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