily one of
the best out of any Asian film-producing country and is the closets
they have come on their own to competing with a major, similar
Hollywood production in a sort of quiet breakthrough.
Monsters,
inhumans, humans and much more go to war in an alternate war (Is it
the past or maybe the future?; This one is 148 long minutes!) in a
fantasy romp worthy of any of the Hollywood genre entries over the
last few decades (mostly now bad and played out) with some
interesting moments and better energy than most genre entries in
recent years. Of course, if this is not your thing (like this
viewer) it will wear quickly, but fans should go out of their way to
see how this is really done. This may turn out to be a high
watermark for Chinese epic films.
Others
will be impressed by the cast, costumes, production design and how
well this all meshes, so I definitely recommend it to those readers.
Otherwise, think and know what to expect if you are not sure, because
it is long.
Extras
include an Original Theatrical Trailer and four short-but-decent
Making Of featurettes.
Jack
Ryan: The Complete Series 4K
(2018 - 2023) finally happened after five feature films with five
name actors playing Tom Clancy's famous CIA hero. This time, John
Krasinski takes on the role and not only does a decent job, but gets
enough time to do a good job. For your reference, we reviewed the
first four movies on Blu-ray a while ago at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7418/The+Jack+Ryan+Collection+(Hunt+For+Red+Octob
Krasinski
does a good enough job in the pilot/first episode that you can see
this could work, but because this is repeating narratives in and out
of the Clancy catalog directly and not, he can only do so much.
Paramount figured they blew it on further feature films, which is sad
considering how good many of Clancy's books are. Still, overall,
this is not up to the best films they made (October
and Danger)
but is worth a look for those interested.
Deleted
Scenes are the only extras, but for the record, here is how I thought
each actor did in the role. Alec Baldwin did fine, but turned down
the next films surprisingly, so Harrison Ford took over and was fair
in the first film, but great in the second. Then came Ben Affleck
and Chris Pine, both great choices, but they got two of the most
poorly written entries in the series and in the genre, killing their
chances to do a few fils each. What a disaster and this series does
its
Han-min
Kim's Noryang:
Deadly Sea
(2023) is a Korean epic (at 153 minutes!) concludes a trilogy by the
director of Hansan:
Rising Dragon
in 2022:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16201/Beast+(2022/Universal+Blu-ray+w/DVD)/Black+W
...and
The
Admiral: Roaring Currents
in 2014:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13459/The+Admiral:+Roaring+Currents+(2014/CJ+Entert
So
this joins our coverage of those releases, all on Blu-ray, taking
place in 1598 as the Japanese try to overtake Korea by sea, but it
does not work out as expected. These can all be seen as biopics of
sorts (even if the title of this last film refers to a body of water,
we learn about plenty of the men involved), but like the others for
me (versus my fellow writer who liked them more) just felt they went
on and on despite the good acting and money in the production. They
are about on par with each other, but if you are going to watch start
with the first film.
In
a nod to Kim, easily my favorite film of his is War
Of The Arrows
(2011) which I reviewed here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11478/Reindeer+Games+(2000/Miramax/Lionsgate+Blu-r
Hope
it gets a 4K upgrade at some point.
Extras
include an Original Theatrical Trailer and Character Profiles.
Quarxx's
Pandemonium
(2023) is
the kind of film we have seen before at first, where people die, but
are not necessarily aware they are dead yet. From the best Twilight
Zone
episodes to the likes of the overrated Sixth
Sense
with Bruce Willis, this French production leans towards the latter
reminiscent in the worst way of the also overrated Wender's Wings
Of Desire
(which itself inspired the odd remake City
Of Angels
with Nicolas Cage) where only one person can see the dead, then Peter
Falk shows up as Columbo for some reason!
In
this case, it starts out mixed, then takes its leads literally into
hell and never recovers from being such a mess. Corny, dated, off
and destroying any suspension of disbelief, some people liked this
one, but I am not part of that audience either. The French cast is
not bad, but it also wants to emulate Jeunet's work and that falls
flat for me too. This is the kind of narrative Quarxx has been
dealign with in almost all his work, but the one title I still want
to see of his is an older short (sadly not included here) is his 2012
short Zeropolis.
I bet there are a few new reasons that will come up again as we
post.
See
this one at your own risk.
Extras
(per the press release) include:
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265,
different-each-season various aspect ratios, Dolby Vision/HDR (10;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Jack
Ryan 4K
have a style dictated by the genre, a little dark, focused on
electronics and video screens, but with variation. Cliches
notwithstanding, this also has some nice outdoor and indoor work and
is the best performer on the list as expected. When it gets very
dark, I did not have any issues with that and thought that was
actually a welcome development.
[For
the record, the 4Ks of the feature films are a mixed bag, with
October
4K
needing more work, Danger
4K
OK, but the first three films (including Patriot
Games 4K)
having odd color issues and limits, so who knows what happened there,
but you have been warned.]
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Creation
is the second-best performer with surprisingly good color for the
genre and though we get plenty (too much?) digital CGI work, they
spend some serious money on sets, costumes and make-up and its shows.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 High Definition image transfer on Creation
is more like the softer, color-challenged/subdued approach we've seen
in the genre (no matter the country of origin) and is more
challenging to view.
Ditto
to the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on
Pandemonium
has the same softness issues, despite being a different genre and its
not soft just because it deals with spirits and death. Color is
subdued here too, but it is not as out of place.
All
releases have DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, save the
last two seasons of Ryan
in lossless Dolby Atmos, which sound good too, but are not that much
better than the first two. Guess that's why they did not upgrade the
earlier seasons to that sound format? Pandemonium
adds a lossless French PCM 2.0 Stereo mix to its DTS 5.1 mix.
Creation
and Noryang
were theatrical Dolby Atmos, but only have their DTS 5.1 mixers here,
so they could sound even better and maybe we'll encounter that with
any 4K releases of those titles, but the rest sounds as good as it
ever will. The sound can have some good moments, but no major
standouts across all the releases, but any English dubs offered are
not as good.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
