Brotherhood Of The Wolf (2-DVD Director’s Cut/Focus/Universal)
Picture:
B Sound: B
Extras: C+ Film: C+
As much
as I wanted to love 2001’s Brotherhood
of the Wolf, the film failed to please, even in it’s directors cut version,
which I was able to see a few years after it’s release when it was issued in
Canada as a 3-disc version, which was superior to the single disc theatrical
cut DVD that was issued in the states.
Both versions of the film never really worked that well and while seeing
the film in the theater was one of the better audio/visual experienced I had in
quite some time, the film has not aged well and the digital effects (while
dated on arrival) look even worse now, which is hard to fathom.
There is
no doubt that this film peaked some attention in it’s arrival as it was
following the popular trend of the time with Foreign action films starting to
get attention inside the U.S., just before this film came out people were
ignorantly praising Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon as if the genre had just been invented. This time around we get a film that is part
action film, part epic, part costume/period piece, part thriller, part martial
arts, part Matrix, and part Fantasy,
but even with all those parts it still doesn’t make for one whole movie, at
least not a good one. It starts off
well, lots of suspense, great scenic shots that ooze with mystery. Then we get into the Fantasy part as we learn
that there have been some murders, which are being investigated and it seems
that these killings could have only been caused by ‘something’ not human. There are skeptics, but as more people are
killed it becomes inevitable that our heroes must capture this beast and kill
it, they form ‘the brotherhood’ I suppose.
The film is suppose to be set in 18th Century France, which
is yet just another part of it’s downfall as it just can’t make up it’s mind
exactly what type of film it wants to be and then when the ‘beast’ does arrive
looking lamer than something from a 1950’s B-horror monster, it sucks the life
out of the film quicker a Dirt Devil convention.
So here
we are years later and at best about 6-years after the Canadian DVD release and
we finally get the directors cut of the film, in this 2-disc edition, which
features all the extras that should have been on the initial release. This was a film that was stunning in the
theaters from a visual standpoint and the audio was amazing too, but all of the
video releases, even the DTS import, do not come close to the stunning fidelity
that was offered theatrically. Here we
get a solid Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that works well and you might think was great
if you never saw this film in the theater and knew how it was meant to sound,
we will need to see how a Blu-ray of this film would be as that might get us
closer, especially a lossless DTS-HD mix.
Until then, we get this. The film
is presented in a clean and clear 2.35 X 1 scope transfer that is
anamorphically enhanced and looks sharp considering it’s limited to the
resolution of standard definition in this DVD release. I should note that the film looks dated on
arrival too in this release as some portions appear more TV-like with weird
colors and movement, which could be the production, but I don’t recall this
film looking wacky like this at times.
This is most noticeable in the interior shots of the film.
Extras
include 40-minutes worth of added footage back into the film to make it more
epic and complete, but again it only drags on the film and still does not bring
the film to a new level. A featurette
that uncovers the special effects work on the film, which is super bad as it
only shows just how pathetic this work really is, especially all these years
later, plus a few other featurettes on the production and location work,
choreography, etc. Overall nothing
special here and it only shows how the film doesn’t work well and only leaves
the viewer feeling that much more dissatisfied in the end.
- Nate Goss
