for those that want to read the rant, here we go! right, Mad Max 2 as it appears on the formats :
Standard DVD
name on credits - The Road Warrior
running length - 91 minutes (plus a few seconds)
Blu Ray
name on credits - Mad Max 2
running length - 95 minutes (plus a few seconds)
surprise! when it came to selling a film with a cult following to the same audience again, isn't it wonderful that they somehow managed to "find" the supposedly lost full and uncut version, featuring all the trimmed / censored footage and the proper name? this is yet another example of the underhanded way in which the industry is trying to get big and fast sales of this new technology. granted this is a minor example, but there are many, many others, some of which will be listed here.
a major problem they have had with selling blu ray to the world is that the quality isn't the "vast improvement" over DVD that was claimed when released. various studies have shown that very, very few films look any better at all on blu ray compared to DVD. these surveys have been countered by people saying "yes they do look better", for an example see this article. if you click on that link, look at the comparisons and see anything "better" other than the picture being a little bit brighter, please let me know what i missed.
there is of course one film that everyone agrees looks better on blu ray than it does on a standard DVD. and surprise surprise, it it Avatar
what this film lacked in story or interest was more than made up for by the high quality of the film and special effects. people, it seems, were bamboozled into considering it brilliant because the great force of the American film industry declared it to be so. this would be the same industry currently trying to convince you that you should buy a blu ray player and buy all of the films on disc once again, by the way.
the trick in pumping Avatar as a masterpiece that it is not wouldn't be so bad if it was just limited to selling you the machine and the film. nope, the other trick with blu ray is that they seem determined that you are to buy more than one copy of it on blu ray. thus far for this film in the new format there has been a "standard" edition, a "collectors" 2 disc edition and a "3 disc extended collectors edition" released.
even better, and by better i mean in terms of sheer audacity and nerve, there is of course the 3D edition of the film. now this is a masterstroke of advertising and selling stuff. you can only get the 3D version if you buy a piece of Panasonic 3D equipment. and you are going to need to buy at least one, possibly 2 pieces of 3D equipment from someone if you fall for all of this.
if you've bought a flatscreen LED / Plasma TV and blu ray player and expect to be able to enjoy 3D films and TV on it, think again. my some mysterious chance the existing models are not compatible with #D discs and glasses, so off you go to buy it all again. for confirmation, here's what the Disney website tells you to go and buy if you want to watch one of their films (or presumably alone else's) in 3D :
In order to watch your film in 3D, you will need a 3D HDTV, a Blu-ray 3D player (or a 3D firmware upgrade for existing PLAYSTATION®3 hardware), and 3D glasses compatible with your 3DTV. Your TV and player will need to be connected with HDMI cables.
i have mentioned that i do not think 3D TV will take off at all in a post a year or so ago due to the faffing about one has to do to watch something in that format. good luck to you if you really think Alice In Wonderland, Avatar or Saw 7 are really worth watching all that often to invest in the equipment required.
it's not just with Avatar that they are getting people to not only buy a blu ray disc of films they probably have equal copies of on DVD (save some extras), but to buy more than one blu ray version. the most infamous incident at present relates to the celebrated Lord Of The Rings trilogy. the standard theatrical versions of these films were released on 2010. here's a surprise - the "extended editions" of the films are up for release in 2011. this double release is no doubt aimed at the significant fan base for the films, who no doubt purchased both versions on standard DVD.
the release that will trump even Lord Of The Rings, however, will be Star Wars, with the blu ray release announced for 2011. having purchased both DVD released versions, i'm somewhat annoyed that they have, much like Mad Max 2, mysteriously found some 30 hours of "previously unseen" footage to include in this box set to entice us fans into spending once again. it doesn't stop there, either. Star Wars is getting an entirely unneccessary 3D makeover, with one "3D-ized" film being released every year for the next six years. just watch as they get released on blu ray 3D year by year, and then in 7 years time a box set of the whole lot turn up with yet more "unseen footage" saved for that release.
i'm not adverse to re-releasing films in different editions, by the way. sat here i have numerous films which i have bought the standard and then the special edition of. on DVD. i am quite against the idea, as i think you can guess, of trying to be forced into investing in expensive and apparently soon out of date blu ray technology for the sake of a few minutes of extra scenes and some nice bonus material. if it really kills them to just release the same on DVD too, then i do not think it's going to kill too many people to just consider plain pirated DVD copies of the blu ray releases.
beyond that,
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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