Beyonce – I Am… Yours: An Intimate Performance At
Wynn Las Vegas (2009/Sony Music Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: C+ Concert: B-
Some
people complain that Beyoncé Knowles is very overexposed and maybe even
overrated, but she is consistent and ambitious to stay on top with the best
possible productions on record and in concert.
I have been waiting for an artistic breakthrough and though I am not her
biggest fan, I am surprised how impressive her new I Am… Yours concert film is and not just because it was actually
shot on film.
Looking
exceptionally good, she delivers a solid concert that is one of her best to
date with her music split into three acts so she can entertain and tell her
life story while coming up with new dance numbers, repeating some old ones and
going out of her way to deliver a top rate, big money concert. She could have landed up overdoing it in an
overproduced production, but this actually holds well together, in part because
she finds balance and connects with her audience early on.
Director
Nick Wickham (Il Divo – Live In
Barcelona, Kings Of Leon: Late At The
02) has a knack for capturing a concert event like nobody since David
Mallet and that makes this fun and entertaining with plenty of energy, even if
you do not like al the music. On film,
Knowles looks good and by not playing a character, we see her at her natural
best. She covers some Destiny’s Child
material (though she speaks of the band as if she left them in the 1960s), but
she had to outdo her past concert releases and grow. This works well enough to see it at least
once.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is apparently shot in Super 35mm film
format by Director of Photography Dion Beebe (Chicago, Equilibrium) in
what is easily one of the best-looking concert Blu-rays to date. Detail is nice, the image smooth, color’s
reproduced with superior range and only minor blur and detail issues. Some shots are even demo quality, but I
wished there were more such shots.
Still, you will be impressed.
The Dolby
TrueHD 48/24 lossless 5.1 mix has its moments of fine soundfield and fidelity,
yet I thought it did not become the breakout mix it could have been and is
slightly better than the previous Solo and Child Blu-rays we covered elsewhere
on the site. Those previous Blu-rays had
PCM 5.1, but the Dolby TrueHD was not a switch up as those mixes were good
too. Extras include the What Happens In Vegas making-of
featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
