No, nothing mucky. It's just that I received The Dark Knight on blu-ray last night, which means I've officially popped my blu-ray cherry. Up until now, I have only been renting blu-rays. But now I actually own one. It's mine! Mine! All mine! Ahem. Anyway, I didn't watch the film properly all the way through. I'm saving that experience for Christmas, as some family have yet to see it (can you believe that?), and have better surround sound than me*. The Queen's Speech or The Joker slamming a man's eyeball into a pencil? No contest.But I did browse both discs, dipping into the extra features and taking a look at the picture/audio quality. Interestingly, director Christopher Nolan has allowed the film to jump between aspect ratio's. While the majority of the film is in 2.40:1 (black bars at the top and bottom), sequences filmed using IMAX cameras are shown in 1.78:1 (filling a 16x9 widescreen TV.) I've yet to experience these ratio flips while immersed in the film's narrative, but it doesn't look to distracting. Anyway, the sequences filmed with these high-tech IMAX cameras look phenomenal in 1080p high-def. Seriously, it's a shame the whole film wasn't in IMAX 1.78:1 -- details are as sharp as The Joker's knife.
I've yet to explore all the bonus material in its entireity, but it's obvious a more exhaustive disc will be released in the future. This 2-disc Special Edition just isn't that extensive or deep. There aren't even any audio commentaries! I can understand Chris Nolan being Batman'd out this year, but was Heath Ledger too busy? Oh.
The picture-in-picture "Focal Points" is a 65-minute HD documentary, accessible separately or during the movie. It's the best extra. Two 45-minute documentaries (covering gadgets in "Batman Tech" and Batman's psychology in "Batman Unmasked"), are bland and stuffed with filler -- but great to see presented in HD. Likewise, there are HD versions of the excellent trailers and six TV spots, in 5.1 surround sound!
Still galleries always bore me, but there are five galleries to browse through if you're so inclined. The strangest extra is a 46-min "Gotham Tonight" fake TV news show covering the events of the movie -- which is a nice idea, but rather tedious and silly. The disc's BD-Live feature isn't working yet, sadly. When it is, you'll be able to chat to other viewers of the film over the internet, and access lots of online content. Pretty cool, but not available at time of writing.
Overall, the bonus material was disappointing given the possibilities, but it was nice to see everything in HD and often with DD5.1. I'm sure a "Collector's Edition", "Ultimate Edition" or "Darker Knight Edition" is being worked on right now (better positioned to reflect on the film's impact.) Input fom the cast/crew, commentaries, documentaries covering everything from script to premiere, and a tribute to Heath Ledger, would be great. However, in terms of the all-important movie itself -- this is demo material for picture and sound. Can we get more IMAX blu-rays, please? Even without the towering screen and abundance of speakers an IMAX screen provides, the 70mm print looks stunning in this format.
My cinema review of The Dark Knight can be read here.
* In that they have surround sound. I used to, but the HD TV I bought in the summer didn't have built-in DD5.1 like my broken CRT used to. So, I'm having to save up for next year.
