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Invisible (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (3rd November 2007). |
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The Film
 The theatrical trailer for this film made the film look exciting and intriguing, that's the point of trailers, and they are supposed to make the film look appealing to the mass audience. It's a selling tool, but when the that tool is used to mislead the viewer into thinking the film is one thing and then being another...well that's just plain cheating. "The Invisible" looked like a cool murder mystery where the person murdered walks among the...um invisible trying to piece together the events, or something like that anyway. Instead it turned out to be a schlock teen ghost story. Directed by writer turned director David S.Goyer who has proved that he is in fact a better writer than he is director with a couple other previous directorial efforts all of which are incredibly average, one thing's for sure is that Goyer should probably stick to the writing, but even a writer of his ability still couldn't see sheer patchiness of this film. "The Invisible" tells the story of Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin), he is a gifted writer with a strong future ahead of himself but his mother, Diane (Marcia Gay Harden) has been distant since the death of her husband and Nick can't wait to leave. His plans are to secretly go to London and enroll in a writer's school. When mom finds out, things change. Meanwhile the school failure and resident criminal, Annie (Margarita Levieva) has been pinched for stealing jewels and she thinks that Nick's friend Pete (Chris Marquette) told the cops on her, when confronted about this Pete tells Annie it was Nick who turned her in (when in fact neither he or Nick did) his rationale was that by the time Annie could find him he'd be well into his journey to London. But Nick doesn't leave, and Annie does find him and inadvertently kills him. They stash the body and Nick walks the Earth as an invisible spirit. There are so many things about this film that sink it in the category of 'terrible teen drama', and almost everything that's wrong about this film stems from the screenplay. The screenplay dredges up many questions that boggle the very idea of logic or even common sense (Spiritual element aside): the first and most obvious issue is the character of Pete; Pete is Nick's best friend so why would Pete help hide his best friend's body after he witnessed his murder? Why doesn't he just turn Annie in? The filmmaker's chose to answer this question in a half assed manner as he is intimidated not to say anything by being made to think he too will go to jail as well, the thing is he was a witness to the murder not an accomplice and this blatant disregard of that on the character's part simply makes him appear stupid for even thinking he would go to jail and is a slap in the face to any audience member that has any common sense about them. The characters are also hollow and uninteresting, Nick is the perfect kid on the outside but really he's a damaged kid with a emotionally unattached mother played by Marcia Gay Harden who basically sleepwalks through the entire movie, in fact everyone involved seems to be sleepwalking through this film. Then there's Annie, she's a rebel on the edge but takes things too far and in a clichéd and tired manner the filmmaker's try to create some sympathy points by making her character somewhat human with the relationship she has with her little brother Victor (Alex Ferris). Sorry guys, try again... The film continues as a search party tries to find Nick's body, Annie discovers that she's been double crossed by her own loser boyfriend, Marcus (Alex O'Loughlin) and Nick starts to sympathies with his own murderer as he follows her around, oh yeah did I mention that Nick isn't actually dead but in a convoluted manner he's actually alive and the he's not a ghost but some invisible spirit in a sort of limbo...yeah who cares by that point in the movie I was distracted by pointless scene after pointless scene. Oh, and did I mention that while on the run from the law, Annie goes to a dance club sells a ring for on-the-run money and then dances her problems away...funnily enough this is the scene where Nick starts to fall for the wayward youth with slow motion cuts to Annie dancing and letting her hair down to Nick perving at the sudden realization that under all that clothing is a hot chick. Yeah that's enough to forget the fact she basically killed you (or didn't, but though she did...) And the inanity doesn't stop there ladies and gentlemen, she also gets shot by her loser boyfriend in the aforementioned double cross but still manages to get up as if she only tripped and still has enough energy to engage in a car chase with the police...did I mention she got shot? The film goes from pathetic to ludicrous in an insanely slow and meanderingly painful manner. "The Invisible" had a promising premise but was marred by a terrible script with cheesy dialogue and pointless scenes. The character's were uninteresting, hollow and distant and any attempt to add sympathy to their plight simply ended up clichéd and ham handedly executed, this film is a total waste of time.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 this high-definition transfer is presented in 1080p 24/fps and has been created using AVC MPRG-4 compression. The DVD has a few problems including softness and edge-enhancement and proved an unimpressive transfer considering the fact this is a recent release. The Blu-ray release is considerably improved in the picture department and the flaws seen on the DVD release are nowhere to be seen here. Sharpness is consistent and I saw no aspects of softness; detail is beautiful with incredible backgrounds and colors hold up well. Skin tones are natural but sometimes lips appear a bit on the purple side which is a little distracting otherwise black levels are bold, there's very little to no grain and overall this is a solid high-definition presentation.
