'Thunderball' - High-Def Digest review

[Attebery]

Josh has reviewed 'Thunderball.' He says this is his favorite Bond film. The Blu-ray is an improvement over the DVD, but the picture does have some problems that couldn't be fixed with the restoration. Still, recommended.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1583/thunderball.html

[borghe]

the only one I've picked up so far. The picture to me seems about as good as you can do with this. there is plenty of detail, color and grain there, but definitely a softness to it. the movie never once pops. but like josh implies, I don't think there is much else you are gonna get from the picture and it is a noticeable improvement over the DVD still.

edit - I do see he says there is no film grain. I don't agree and don't even agree it looks heavily processed... just really kind of soft and lack of any sort of 3d or pop. definitely agree with his rating on video though.

[davcole]

Finally, a review that mentions those pesky vertical lines! As i've stated before, it doesn't look like print damage but lines from poor telecine. I agree it's not on the level of a FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, however outside those vertical lines I was pretty pleased with the picture. It's a mostly sharp picture and the colors are bold and beautiful.

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by borghe

the only one I've picked up so far. The picture to me seems about as good as you can do with this.

You might not feel that way after watching Dr. No and From Russia with Love. They both look much better than Thunderball.

Originally Posted by davcole

Finally, a review that mentions those pesky vertical lines! As i've stated before, it doesn't look like print damage but lines from poor telecine.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on there. They don't look like scratches, exactly. Perhaps the footage was scratched and Lowry tried to cover it up by DNR'ing the hell out of that part of the image, leaving it looking really streaky. It's very strange. I don't remember that being a problem with previous video editions, but I wasn't able to do any direct comparisons (sold my DVD set long ago).

[Onslaught X]

I'm a From Russia With Love guy myself, but all these reviews make me want to pick up Thunderball and Dr. No

[bouch24]

At first glance I thought this looked much worse than the first 2 Connery Bonds, but upon re-watching some scenes the transfer has started to grow on me. I really don't find it that much worse apart from the blue streaks. It's at somewhat of a disadvantage because of the smaller image area. I'd probably give it 3.5 stars, with the first two getting 4 to 4.5.

[gravis_from_fort_Worth]

Interesting. I am still working on my review at my site, but I actually liked the video quality of Thunderball better than I liked From Russia With Love. The only thing that kept me from giving it a perfect score are those indoor scenes where skin tones tend to skew to the red a bit too much for my taste (that is, the start at the spa, and in MI headquarters). I thought that the underwater scenes, the scenes in the SPECTRE lair, the interior aircraft scenes and the outdoor scenes looked wonderful. I have not seen these lines that people are talking about in the underwater scenes. Do you have a time point in the movie that I can refer to?

[bouch24]

try the footage of the bomber flying about 30 min in.

[Josh Z]

Pretty much any aerial shot of the bomber has them, and a lot of the underwater footage from the first half of the movie (the climax looks fine).

[project-blu]

argue all you want, i'm gonna take Josh, Peter, and Ken's scoring on video quality as dogmatic law. they've seen so many blu's, they can compare it to others, and know exactly what to look for, in terms of the good, the bad, and the ugly. on the 2 bond films on blu that i've watched so far, i've been very close in agreement on picture quality, and am going to sit down to Thunderball in my next few titles. sad news that they DNR'd a booboo to try to cover it. i hope criterion doesn't do that to the titles they've had to restore from tears.

[utl768]

one of the best bond movies ive seen

[Arkadin]

I still have my ultimate edition dvds.
maybe I'll take a look at this one later on tonight or tomorrow and look for these now infamous "lines"

[Harlock]

Hi there everybody!

I'm new here, but I thought this might be of interest, as I've (as of now)
not read about it anywhere else...

Anyway, I would agree that the picture quality might not be on par with the
previous 2 reviewed Connery-Bonds, but there is one very important aspect
that makes this Blu-ray presentation very important.

It may be the same 4K master Lowry used for the restoration and presentation
of the previous "Ultimate Edition" DVDs, but if it is the same master, then Lowry
sure did some different "tweaking" to it for the Blu-ray release!

Maybe you've read in some other film-related forums that Lowry restoration
as presented on the "Ultimate Editions" has been (sometimes) marred with
pretty strange color-correction and all (this goes for some of the later Bonds
with Pierce Brosnan) the framing was completely off (and Goldeneye
even had a slightly different set of opening titles to go with it).

Anyway, back to Thunderball:

For the "Ultimate Edition" DVD, Lowry had color-corrected the whole film to
a point where many scenes had nothing to do with the way they were
intended to be!

The most glaring example is a scene where Largo throws one of his baddies
in the pool, so his "golden grotto" sharks can take care of him. In the original
film-print as well as in all editions prior to Lowry's "Ultimate Edition", towards
the end of a scene (viewed from beneath the water) the water is turning
red, as to implicate the horrible death of the guy.
Well, for the Ultimate Edition, Thunderball had been color-corrected to death
and the red color towards the end of the scene was removed! Pretty bad
for such an extensive restoration...

Here's a picture of it (sorry about the poor quality, it is a photo taken during
projection of the Ultimate Edition on my screen at home):



One of the things I was looking forward to test was if the very same color-
corrected masters have been used for the Blu-ray transfers...
And happily enough, I can say: it is not the same! Thunderball looks
completely different on its Blu-ray transfer, in fact somehow Lowry managed
to retain (or actually get back to) the original look of Thunderball they way
the colors (and levels of contrast) looked on the original prints. A glance at
the opening scenes with the fight in the chateau reveal a completely
different color-timing (much closer to the original), and finally Thunderball
(as well as the other 2 Connery Bonds) look as they should in their newest
HD incarnation! I'm extremely glad that the intrusive color-corrections of
the Ultimate Editions are a thing of the past now...

Back to the scene in Largo's pool again... this is how it looks on Blu-ray:



Exactly as intended to be seen... the water turns (blood-)red, to implicate
the baddie's death...
(it is not the exact same frame, but I hope you'll see what I mean)

Oh, and one more interesting thing. As the reviewer remarked, the main-title
sequence is slightly "pillar-boxed" (as it might have been shot or composed
in 65mm for the many opticals involved). Now mind you, the main-titles of
Thunderball in the Ultimate Edition were not pillar-boxed but retained the
same screen-format (though a slight - and quite visible - "zoom-in" at the
beginning and a "zoom-out" at the end of them) was visible; basically for
the same reason...

So whatever the real technical details, the Blu-ray presentations have
used either a different master (not likely, I know), or at least a very different
(even better I'd dare say) set of digital corrections than the previous
Ultimate Editions.

In my eyes this alone makes Bond on Blu-ray an even more important
purchase!

Vertical lines (that I too have noticed) or not, the Bonds films can finally
shine in a HD presentation that retains their original pictorial heritage and
aesthetics: celluloid, celluloid!!!

I hope I did not bother you all too much with this... I just thought the
differences in color-timing are worth to be mentioned!

With best regards

Petros

P.S. Realizing that the Blu-rays have used either a different/new master or
at least a different digital work-up of the 2006 master, makes me hope that
the format-errors in Goldeneye a Tomorrow Never Dies will also be a thing of
the past when both films are soon released on Blu!

[Arkadin]

wow that's a lot of good info right there.
Josh Z eat your heart out.

[Dr Kain]

Except for the underwater scenes, I don't know what you are talking about when it comes to the video. It looks just as good as the others.

While this is a little OT, does anyone know WHY they still haven't fixed the jittery video for the opening to Live and Let Die?