The Phantom – Blu-ray Disc Review

February 10, 2010 – 12:41 AM - Posted by: James Segars

Tags: Billy Zane, Catherine Zeta-Jones, James Remar, Kristy Swanson, Lionsgate, Paramount, Simon Wincer, Treat Williams

has an average rating of 4.8 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 25gb disc
DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio
are non-existent
–
– 1996
– 100 minutes
– Lionsgate (originally Paramount)
–
This uses 21.3GB for the movie out of 21.9GB total.

Overall Verdict – For Fans Only

Buy it for $8.49 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: James Segars —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself is directed by Simon Wincer (Free Willy, Lightning Jack).

Judging from the dismal rating on IMDb, I may be one of the few people on the planet that actually enjoys — hell, maybe even loves — The Phantom. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cheesy flick, and it’s certainly not a primed to be a timeless caper-classic, but I can’t help but find something endearing about it; perhaps because it is so hokey and cheesy. Whatever the reason, I was delighted to see that Lionsgate was set to bring this film onto Blu-ray.

It’s been years since I last saw the film, and I wasn’t quite sure what I would find upon revisiting the world of the Phantom. Admittedly, the film doesn’t quite hold up the way I expected — few films from my adolescence have — but putting aside the horrid compositing/effects work and some dreadful sets, The Phantom remains as a “thrilling” as it was when I saw it back in 1996.

For those of you that don’t know the story and would like a primer, allow me to enlighten you. The Phantom centers around a seemingly immortal jungle hero who thwarts evil and protects the ancient artifacts and secrets of his jungle lair. While he appears invincible to everyone, the truth is that the Phantom mantle is passed down from generation to generation, father to son, so that the vigilante/hero symbol of the Phantom is maintained throughout the centuries. Trouble ensues when this generation’s Phantom (Billy Zane) fails to protect a legendary skull, which is stolen by a band of thugs in the service of a dangerous, and maniacal Mobster, Xander Drax (Treat Williams). Drax plans to unite the three long-lost skulls in order to harness what he believes to be an unstoppable, immeasurable power, and so The Phantom must travel across the world to stop him before it’s too late.

So if that didn’t sound remotely interesting to you, you might want to pass on watching this catalog title. However, if you’ve seen the film before and you’ve been curious to see how it’s aged over the years, you should certainly give it a shot, but I should warn you while the film itself hasn’t aged nearly as badly as I was fearing, the video presentation is definitely not up to today’s standards of quality. Skip down below for more on that.

Nonetheless, when all is said and done, I still get a great deal of enjoyment out of The Phantom. It’s not one of my favorite films ever made, but I’ve still got room in my heart for it all the same. And even though it doesn’t look the greatest, I’m still glad to have it in my collection.

Video Quality on this release is 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-25‘s (25 gigabyte single layer Blu-ray Disc) presented in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

If you had your hopes up for a stellar high-def presentation, you might need to put the credit card away. What we get here is far from the worst catalog releases I’ve ever seen, but it’s definitely one of the dirtiest presentations I’ve seen in a long while, which for a 1996 film is unacceptable. Before we launch into what’s wrong with the presentation, let’s talk about where the blame lies. It’s easy to point the finger at Lionsgate because they are the studio that is handling the release of the film, but further inspection will show you that Paramount was the original distributor and production studio. At some point in time, Paramount sold the distribution rights to this film (and Hard Rain, and Drop Zone as well — all titles being released today) and presumably the then-current HD master came along with the rights, leaving Lionsgate with the responsibility to package the film and sell it at their leisure. So you see, it’s not as easy as blaming one studio or the other, in fact I believe that both are to blame, and the reason is the state the master is in — bad.

The main issues here — as you might be able to gather from the included screenshots — is that the print is riddled with white and black flecks, dirt, hair, scratches and other print artifacts that are likely not the fault of Lionsgate, but of Paramount when the master changed hands. Put simply, you will seldom find a frame in the 100 minute running time that isn’t flawed in some way, minor or major. Therefore, it is evident that little to no care at all was put into cleaning up the years-old master, and certainly no remastering whatsoever — at least as far as the video presentation is concerned. In this case, I find both studios partly at fault; Paramount for handing over damaged goods and Lionsgate for not taking the time to commission a remaster of the film.

I realize The Phantom isn’t a candidate for admittance to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry, but at the same time, is it too much to ask that a film from the mid-nineties look its best? I mean, there are films from the 80′s or 70′s that look cleaner, and more well-kept than this release, and those films were likely shot on a quarter of this film’s budget. So yeah, something needs to be done, not right away, but it should be resolved all the same. The fans deserve better. The film deserves better.

Ranting aside, there are SOME qualities about this presentation that manage to impress, if only slightly. First, the vibrancy of the image is definitely there, and thankfully the colors and black levels remain pretty consistent and stable throughout, and they are in keeping with how I remember the film looking both in theaters and on home video. Fine object detail is wishy-washy. At times, I almost want to say that it looks great, and yet other times, the detail seems to be lost altogether.

Frame Sequential Analysis of the ‘Speck’ Problem (discussed further below).

In truth, if it weren’t for the random grit and grime on the film’s frames, I would likely give this presentation a 3-Star Rating at the very least — it looks pretty darn good. However, the fact that thousands of the film frames are laden with white and black specks, scratches, and the occasional hair, I can’t see any reason to give this presentation anything more than a “2 Star Rating” for overall video quality. I almost feel bad doing it, but I feel that to give it anything higher would be a disservice to the fans, and only get their hopes up. At the end of the day, I urge you to take a look at the screenshots, rent the film first, and make your own assessment of the film before spending your hard-earned cash on this half-baked video presentation. You might not see the defects right away in the supplied screenshots, but bear in mind those are only 15 grabs out of potential thousands, and beyond that I did want to highlight some of the presentations stronger moments as well, so that you — the readers — could make up your own minds.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio.

The audio presentation on this disc is the saving grace of this release. It is lively, dynamic, immersive and just plain fun. The clarity and sonic depth are not up to par with today’s standards, but it’s important to keep in mind that the was also designed to mimic the old caper films of decades past. Therefore, a lot of the sound effects (guns, punches, etc.) aren’t as full sounding as we’re used to, but again, this was a production choice.

Regardless, the eight-channel mix we’re given easily bests the lossy mix found on the DVD, and it most definitely bests the tired VHS audio presentation I have boxed away in the basement. Dialog is very clear and intelligible. The extended surround presence is noticeable and welcome, although not aggressively active. Dynamics are good, but not great. And the LFE track is occasionally put to good use, which always makes for an exciting experience, especially when things go “boom”.

At the end of the day, the tracks shortcomings aren’t the fault of anyone outside of the source effects themselves. There just isn’t a whole lot of depth and clarity, and most of them sound as if they are pulled from an effects library as opposed to being created by foley artists or via other means of sound recording and effect creation. Even still, The Phantom sounds better than it ever has, and I can’t imagine it sounding any better than it does here. Fans should be very pleased, even if newcomers feel like the track is lacking that extra “something”. All things considered, this track gets a “3.5 Star Rating” for overall audio quality.

Bonus Materials are non-existent, unless of course you’re counting the inclusion of a theatrical trailer.

• Theatrical Trailer

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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