Dark Shadows Blu-ray Review

Dark Shadows tells the sordid tale of Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), who is transformed into a vampire and entombed by a jaded witch named Angelique  (a scene-stealing Eva Green – who's the only reason to watch the film). Two centuries later he awakens to find his family dynasty in ruins. Together with the help of Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), her angst-addled kids Carolyn and David (Chloe Moretz and Gulliver McGrath), her shady brother Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller) and psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter, who seems more like she just stumbled onto the set), they attempt to reclaim the family's former glory.

There's one constant with Tim Burton films as of late. The more money he's given, the worse the project turns out. Dark Shadows was an annoyingly expensive gothic horror picture that, had it been made in the mid '80s, would have cost $30-40 million. But with glossy big-budget effects and Johnny Depp in tow, Dark Shadows became a needlessly expensive $150 million tent-pole title that needed to hit, or else.

But Dark Shadows wasn't meant for an audience of that size. After all, it was based on a beloved but admittedly only modestly popular cult soap series. While such material seems ripe for the picking for Tim Burton, the once outstanding director seems to have a bit of a problem with excess.

With enough money to make three or four '80s Burton films, Dark Shadows is a messy concoction of lazy storytelling, bad plotting and weak characters, all told under an expansive budget that allows for impressive sets and costumes and enough elaborate effects and production design to keep the eyes in wonder. Alas, with a meandering pace, no real story driving things, a villain who audiences sympathize with more than the “hero,” and a bloated, overlong running time, Dark Shadows represents some of worst work Tim Burton has delivered since, well, his last film.

As a die-hard Burton lover, this is wholeheartedly saddening. The once great filmmaker just can't seem to harness a story anymore and craft it into something compelling or memorable. Instead, Burton seems to be exploring the limits of his imagination, forgetting that some of his best work came from smaller budgets and more stress. I find it hard to imagine a film like Beetlejuice, for example, would work with the Burton we have nowadays.

Dark Shadows isn't Burton's worst film, but it's certainly a big disappointment, especially considering the gothic material. The idea of the film is funny on paper, but the execution is anything but compelling. Still, the visuals are quite dazzling and it's fairly obvious where all the money went. If only some of that cash had gone to crafting a more focused, compelling narrative, and if only someone had told Burton to dial things back a little, this might have been Burton's return-to-form. Fingers crossed for Frankenweenie.

Dark Shadows comes to Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, encoded in 1080p/AVC and mixed in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. We'll be taking a look at the two-disc Blu-ray/DVD/UltraViolet combo pack for this review. There's also a single-disc Blu-ray/UV version as well.

With crisp, bold gothic imagery driving the narrative, it should come as no shock that Dark Shadows looks quite extraordinary on Blu-ray. The image is a bit intentionally soft at times, but it's also defined by perfect shadows, inky, rich blacks and plenty of moody texture and detail. The encode yields little-to-no flaws, either. No noise, banding or heavy compression was noted at all. While Dark Shadows does boast a soft, eerie palette that doesn't strike the eyes in the way other big-budget titles can, this is a stellar transfer that's well worth commending.

Audio is equally dazzling, from the film's minor action set pieces (the finale sounds incredible) to the film's quieter, character-driven moments. Rarely does this mix falter. No crackles, distortions or hiss were noted. Surrounds help paint a lively gothic atmosphere, and bass adds texture to the film's action cues and to Danny Elfman's score.

Extras are less impressive. Fans are treated to a relatively thin Maximum Movie Mode that doesn't actually play like a Maximum Movie Mode at all. Instead, it's just a picture-in-picture feature with some decent behind-the-scenes insight and about 40 minutes of Focus Points featurettes. While it's hardly terrible, it also fails to live up to the Maximum Movie Mode level of quality. Bonus features are topped off with a 6-minute deleted scenes reel.

The Verdict

Dark Shadows should have been a return-to-form for director Tim Burton, but with a bloated budget and way too much room to play, Burton delivers yet another wasted effort. The Blu-ray looks and sounds fantastic, but extras are a little disappointing. Rent this one before you buy.

Source : ign[dot]com

Dishonored: Death at a Dinner Party

I snuck up through shadows toward a table filled with collectibles, grabbed the man patrolling the area and choked him until he passed out. Among the items was a container of whale oil, so I picked it up and carried it around for a while, then tossed it. It exploded. Guards suddenly ran from behind buildings and fired pistols, armored foes on metal stilts emerged and shot explosive bolts at my position. What was once a quiet street had erupted into a warzone, all because I made a sound. I fled, sprinting wildly across the nighttime cityscape and using my blink skill to quickly flit between rooftops and rise above the din I’d inadvertently stirred. I hid on the rooftops and after a while began to feel a sense of calm. Thankfully my attackers couldn’t climb the walls.

