Truth is the first casualty in war, but in Hollywood, when it comes to literary adaptations it's the subplots and marginal characters that are usually the first to go.
So there you have it. As the technology evolves, we're all going to have to keep pace with upgrades, else at best the disc won't look as pristine, or at worst the darned thing won't play.
Curiously, this particular disc took a LONG time to load, which is not the case for several other Fox Blu-ray releases I've managed to watch. When you click on a menu screen, the animated options just CREEP across the screen.
As for quality, the 1080p picture (AVC transfer at 16 MBPS on a 25GB single-layer disc) is pretty good, though this isn't a film to showcase Blu-ray. It's an overall murky film, with many scenes shot in low-light or darkness. Other scenes are just the opposite, as in one shot with an all-alabaster background-and white wreaks havoc with the camera. There's a slight graininess there, as there is on other scenes with soft-focus backgrounds. However, if you consider the shot of the Nautilus scraping under a Venice bridge, there's a full range of detail on the ship and very little haloing on the lights that pop up here and there in the darkness. Most of the time the margins are distinct, and though there could have been more color saturation one suspects that the original source master also had a muted palette.
Audio:
The DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio is stronger, though it seems to be transferred at an awfully high volume. If you don't want to startle the socks off your guests, make sure you carefully monitor the audio commentary track. It's recorded at such a lower volume from the rest of the film and disc effects that you get quite an earful if you change back.
As for sound quality, there's a brassiness to this soundtrack that makes me think the bass could have been a little richer, and I suspect that people who don't mind tinkering with their systems for each disc will make an adjustment. Otherwise, the sound is bright and full, with good distribution across the speakers.
Other soundtrack options are Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English and Spanish.
Extras:
Since this is the first Fox Blu-ray release that I'm reviewing, a word about what I suspect will be their "style" of design. As with other studios, they feature a "pop-up menu" that allows you to continue watching the film while you navigate the animated menu. Rather than spread small boxes across the screen for the scene selection, they've opted to go for a single scene at the bottom that you can advance to the next with your forward arrow. That means a bit more navigating to get to some of the later scenes, unless I've missed a short-cut.
Two other features will be great for fans who want to show off certain moments without being dependent upon scene selection, or who want to assemble a kind of "highlight" reel of favorite scenes to show off. There's a topical index where, for example, you can click on "Venice" or "London" and it takes you right to that spot in the film. The "Search Content" feature is really nice. So is the "Personal Scene Selections" feature, which allows you to program scenes to watch in succession.
The most unique bonus feature on this particular disc is an LXG Shooting Gallery Game which takes a shoot-'em-up scene from the film and turns it into an interactive gallery, where you move your "sights" across the screen and pull the trigger to get assigned targets. It's a little sluggish, so if you're going to hit anything you really have to anticipate camera switches and lead the bad guys as if you were shooting skeet.
The commentaries are pretty average-one by producers Don Murphy and Trevor Albert and actors Jason Flemyng, Tony Curran and Shane West, and the other by costume designer Jacqueline West, visual effects supervisor John E. Sullivan, make-up effects supervisor Steve Johnson, and miniatures creator Matthew Gratzner. I suspect it will be a matter of preference, but I thought the level of detail was stronger on the second commentary, and there was even some dissention. Rounding out the extras is a trivia track that isn't as extensive (or offensive, for that matter) as many such pop-up tracks.
Bottom Line:
"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is a film that could have been worse, but should have been better. Apart from a villain who looks as if he could have walked off the "Star Trek" set, Sean Connery is the only one who commands our attention. There is just enough action and comic-style invention to make it watchable.
Average user rating (1-5):
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[release]19892[/release]