Quantum of Solace – Blu-ray Disc Review

March 20, 2009 – 9:07 PM - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: 007, Daniel Craig, Gemma Arterton, Giancarlo Giannini, James Bond, Jesper Christensen, Judi Dench, Marc Forster, Mathieu Amalric, MGM, Olga Kurylenko

has an average rating of 6.9 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
are ALL in High Definition
–
– 2008
– 106 minutes
– MGM
–
This uses 27.0GB for the movie out of 42.8GB total.
Street Date: March 24th, 2009

Overall Verdict – Highly Recommended

Buy it for $18.49 @ Amazon.com

— Review by: Justin Sluss & James Segars —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself is the 22nd film in the “James Bond 007” franchise of motion pictures. It is the follow up to the immensely successful Casino Royale, and is directed by Marc Forster (Stranger Than Fiction, Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland).

Picking up minutes after the finale of Casino Royale, James Bond successfully escapes with his only remaining lead, Mr. White. However, the trail goes cold when, in the midst of questioning, a mole within MI6 dispatches with Mr. White. Soon after, in an attempt to uncover potential leads, intelligence officers at MI6 discover a link between Le Chiffre and a notable environmentalist, Dominic Greene. Bond is instructed to investigate, and determine whether there is a connection between the two.

There is much to be seen, and much to be loved here in this explosive, and hard-boiled followup to Casino Royale. If Casino was the action-packed, tongue-in-cheek James Bond we all know and love, then Quantum of Solace is the brooding, cold-blooded dark side of Bond we seldom see.

My expectations following Casino Royale were monumental to say the least, so you can imagine my surprise when I walked out of the theater only to realize that Quantum hadn’t just met them, it blew them away. In a word, I thought it was perfect, and while many believe Quantum of Solace to be an inferior sequel — if only slightly — I can’t help but disagree. I not only think Quantum holds its own in comparison to Casino, but I think that in some ways Quantum actually bests Casino Royale, both in style and in mood — much thanks to Marc Forster and crew for that one — which boosts the film into the upper echelon of “Bond” films. I know that isn’t the case for every Bond fan out there, but that’s just me. I believe that since no two Bond films are exactly alike, the same can be said of the James Bond fans. That being said, I can’t help but feel as though the many critics of the film missed the point.

From the opening moments of the film, I knew Quantum was different from everything that had come before it. The stillness, and the quiet. The graceful helicopter shot towards the cliff. Extreme closeups, accompanied by the sounds of steady breathing and distant engines roaring. All of these things are borderline uncharacteristic of Bond films, and yet I felt more in tune with the world of James Bond than ever before. And in an instant, almost as if we’re shifting with Bond’s focus, we are thrust into the middle of a high-speed chase, the intensity of which is undeniable. This is but one of the moments that makes Quantum unique, compelling, powerful and poetic — my favorite being the Opera sequence midway through.

Quantum‘s one and only complication is that it relies on Casino Royale for the narrative groundwork. Now of course, that no longer presents a problem to the viewer if you’ve seen Casino, but if you haven’t seen Casino Royale, next to nothing will make sense here. If you’re hoping to pick this up and you haven’t watched Casino yet, you’d be well advised to give it a watch beforehand. Still, Quantum never feels like an afterthought, or a half-baked sequel. In fact, this film suggests that the exact opposite is true. It’s as if these films are a part of a far greater whole — singular threads in a massive web of conspiracy and terrorism. In that sense, it might just be the first Bond “sequel” ever made. I say that because while there were certain narrative arcs that recurred throughout the franchise — SPECTRE and their heinous plots — this film builds upon its predecessor while also bringing a real sense of closure to James Bond’s first assignment. Beyond that of course, it provides Bond time enough to unravel the plot that led Vesper to her watery grave, and ample room to exact his revenge.

In the end, I can’t help but feel as though these latest Bond films, through all of the advancements in stylization and characterization, bring us ever closer to understanding James Bond as opposed to merely watching him in action. While some viewers and fans might be opposed to this, in favor of mindless entertainment, I couldn’t be happier with the way things are unfolding in the world of James Bond, and I honestly believe that if Ian Fleming were alive today, he’d feel the same.

— Synopsis (above) written by: James Segars —

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

For filming the 22nd “Bond” film, Director of Photography Roberto Schaefer decided to use a variety of cameras (mostly Arriflex), as well as using both traditional Super 35mm film and Digital (HDCAM) intermediate source. It’s also worth pointing out that Roberto Schaefer has served as DP (Director of Photography) on almost all of Director Marc Forster‘s previous films such as “The Kite Runner“, “Stranger Than Fiction” and “Finding Neverland” — just to name a few of the more recent.

