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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > Nature > Environment > Home – A Stunning Visual Portrayal of Earth (Fox Blu-ray)

Home – A Stunning Visual Portrayal of Earth (Fox Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B+     Sound: B+     Extras: D     Film: B-

 

 

Ever since the advent of HDTV’s there has been a fascination with people seeing nature shots, which has caused for both celebration and extended interest in nature shows of all sorts.  When something becomes popular like this, you have your fair share of good programming, which many of the productions shot for IMAX have capitalized on for years utilizing the 70mm format, and then you also have poor productions, especially in the digital age, who think that showing a few scenic pictures with a voice-over are going to be enough.  Thankfully the bar has been set pretty high though, in particular when the BBC put forth their tremendous Planet Earth production, which we have reviewed here.

 

So that leaves us with Home – A Stunning Portrayal of Earth, which focuses again on the beauty of our planet and captures some magnificent images from dozens of countries and is narrated by Glenn Close and her voice-over connects life together in some interesting ways while the visuals make sense of this and give the viewer material that is more specific to human interaction, whereas Planet Earth focused more on the planet and the creatures that inhabit it, not so much mankind.  At times I was reminded of Ron Fricke’s masterwork Baraka, which we have also reviewed on Blu-ray, you can read about that here. 

 

So while nothing here might be super-original, that does not disqualify the program from being strong and in particular this Blu-ray release offers some fantastic visuals presented in 1080p High Definition and framed at 1.78 X 1, which showcases the improvements in the digital world and while many of the shots cannot compete with the depth found in a 70mm production like Baraka, the fine detail and overall resolution look superb.  One aspect of this production that I did notice that stood out among various HD programming is the color, often times high definition cameras offer sloppy color rendering with bleeding reds and blacks with little-to-no depth, but that is not the case here, in fact colors are saturated, lush, full, and natural looking, which is quite a feat considering how many poor transfers we have seen where digital was messy. 

 

Audio is another highlight with a lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix that represents the film very well.  Most of the mix feels centered with some occasional swelling in the surrounds depending on the score at times, Close’ voiceover is natural sounding and fits well over the film, there is a good fulfilling low-end presence in the LFE channel, which brings a thickness and punch to the film, which draws the viewer/listener in and aids in the films impact.  The score is dynamic and full, almost constantly moving in some direction or another, this keeps the pace of the film from dragging and the crispness is a high point that will make audiophiles happy. 

 

No supplements here, which it would have been nice to at least have some sort of making-of feature, but fortunately the material is strong enough that it won’t deter you from wanting a copy.

 

 

-   Nate Goss


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