Lexmark3200
08-24-2005, 10:35 AM
WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY
Sam Raimi just nailed it. In my humble opinion, in the history of bringing comic book characters to "life" on the big screen, no one --- including Richard Donner and his excellent Superman II, Ang Lee and his Hulk, Mark Steven Johnson and HIS awesome attempt at Daredevil --- as well as the cinematic bombs that were The Punisher (both versions in my opinion) and crap like the first Captain America film --- has been able to capture the absolute comic book feel of a character and his surroundings, the villains he fights and the life he leads quite like Raimi has done with his film versions of the famous Marvel wall-slinger and its sequel. They are indeed comic-to-film transition at its perfection; there is no denying this. Everything --- from the casting down to the electric yet gritty look of the Peter Parker character's New York City environment (not to mention the incredibly real detail gone into making the web-slinger's red and blue suit jump off the screen and appear almost exactly as it should from the comic series) --- has been rendered with authenticity by Raimi. The films have become phenomenons, launching worldwide marketing campaigns for fast food chains, toy companies, you name it --- and has revitalized the interest in the almost-forgotten Spider-Man Marvel character. With each film that is released, it leaves audiences with one thought: WHEN IS THE NEXT ONE COMING OUT??!! At least that's how I felt leaving the theater after seeing the first one.....I simply couldn't WAIT for the sequel, to see who the villain was going to be and how Raimi was going to flesh out the characters, if so, any better......now, after seeing the sequel (well, when it was released theatrically I mean), the same reaction has taken over: I want to see the third film and wonder which villain Raimi will be introducing next.
But I can honestly remember, folks, walking out of the sequel during its opening night theatrical run (I saw both the original and sequel on opening night) with my ex and two other couples we were out with that were friends of mine, and thinking that for some reason----I DID enjoy the first Spidey better. There seemed to be some "magic" about the first film --- and I say this to THIS day --- that seems to be missing from Raimi's sequel; I don?t know if this has anything to do with the fact that in the original we are just being introduced to the characters and Parker's powers and such, or that I think the fight sequences between the Green Goblin and Spidey were more violent and loaded with better hand to hand combat as compared to those between Spidey and Doctor Octopus in the sequel (although THOSE fight sequences were wild as well) or perhaps it's that I feel that the sequel's running time was a tad too long and they could have edited many scenes from it to cut it down (the first film is actually MORE effective in introducing us to the Spider-Man story without being as long as the sequel, and in the same measure, eliminates the need for the currently popular prequel film).....but, for whatever reason, while both films are fantastic comic-to-screen action flicks, I STILL think the first one holds some kind of magic that wasn't duplicated in the sequel.
Casting, don't get me wrong, is spot on here in both films --- DaFoe was brilliant as Norman Osborne/Green Goblin, and so was Alfred Molina as Otto Octavious/Doc Ock; Tobey Maguire's portrayal of Peter Parker is subjective but I feel he nailed the role as the struggling-with-his-identity character from the comics. And Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane...well....to me, any onscreen time she is given is an excuse to leap to my DVD player's fast forward button on the remote.
Who's to play the villain in the third, already-filming picture? The end of the sequel would make you believe that Harry Osborne becomes the Hobgoblin after finding his father's Green Goblin hideaway --- but Raimi could have been doing this to trick us; there is speculation that we are going to possibly see The Lizard as the next bad guy the wall crawler faces. I can't wait, anyway.
Let's talk DVD, because when the first film arrived on our favorite software of choice, it was one of the most-anticipated releases in the history of recorded home media; what Columbia has done with the series of DVDs for this franchise has downright confused the public with multiple, repetitive releases of both the first and second films on DVD. I originally bought Columbia's SPECIAL EDITION two disc set of the first film on release day (in FOOL (full) screen because I was running a 27" 4:3 TV at the time) and since that time, you know what has been released? A Superbit version, a Deluxe Edition adding a third extras disc, a massive gift set in a board game-like box with ALL kinds of collectible extras in it --- and don't ask about the sequel. It has been given similar treatment, but one thing I applauded Columbia for was their choice to release the SUPERBIT of the sequel on the SAME DAY as they were releasing the standard Special Edition versions --- as not to force enthusiasts to double dip once again down the line; needless to say, I received the Superbit version of the sequel as a gift last Christmas season without even thinking twice about buying the standard edition. I believe there is even a two-pack set available which bundles the two DVDs of the two films together --- let's just say Columbia has marketed the **** out of these titles.
My original impressions of the first film?s DVD release (even in fool screen) were that it was, as everyone had claimed, an average effort at best. The video quality was decent enough (on my small 27" set anyway which wasn't going to reveal many flaws as is) but the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track I thought could have used some punching up.....it WAS active, for sure, with surround channels being called upon when appropriate and for creating a realistic surround environment --- but, there was something lacking here overall, and that probably had something to do with the fact that SO MANY extra features were packed onto that first Special Edition release of the first film --- which spilled onto a second disc. There was a tremendous amount of marketing, behind the scenes and other materials on this two disc set that it was almost inevitable that video and audio were going to get sacrificed --- but wasn't that what was really important?
My first Spidey experience in Superbit was with the sequel, but before I get to analyzing that, let me spend some time investigating and reporting on the results I received after watching the ORIGINAL film on Superbit, which I JUST got around to buying yesterday in order to replace my fool screen version and to take advantage of this Superbit sale Best Buy is still running. I watched the original's Superbit edition last night, and here is what I came away with:
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
DIGITALLY MASTERED 1:85:1 WIDESCREEN TRANSFER
I of course must have been missing some vital information from the sides of the screen while all this time running my pan and scan version of the film, but what hit me first while running this Superbit edition of Spider-Man (with its 1:85:1 transfer which filled my screen with no letterboxing) was what I had suspected and read all over the internet on other review sites: this transfer doesn't look all that much different --- or better --- for that matter, than Columbia's first release. This is what I have been finding with some Superbit titles like The Patriot; I realize Sony claims that by eliminating the features and trailer spots and such from the original releases of these discs this frees up bitrate space for a better video and audio delivery for hardcore home theater enthusiasts, but I'm getting hard pressed to find such benefits and I'm beginning to believe that this may be a way just to get us to double dip and keep on spending money on this studio's titles with no real, OBVIOUS benefits.
Online DVD reviewers bragged about the Superbit's drastic improvement in the opening title sequence of the film over the first release --- I was hard pressed to see many differences; to me, the colors were as bright as they were on the first release. As the film progressed, it is POSSIBLE that this was a slightly better-looking presentation as compared to the first double disc release, but nothing --- and I mean nothing --- that made me fall out of my chair due to drastic improvements. Spidey's suit remained the same color wise, the Goblin's green seemed to be just as green on the Superbit version --- this was a release, unfortunately friends, that I could say I felt like Sony scammed us on as I detected no real video benefits (outside of trading up and getting rid of my full screen version) over Columbia's first two disc release --- and if they were there, they were subtle.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
DIGITALLY MASTERED ENGLISH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1, ENGLISH DTS 5.1; SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, PORTUGESE, CHINESE, KOREAN, THAI; EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY BY TOBEY MAGUIRE AND JK SIMMONS
In a first for a Superbit title, there is supposed to be a running commentary on this disc --- although I have read online that some people have had difficulty accessing this feature. And, as usual, onboard are the choices of Dolby Digital or DTS surround tracks --- which is what prompted me to upgrade to this edition mainly because I was so curious to see how much the DTS mix, if at all, was going to improve upon the decent-at-best Dolby track from the Special Edition. Again, the results were.....well, I don't want to say DISSAPOINTING, but.....let's just say not what I was expecting. There seems to be the common SLIGHT increase in volume power here on the DTS mix --- and in this case, I do mean SLIGHT, as it was hard to detect much decibel level increase activity over the Dolby Digital version --- but overall, I found the experience to be almost the same as I did watching this disc in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. There is DEFINITELY a greater sense of LFE presence here on the DTS mix, THAT I detected, but overall, it sounds much like the Dolby track of previous editions on this title.
Many fellow online DVD reviewers boast about one scene in particular on the Superbit version's DTS track, where the laughing voice of DaFoe's Goblin personality takes on a MASSIVE shift and drastic improvement from speaker to speaker through the surrounds as it bounces around the listener as compared to the Dolby track --- to be perfectly honest, I found the effect, even in Dolby Digital, to be just as satisfying and similar to the way it was rendered in DTS. Even all the action sequences --- the fight between Spidey and the Green Goblin in the burning building (where you can still hear the flames licking around you in the surrounds), the final confrontation on the Queensboro Bridge and the awesome end hand to hand combat scene between the Goblin and the web slinger --- all seemed to sound very very similar in DTS as it did in Dolby Digital.
The question becomes: do you, as a fan, REALLY need that DTS track on the Superbit version or are the extras regarding the behind the scenes marketing for the first film more important to you on the Special Edition? If the answer to that second question is yes, than I say keep your original release of this title because I didn't spot many improvements on the Superbit. On the other hand, if you wish to take advantage of this Best Buy Superbit sale and WANT the definitive version of the film audio and video wise, it's probably not going to get "better" than the Superbit edition.
Now, moving onto Raimi's Spider-Man 2, I don't really need to do an official rundown of the Superbit disc because I've just done so many exhaustive full length reviews of this title since owning it that it would be redundant at this point; let's just point out a couple of facts. I did not have the original two disc Special Edition (released the same day) to compare against the Superbit version going into it, but I can make these comments: after watching the original and sequel in Superbit AND in DTS last night back to back, it is obvious the sequel's DTS mix was hotter and more active. Aside from that, there were aspect ratio differences, wherein Raimi shot the original in 1:85:1 and the sequel in 2:35 or 2:40:1 so the sequel appeared with slight letterboxing on my display. In terms of video performance, the Superbit version of the sequel remained pretty much problem free and is probably the best the film is going to look pre-hi definition (I don't know how the Special Edition version of the sequel looked because I went right for the Superbit on release day, well, actually receiving it as a gift). But in terms of audio, I can tell you this: the FIRST film's Superbit DTS mix needed more volume amplification than the sequel's DTS mix did, and the sequel's DTS track just seemed "more aggressive" across the board --- not by much, but it did sound richer in certain areas.
And so in closing, friends, I feel like while I always enjoy sitting down with the sequel in Superbit glory, the Superbit release of the first Spidey film may not be that much of an improvement over the first release; the DTS track, to me, didn't seem "much" hotter than the Dolby Digital mix on the Special Edition but there is a definite tighter LFE presence on the DTS track. All in all, I will go as far to say that I believe Columbia could have done a better job on BOTH films' audio presentations for their DVD releases, whether they be Special Editions OR Superbits. Of course, this is just my opinion and what my ears were telling me.
Happy Superbit Shopping!
Sam Raimi just nailed it. In my humble opinion, in the history of bringing comic book characters to "life" on the big screen, no one --- including Richard Donner and his excellent Superman II, Ang Lee and his Hulk, Mark Steven Johnson and HIS awesome attempt at Daredevil --- as well as the cinematic bombs that were The Punisher (both versions in my opinion) and crap like the first Captain America film --- has been able to capture the absolute comic book feel of a character and his surroundings, the villains he fights and the life he leads quite like Raimi has done with his film versions of the famous Marvel wall-slinger and its sequel. They are indeed comic-to-film transition at its perfection; there is no denying this. Everything --- from the casting down to the electric yet gritty look of the Peter Parker character's New York City environment (not to mention the incredibly real detail gone into making the web-slinger's red and blue suit jump off the screen and appear almost exactly as it should from the comic series) --- has been rendered with authenticity by Raimi. The films have become phenomenons, launching worldwide marketing campaigns for fast food chains, toy companies, you name it --- and has revitalized the interest in the almost-forgotten Spider-Man Marvel character. With each film that is released, it leaves audiences with one thought: WHEN IS THE NEXT ONE COMING OUT??!! At least that's how I felt leaving the theater after seeing the first one.....I simply couldn't WAIT for the sequel, to see who the villain was going to be and how Raimi was going to flesh out the characters, if so, any better......now, after seeing the sequel (well, when it was released theatrically I mean), the same reaction has taken over: I want to see the third film and wonder which villain Raimi will be introducing next.
But I can honestly remember, folks, walking out of the sequel during its opening night theatrical run (I saw both the original and sequel on opening night) with my ex and two other couples we were out with that were friends of mine, and thinking that for some reason----I DID enjoy the first Spidey better. There seemed to be some "magic" about the first film --- and I say this to THIS day --- that seems to be missing from Raimi's sequel; I don?t know if this has anything to do with the fact that in the original we are just being introduced to the characters and Parker's powers and such, or that I think the fight sequences between the Green Goblin and Spidey were more violent and loaded with better hand to hand combat as compared to those between Spidey and Doctor Octopus in the sequel (although THOSE fight sequences were wild as well) or perhaps it's that I feel that the sequel's running time was a tad too long and they could have edited many scenes from it to cut it down (the first film is actually MORE effective in introducing us to the Spider-Man story without being as long as the sequel, and in the same measure, eliminates the need for the currently popular prequel film).....but, for whatever reason, while both films are fantastic comic-to-screen action flicks, I STILL think the first one holds some kind of magic that wasn't duplicated in the sequel.
Casting, don't get me wrong, is spot on here in both films --- DaFoe was brilliant as Norman Osborne/Green Goblin, and so was Alfred Molina as Otto Octavious/Doc Ock; Tobey Maguire's portrayal of Peter Parker is subjective but I feel he nailed the role as the struggling-with-his-identity character from the comics. And Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane...well....to me, any onscreen time she is given is an excuse to leap to my DVD player's fast forward button on the remote.
Who's to play the villain in the third, already-filming picture? The end of the sequel would make you believe that Harry Osborne becomes the Hobgoblin after finding his father's Green Goblin hideaway --- but Raimi could have been doing this to trick us; there is speculation that we are going to possibly see The Lizard as the next bad guy the wall crawler faces. I can't wait, anyway.
Let's talk DVD, because when the first film arrived on our favorite software of choice, it was one of the most-anticipated releases in the history of recorded home media; what Columbia has done with the series of DVDs for this franchise has downright confused the public with multiple, repetitive releases of both the first and second films on DVD. I originally bought Columbia's SPECIAL EDITION two disc set of the first film on release day (in FOOL (full) screen because I was running a 27" 4:3 TV at the time) and since that time, you know what has been released? A Superbit version, a Deluxe Edition adding a third extras disc, a massive gift set in a board game-like box with ALL kinds of collectible extras in it --- and don't ask about the sequel. It has been given similar treatment, but one thing I applauded Columbia for was their choice to release the SUPERBIT of the sequel on the SAME DAY as they were releasing the standard Special Edition versions --- as not to force enthusiasts to double dip once again down the line; needless to say, I received the Superbit version of the sequel as a gift last Christmas season without even thinking twice about buying the standard edition. I believe there is even a two-pack set available which bundles the two DVDs of the two films together --- let's just say Columbia has marketed the **** out of these titles.
My original impressions of the first film?s DVD release (even in fool screen) were that it was, as everyone had claimed, an average effort at best. The video quality was decent enough (on my small 27" set anyway which wasn't going to reveal many flaws as is) but the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track I thought could have used some punching up.....it WAS active, for sure, with surround channels being called upon when appropriate and for creating a realistic surround environment --- but, there was something lacking here overall, and that probably had something to do with the fact that SO MANY extra features were packed onto that first Special Edition release of the first film --- which spilled onto a second disc. There was a tremendous amount of marketing, behind the scenes and other materials on this two disc set that it was almost inevitable that video and audio were going to get sacrificed --- but wasn't that what was really important?
My first Spidey experience in Superbit was with the sequel, but before I get to analyzing that, let me spend some time investigating and reporting on the results I received after watching the ORIGINAL film on Superbit, which I JUST got around to buying yesterday in order to replace my fool screen version and to take advantage of this Superbit sale Best Buy is still running. I watched the original's Superbit edition last night, and here is what I came away with:
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
DIGITALLY MASTERED 1:85:1 WIDESCREEN TRANSFER
I of course must have been missing some vital information from the sides of the screen while all this time running my pan and scan version of the film, but what hit me first while running this Superbit edition of Spider-Man (with its 1:85:1 transfer which filled my screen with no letterboxing) was what I had suspected and read all over the internet on other review sites: this transfer doesn't look all that much different --- or better --- for that matter, than Columbia's first release. This is what I have been finding with some Superbit titles like The Patriot; I realize Sony claims that by eliminating the features and trailer spots and such from the original releases of these discs this frees up bitrate space for a better video and audio delivery for hardcore home theater enthusiasts, but I'm getting hard pressed to find such benefits and I'm beginning to believe that this may be a way just to get us to double dip and keep on spending money on this studio's titles with no real, OBVIOUS benefits.
