The Rock Blu-ray Set (Doom/The Rundown/Scorpion King/Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B     Extras: C-     Films: D

 

 

Dwayne “The Rock’ Johnson continues to be the kind of star that is going to be remembered as a hallmark of how bad The Bush II years were and can even be held responsible for some of that annoyance.  As a catch up to material they released in the now-defunct HD-DVD format, Universal is issuing two more of his films on Blu-ray to go with one they already did.  Here is our previous coverage of all three duds:

 

Doom DVD

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3337/Doom+-+Unrated+Extended+Edtion

 

The Rundown HD-DVD

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4012/The+Rundown+(2003/HD-DVD)

 

Scorpion King Blu-ray

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7252/The+Mummy+++The+Mummy+Return

HD-DVD/DVD Combo Edition

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4768/The+Scorpion+King+(HD-DVD/DVD

 

 

The films have not improved in the least, though the Blu-ray is reviewed by another one of the site writers.  The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on all the Blu-rays are the exact same masters and transfers as their now-defunct HD-DVD counterparts and with so many better Blu-rays on the market, look worse than ever.  So that leaves the soundtracks.

 

All three have upgraded from the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 on the HD-DVDs to DTS HD Master Audio (MA) lossless on the new Blu-rays, but all the new better codecs do is reveal how much sloppier and inept these mixes are with problematic soundfields, some other bad mixing choices and general sound design that leaves something to be desired.  Vin Diesel’s films (Like Babylon A.D.) do much better in this respect.

 

Extras are the same in all cases and the films also almost feel like they are the same film.  Unless you are a very, very, very big fan of Johnson, this is one set you can live without.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo