'Beowulf: The Director's Cut' - High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Kenneth's review of 'Beowulf: The Director's Cut' has been posted. He says it's an intriguing action film. This Blu-ray sports a gorgeous video transfer, powerful lossless audio, and extensive supplements. Recommended.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1229/beowulf2007.html

[Geonosis]

Love this movie.

[z4017]

I imported this title from amazon UK in April and sold it immediately. Maybe the video and audio quality is prefect but the story is bad and boring. Three and a half stars concerning 'the movie itself'? I'll say two and a half to three stars.

[Motorheadache]

Will be getting this one- I like the movie quite a bit myself. I remember reading Beowulf my senior year of high school, then again just before the movie came out in my college English literature class. One of the main things I liked about the movie is that it feels like the story of who Beowulf really was and the events that actually happened, versus the original text which is the "myth" to make Beowulf seem greater and more heroic than he actually was. I always thought it was a little too convenient in the original text that he happens to suddenly find a powerful weapon that only he can wield to defeat Grendel's mother

[Son of Odin]

why didn't he go back and edit the 5 star audio rating the hd dvd version had? again certain reviewers here just can't stomach the fact that the blu-ray version is better. i won't read no more reviews until the reviewers realize that they can't hand out 5 star ratings to lossy audio tracks when knowing that a lossless track can make it better. it's like saying the big mac is the best tasting burger when you haven't even tried a whopper w/cheese.

[Devil N]

Originally Posted by SBrooks1

From the Blu-ray review....

The HD DVD had a TrueHD soundtrack?

See that's the problem when you copy/paste the audio/video review info from old HD DVD's to the new Blu-ray versions. You forget things like that. Not to mention it's very lazy and disingenuous to do that when you're comparing a DD+ soundtrack to a lossless TrueHD one. C'mon guys....

It's just a failed attempt at updating a sentence from the old review to reflect the new release. The sentence should've gone like this:

Paramount's Blu-ray edition of 'Beowulf' includes an attention-grabbing Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track that, like the HD DVD Dolby Digital Plus mix before it, is out for blood.

That makes somewhat more sense.

[andycl]

I have to say, I've yet to upgrade to a lossless audio receiver and I'm pretty happy with what I'm hearing right now. However, I hoped when I eventually upgraded I could watch all my movies again with lossless audio and experience a nice bump in quality..

However, reading some of these reviews where a lossy dolby digital track get's the same score as a lossless trueHD track begs the question - is the whole lossless audio thing a con? Will I realistically hear any difference?

Maybe high-def digest could get an expert to write an article on this - I certainly don't want to splash the cash on a lossless receiver if theres not any real audible difference!

[SBrooks1]

Originally Posted by Devil N

It's just a failed attempt at updating a sentence from the old review to reflect the new release. The sentence should've gone like this:

That makes somewhat more sense.

I actually totally misread that and didn't see where Ken mentioned the DD+ in the Blu-ray review. I had just come back from D.C. early this morning and was dog tired.

[E_I]

I saw this on DVD, but I was waiting for the Blu-Ray to add to my collection. Neil Gaiman had a hand in this, so it's a must buy for me.

[chase16]

3 and half stars for this film????
its so bad its a joke,1 out of 5 from me.

[joey0480]

I liked the movie but I bet i will be one of the few who will still use my hd dvd copy. I mean heck, i only spent $8 on it!

[cheez avenger]

So this version is True HD at 16 bits right???

I remember in the HD DVD review for Beowulf someone said that the imported True HD AU version blew away the U.S. release, because it was only DD+.


Josh said it was a placebo, because even though the U.S. version of Beowulf was DD+, it was still 24 bit encoding which would cream the AU True HD track.


Is that still the case with the BD, if the BD is True HD, did the bitrate get bumped up?

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I remember in the HD DVD review for Beowulf someone said that the imported True HD AU version blew away the U.S. release, because it was only DD+.

Josh said it was a placebo, because even though the U.S. version of Beowulf was DD+, it was still 24 bit encoding which would cream the AU True HD track.

Well, not exactly. I don't have the UK disc. It's conceivable that there might be some small audible difference between them. However, what I objected to was the hyperbole that the 16-bit TrueHD track was amazingly, stupendously, night-and-day worlds better than the 24-bit DD+ track just because the packaging says that it's "lossless". I don't buy that for a second.

[dannyschmanny]

i just couldnt get into this when i saw it in theaters. right when the story seems like its going to get really interesting there is a time shift and then all of a sudden the movie is over.

pass.

[Pouyan]

I liked the movie a lot but I'm not replacing my hd dvd version