Such is the constant tension of playing Dishonored, where one misstep can create a cascade of chaos. Playing as a magically gifted assassin named Corvo, I’m given mission objectives but never told exactly how to go about completing them. I could have sprinted directly at the whale oil’s guardian and hacked him up with my sword, or fired at him from a distance with a one-handed crossbow, or summoned a swarm of rats to his feet to devour him, then taken possession of a rat and escaped while the rest of the guards ran in to investigate. I could have ignored the whale oil altogether, turned around and focused only on my primary objective.

Playing Dishonored instills a strange mix of vulnerability and strength, where I’m given a superhero’s ability set but feel like I’m always one mistake away from death. Errors are severely punished by aggressive enemies, and because powers are tied to a limited mana resource, they can’t be spammed. I can’t simply blanket an area with rats. I can’t use my wind blast ability to repeatedly knock aside any that stand in my way. I need to be careful about timing, precision, and chaining abilities together in an effective manner.

Exploration is also rewarded. Opportunities for discovery are all over Dishonored’s fictional city of Dunwall, where a plague eats away at the poor and hardens the insularity of the ruling class. When I fled to the rooftops, for instance, I found an open window that led to a porch where a nervous looking man gripped the railing. I snuck up and choked him, then pulled a special item from a nearby pile of junk that I could use to augment my abilities.

There aren’t a huge number of abilities in Dishonored, and each can be leveled in ways that not only strengthen but alter functionality. The possession ability initially allows me to inhabit the bodies of rats and fish, sometimes to escape, sometimes to squeeze through small spaces to access alternate paths to guarded structures or enter otherwise locked treasure rooms. With an upgrade to the ability I can possess humans. Though the possession time isn’t long, that means I can more easily disrupt a patrol path or walk a guard to his doom. The wind blast ability initially knocks down enemies and shatters doors, but after an upgrade it can actually kill foes by slamming them into walls. By combining these active abilities with the different weapon types and passive enhancements, it seems like the number of ways to solve problems will only increase further on in the game, ideally leading to some outstanding climactic missions.

My mission in this particular instance was to infiltrate a party at a mansion and take out a target named Lady Boyle. Unfortunately three at the party shared the name, so another part of my mission was to discover the proper target. First I accessed the facility by blinking through an open hole in a sewer grate and breaking into the mansion’s basement. Then I reloaded and blinked over the front gate, where I plucked a fallen party invite from the ground and handed it to the guard, who promptly led me inside.

This mansion’s courtyard and interior were not hostile spaces – in fact most at the party seemed happy to see me and impressed with my menacing outfit. It was a costume party where all wore masks, which ranged from subtly unsettling to outright bizarre. One particularly uptight partygoer wore a full-head whale mask, and the woman he was talking to wore a moth mask complete with pluming antennae. When he left she turned to me and asked for a drink. I went back to the buffet table across which was laid a colossal glistening fish gutted open and steaming and scooped a cup of cider out of a fountain. She thanked me and in return revealed the identities of two of the Boyle ladies wandering around the party in identical outfits. I snuck upstairs past a guard and plucked a note from a desk to uncover the identity of the true target.

I didn’t have to do any of that. I could have walked into the mansion and shot the first innocent I saw. I could have moved between the rest of the terrified revelers and snatched their coin purses while slashing at any guards who got in the way. I could have tried to kill everything in the building instead of investigate. When I eventually did attack, the fights proved to be fast and unforgiving. Enemies shot guns and blocked and dodged and did seemingly everything they could to avoid taking damage while continuing to deal it.

A particularly striking element of the scene was how Arkane was able to hide threats in plain sight. Several characters standing around the party held what looked like sci-fi accordions and I assumed they were there to provide entertainment. But as soon as I plunged my sword into a guard’s neck they started playing and generated an anti-magic field that inhibited my abilities. Suddenly they’re the biggest threat in the room, whereas moments before they seemed a perfectly fitting part of the backdrop. Tricks like that work because Arkane built such a densely detailed dinner scene where everything seemed to be in the right place and appropriately extravagant.

Dishonored is so exciting to me not only because the gameplay rewards creativity, but because so much care was clearly taken to build a place with enough layers and moving pieces to give it a curious plausibility, to make it seem like every time you push it pushes right back.

Source : ign[dot]com