Audio
Four audio tracks is included on this disc in English uncompressed PCM 5.1 surround presented at 48kHz/24-bit/6.9mbps, also standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks in English, French and Spanish, for the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English PCM 5.1 soundtrack. Continuing in their fine tradition of PCM tracks we have another winner here. Dialogue is clear and distortion free, and the track is alive (no pun intended) with ambient and environmental surrounds that are excellently mixed with the track to place the viewer within the context of the film. The mix is active with a broad range including a few aggressive moments as the score sweeps in with it's rock music that adds another layer to the depth of the track. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has released this film with basically the same extras seem on the DVD release and includes two audio commentaries, some deleted scenes, music videos and some bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. The first feature-length audio commentary is by the film's director David S.Goyer and screenwriter Christine Roum, these two remain screen-specific as they take us through the production revealing aspects of the script and development but mainly focusing on the differences between this version and the Swedish film in which it's adapted from, they make light of the characters and story but ideally if you're not into the film you'll likely be bored to death and totally uninterested in anything these two have to say about their film, like I was. In fact I would have much preferred a track where they try to justify why they made such a terrible film or perhaps a track where they apologize for wasting our time. The second audio commentary is by co-writer Mick Davis and seems totally superfluous considering a lot of what he covers is already covered in the previous, although he goes into some interesting territories considering he wrote the original Swedish version. The track felt like it went on longer than the film considering there were many silent gaps; the DVD producers should have edited the two tracks into one. Next up are a collection of 11 deleted scenes with optional audio commentary is by the film's director David S.Goyer and screenwriter Christine Roum, in their track they comment on the purpose of the scene the context and on why it was omitted from the final cut. These scenes can be viewed individually or with a 'play all' option and include: - "See you tonight" runs for 32 seconds, this is part of a subplot where Suzie and Nick have some history. - "Dinner with Mother" runs for 1 minute 35 seconds, Nick and Suzie have dinner with his mother and she presents him with the engraved watch. - "Annie and Victor" runs for 37 seconds, Annie makes her little brother a sandwich. - "Suzie speaks to Larson" runs for 1 minute 18 seconds, Detective Larson questions Suzie at the pool about Nick. - "Information from Tunney" runs for 58 seconds, Detective Tunney tells Larson about suspecting Pete. - "Nick meets Morris in hospital" runs for 2 minutes 25 seconds, Nick meets another invisible person. - "Pete and Marcus" runs for 1 minute 56 seconds, Pete and Marcus go through the woods to move Nick's body. - "Pete steals from Nick" runs for 1 minute 12 seconds, Pete goes into Nick's room and steals the money he stashed away. - "Pete in Jail" runs for 1 minute 8 seconds, Pete is interrogated by the Detectives but doesn't say anything. - "Annie and Nick" runs for 1 minute 3 seconds, Annie on the run but decides to go back after Nicks tells of abandoning her brother. The disc also includes 2 music videos: - "The Kill" performed by 30 Seconds to Mars which runs for 5 minutes 8 seconds (interestingly enough the front man for this group is actor Jared Leto who looks like an Emo version of Marilyn Manson in this live clip. - "Taking Back Control" performed by Sparta and runs for 3 minutes 53 seconds. Rounding out the extras are a collection of bonus trailers for: - "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" which runs for 2 minutes 35 seconds. - "Wild Hogs" which runs for 2 minute 33 seconds. - "Deja vu" which runs for 2 minute 2 seconds. Finally this first disc also includes a "Movie Showcase" which jumps to three key reference scenes that show off the high-definition quality.
Overall
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