Upon viewing the very first few minutes of the film it becomes very apparent that the black level is solid and the color palette has it’s own unique vibrancy. The lovely Olga Kurylenko serves as a wonderful example of fleshtone accuracy, in comparison with co-stars Daniel Craig and the very pale Mathieu Amalric. The presentation, despite the variety of both traditional film and digital (in some cases HD) source material, has a consistent Hi-Def presentation that is very pleasing to the eyes and never misses a bit of the action. There seem to be no signs of any use of digital noise filters such as DNR or EE and also seem to be no signs of compression as this uses a good 27 gigabyte of disc space, just for the film itself. Overall, I have to say MGM has done this release justice, earning it an impressive “4.5 Star Rating” for video quality.

— Video (above), Audio quality & bonus (below) written by: Justin Sluss —

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. The film starts off with one hell of a car chase that is an absolutely perfect “demo quality” piece of material in terms of current generation 5.1 Surround. Every rev of the engines or crashing clank of the metal clashing comes through brilliantly in this DTS-HD 5.1 MA mix — making excellent use here, just in the first few moments of the film of the rear channel and bass presence. This delivers an ultra realistic soundscape that is sure to leave you on the edge of your seat through this chase and all the others throughout the film. Once this chase sequence is over we are treated to the “theme” song, “Another Way to Die” performed by Jack White & Alicia Keys which sounds absolutely awesome, setting the tone of the retro / futuristic title sequences of “Bond” past.

Dialogue starts up a little before we get the opening theme song and title sequence and is delivered perfectly here, primarily through the front center channel. No volume adjustment should be required here as this 5.1 mix is perfectly balanced. The sound effects here are absolutely marvelous and as I mentioned earlier, they sound extremely realistic and boast that “oomph!” we here at High Def Disc News love to hear. The original music composed by David Arnold here sounds deeply immerse and is delivered nicely throughout the entire 360 degree radius of the 5.1 soundscape. To say that the DTS-HD 5.1 MA on “Quantum of Solace” is intense would be a definite understatement. So, it should come as very little surprise that this earns itself a perfect “5 Star Rating” for overall audio quality. To the folks at MGM, congratulations on a job well done here.

Bonus Materials on this release are presented in High Definition (HD) video using the AVC MPEG-4 codec. Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo @224kbps throughout almost all bonus materials, unless otherwise noted.

• “Another Way to Die” Music Video by Jack White & Alicia Keys (4:30 – HD) is presented with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo @224kbps sound. Really awesome “Bond” song here and the music video sports a very nice visual style much like the film itself.
• “Bond on Location” (24:45 – HD) starts off with an interview with Director Marc Forster as well as Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, all discussing the new “Bond” film. Actor Daniel Craig also chimes in with an interview and we are treated to lots of behind-the-scenes footage on the many sets of the film which is what this featurette focuses on, locations like Panama, Chile, Austria and Italy. Camera crews also discuss the challenges of shooting on these locations and most importantly getting there, which required helicopters at times.
• “Start of Shooting” (2:53 – HD) again, starts off with an interview with the Director (Marc Forster) discussing Daniel Craig‘s re-invention of the character and the huge expectations that “Casino Royale” left the fans with. This goes on to have some behind-the-scenes footage of the first days of shooting and Daniel Craig also discussing working on the film and the high expectations.
• “On Location” (3:14 – HD) deals up more discussion of the film’s many locations which Director Marc Forster says is it’s own character. Footage of the airplane chase being filmed and the crew discussing the stuntwork is also included here.
• “Olga Kurylenko and the Boat Chase” (2:14 – HD) focuses on the latest “Bond Girl” and her first big stunt of the film, the boat chase. Olga, hands down is the most beautiful “Bond Girl” to date.
• “Director Marc Forster” (2:45 – HD) focuses obviously on the new Director this time around, the very talented Marc Forster who has made some amazing films in his career.
• “The Music” (2:36 – HD) takes a look at the creation of the beautiful music composed by David Arnold and the film’s theme song written by Jack White, featuring Alicia Keys.
• “Crew Files: Behind-the-Scenes Clips” (45:30 – HD) is made up of 30+ clips from cast, crew and so forth discussing the film, sometimes on the set or including some obvious behind-the-scenes footage. This is a definite treat, and while it serves its purpose as a standalone feature, I can imagine this would have worked well as a Bonus View (Picture-In-Picture) feature too.
• “Theatrical Teaser Trailer #1 (1:51 – HD) features Dolby Digital 5.1 @448kbps Surround sound.
• “Theatrical Trailer #2 (2:23 – HD) features Dolby Digital 5.1 @448kbps Surround sound.

Overall the bonus materials we get here are very nice, especially since they are ALL presented in High Definition video but there still seems to be some things lacking. A Digital Copy, some deleted scenes, a Bonus View Picture-In-Picture feature such as a video commentary from the Director or at least an audio commentary, would have been nice but we don’t see any of those included. There’s always next time, as it only took one year for Sony to decide to “double dip” on the previous “Bond” film “Casino Royale“. Either way, you’ll definitely enjoy what you get here as it is informative and very entertaining set of supplemental material. I’m actually surprised that MGM finally did bonus materials on a release, let alone decided to put them all in Hi-Def. So, I guess it could have been much, much worse. Look on the bright side.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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