Oh boo.
The Force Nods Off: A Blu-Ray Technical Review
This won't have much to do with the story--tho, to be honest? It doesn't seem as grand as it did the first (and second) time in a theater. Not that any of them were rich on plot twists (besides Empire Strikes Back) and it still retains the greasy-popcorn-guilty-pleasure factor of say, Return of the Jedi. It keeps you at the edge of Ya know, this isn't all that great HOO EXPLOSION what was I saying again...? and that my friends is authentic to the genre.
Perhaps I should preface my statements with a bit of context.
Here's the equipment I'm working with:
A Samsung 8500 series telly. It was the brand's best available non-curved screen, which included HDR compatibility (mark my words--color gamut IS more important than 4K resolution) and the last of the brand's models with 3D compatibility. If that feature's important to you (it was for B), find one of these FAST where you still can. If you can.
Samsung - UBD-K8500 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player Yes, the actual 4K Player that plays 4K Ultra HD Blu-Rays. You'd be a Complete Flaming Idiot buy one before Black Friday 2016 buuUUuuuut we were offered one at half-price. Which makes us Only Stupid.
Onkyo TX-NR545 Home Theater Reciever which is an entry-level Dolby Atmos unit. Dolby Atmos adds overhead channels to the usual front/rear/center arrangement. B won't let me mount speakers in
So there you go. Are there better televisions out there? Sure! But they're typically $1400-4000 more. Or Atmos receivers for four times the price. It's sort of a working class, value shopper's Almost Cinephile System. But certainly not what you'd find at Wal-Mart or Target.
Now about that Blu-Ray. It was AWFUL!
The audio was washed out, the picture seemed intentionally fuzzy--what the hell?!?!
Of course it's not a 4K Blu-Ray, but that shouldn't matter. A well-filmed and lit piece of recent work will still pop. The Force Awakens doesn't. One could try to argue that this is an homage to 'real film' like the 70MM masterpieces that were Episodes IV-VI...and then they'd run into trouble. Know why? I'd pop in a standard Blu-Ray of H8teful Eight--filmed entirely in Panavision 70MM, as a true homage to classic film would. Then I'd show you Sam L. Jackson's face and Kurt Russell's beard and crackling fires and details of light and shadow and then? Call any attempt at that argument the Total Groundless Bullshit that it is.
The audio was on the same level as my Blu-Ray of The Fifth Element except I fished that from Wal-Mart's $7.99 bin. Oh, right. It's also a couple months younger than my now-adult daughter.
Listen up, Disney! I laid out all that money (and speaker cable) to be WOWED. What the foo, people...?
I guess we have gone a while without a White People Problems™ post. Well, here we are.