Fall, The (Blu-ray)

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I just wasn't enthralled by the made-up tale of a group of would-be heroes who are determined to bring down Governor Odious (cute name, huh?), who's played by Daniel Caltagirone. Not exactly superheroes, their group is comprised of a mixture of experts and grudge holders. There's an Indian (Jeetu Verma), a former slave (Marcus Wesley), an explosives expert (Robin Smith), Charles Darwin (Leo Bill), a mystic (Julian Bleach), and the infamous Blue Bandit (Emil Hostina/Pace). In truth, I couldn't buy the presence of a recognizable historical figure like Darwin as readily as I could accept Chaucer in "A Knight's Tale." It just felt a little off-kilter. Likewise, the Blue Bandit doesn't come close to the Dread Pirate Roberts, and the tale that Singh spins with fellow writers Dan Gilroy and Nico Soultanakis just doesn't have the same charm or magic as "The Princess Bride." The exploits of these heroes struck me as more tedious than entertaining. The second half is stronger than the first, but those yarn-spinning departures just went on too long and didn't compel me as much as I thought they should have. In this, I realize I'm in the minority, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. "The Fall" is more visually than emotionally stimulating, and despite having a star named Pace the film suffers from interminably slow pacing and slack editing. The film comes in at under two hours, but it really felt longer to me, which is never a good sign.

Video:
Visually, though, it's stunning in 1080p (AVC/MPEG-4 codec). Colors are brilliant, edges are sharp, there's a pleasing 3-dimensionality, and black levels are incredible. The level of detail will astound you. This is what Hi-Def is all about. The transfer to a BD-50 is clean, with the exception of a few squiggles in a few scenes that appear to be the result of artifacting. But the moment passes in an instant and then it's back to astounding clarity. "The Fall" is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
The audio is a lively and full-bodied English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, with subtitles in English, English SDH, and French. As with the video it's a pristine audio that brings out the best in lows, mids, and highs and features a dynamic timbre that's especially noticeable during action scenes. But the quiet moments are crisp and clean as well. I don't have a single complaint about the audio. It's one of the strongest and best modulated audio transfers I've reviewed lately.

Extras:
The best commentaries make you want to change your mind about a film, and the unassuming Singh almost convinces me, except that his remarks tend to be as rambling as the narrative, and he's preaching to the choir insomuch as he concentrates on the visuals that have been such a large part of his directing. A second commentary by the co-writers provides more discussion about the areas that disturbed me, but neither said anything to make me think differently. The commentaries are average to slightly above-average in terms of their content. Some people grate on you as they talk about the film, but none of the participants do here, and they're pleasant enough to listen to.

In this ark of bonus features there's also a pair of 30-minute documentaries, one of them a behind-the-scenes look at filming, and the other focusing more on the cast. Both are decent, especially the one that shows the director interacting with his cast. Rounding out the extras are two deleted scenes that run just two minutes.

Bottom Line:
"The Fall" is visually stunning, but the fantastic narration wasn't nearly engaging enough. And that's a pretty large chunk of the movie to disappoint.

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