Online DVD reviewers bragged about the Superbit's drastic improvement in the opening title sequence of the film over the first release --- I was hard pressed to see many differences; to me, the colors were as bright as they were on the first release. As the film progressed, it is POSSIBLE that this was a slightly better-looking presentation as compared to the first double disc release, but nothing --- and I mean nothing --- that made me fall out of my chair due to drastic improvements. Spidey's suit remained the same color wise, the Goblin's green seemed to be just as green on the Superbit version --- this was a release, unfortunately friends, that I could say I felt like Sony scammed us on as I detected no real video benefits (outside of trading up and getting rid of my full screen version) over Columbia's first two disc release --- and if they were there, they were subtle.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
DIGITALLY MASTERED ENGLISH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1, ENGLISH DTS 5.1; SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, PORTUGESE, CHINESE, KOREAN, THAI; EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY BY TOBEY MAGUIRE AND JK SIMMONS
In a first for a Superbit title, there is supposed to be a running commentary on this disc --- although I have read online that some people have had difficulty accessing this feature. And, as usual, onboard are the choices of Dolby Digital or DTS surround tracks --- which is what prompted me to upgrade to this edition mainly because I was so curious to see how much the DTS mix, if at all, was going to improve upon the decent-at-best Dolby track from the Special Edition. Again, the results were.....well, I don't want to say DISSAPOINTING, but.....let's just say not what I was expecting. There seems to be the common SLIGHT increase in volume power here on the DTS mix --- and in this case, I do mean SLIGHT, as it was hard to detect much decibel level increase activity over the Dolby Digital version --- but overall, I found the experience to be almost the same as I did watching this disc in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. There is DEFINITELY a greater sense of LFE presence here on the DTS mix, THAT I detected, but overall, it sounds much like the Dolby track of previous editions on this title.
Many fellow online DVD reviewers boast about one scene in particular on the Superbit version's DTS track, where the laughing voice of DaFoe's Goblin personality takes on a MASSIVE shift and drastic improvement from speaker to speaker through the surrounds as it bounces around the listener as compared to the Dolby track --- to be perfectly honest, I found the effect, even in Dolby Digital, to be just as satisfying and similar to the way it was rendered in DTS. Even all the action sequences --- the fight between Spidey and the Green Goblin in the burning building (where you can still hear the flames licking around you in the surrounds), the final confrontation on the Queensboro Bridge and the awesome end hand to hand combat scene between the Goblin and the web slinger --- all seemed to sound very very similar in DTS as it did in Dolby Digital.
The question becomes: do you, as a fan, REALLY need that DTS track on the Superbit version or are the extras regarding the behind the scenes marketing for the first film more important to you on the Special Edition? If the answer to that second question is yes, than I say keep your original release of this title because I didn't spot many improvements on the Superbit. On the other hand, if you wish to take advantage of this Best Buy Superbit sale and WANT the definitive version of the film audio and video wise, it's probably not going to get "better" than the Superbit edition.
Now, moving onto Raimi's Spider-Man 2, I don't really need to do an official rundown of the Superbit disc because I've just done so many exhaustive full length reviews of this title since owning it that it would be redundant at this point; let's just point out a couple of facts. I did not have the original two disc Special Edition (released the same day) to compare against the Superbit version going into it, but I can make these comments: after watching the original and sequel in Superbit AND in DTS last night back to back, it is obvious the sequel's DTS mix was hotter and more active. Aside from that, there were aspect ratio differences, wherein Raimi shot the original in 1:85:1 and the sequel in 2:35 or 2:40:1 so the sequel appeared with slight letterboxing on my display. In terms of video performance, the Superbit version of the sequel remained pretty much problem free and is probably the best the film is going to look pre-hi definition (I don't know how the Special Edition version of the sequel looked because I went right for the Superbit on release day, well, actually receiving it as a gift). But in terms of audio, I can tell you this: the FIRST film's Superbit DTS mix needed more volume amplification than the sequel's DTS mix did, and the sequel's DTS track just seemed "more aggressive" across the board --- not by much, but it did sound richer in certain areas.
And so in closing, friends, I feel like while I always enjoy sitting down with the sequel in Superbit glory, the Superbit release of the first Spidey film may not be that much of an improvement over the first release; the DTS track, to me, didn't seem "much" hotter than the Dolby Digital mix on the Special Edition but there is a definite tighter LFE presence on the DTS track. All in all, I will go as far to say that I believe Columbia could have done a better job on BOTH films' audio presentations for their DVD releases, whether they be Special Editions OR Superbits. Of course, this is just my opinion and what my ears were telling me.
Happy Superbit Shopping!