|
|
 |
Eye (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Lions Gate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (10th July 2008). |
|
The Film
 Imagine living your life in a tactile way. To move, to see, to know what something is, you have to touch it. Now imagine getting your sight back after a long time. You wouldn't know what many things are. Cell phones, staplers and even pineapples wouldn't be known until you touched them. The influx of so much new information could easily be overwhelming. Now, imagine you couldn't touch what you were seeing. How would you cope with this problem? Psychologically, 'The Eye' is much more interesting than most other horror movies that have come out in Hollywood in the past few years. It is based on the exceptional Hong Kong movie of the same name, written and directed by the Pang Brothers. Mun (or Sydney, in this version) regains her sight after a long time through an operation, and has to adapt to this new development in her life. Unfortunately, she can see ghosts, and she has to find out why and how to stop this. The star of the Hong Kong version, Angelica Lee, won the Best Actress award at the Hong Kong Film Awards for her performance in the movie. She gives a powerful and realistic portrayal, and her character is very believable. I doubt the star of this version, Jessica Alba, will win any awards, as there were many, many subtleties missing in her performance to show that she was blind just a few days before. This takes away from the authenticity of the movie, and makes you wonder how she can adapt so quickly to her surroundings when she sees all sorts of weird things. It seems she trusts her eyes for the things she has to trust and distrusts them for the things she shouldn't. The directors of this movie, the French pair behind 'Ils' ('Them'), David Moreau and Xavier Palud, stick pretty close to the Hong Kong version of the movie, though give out strong images that foreshadow the ending. The many creepy moments in the original version are also followed almost to the letter, such as the early scene in the hospital with the old woman, and the scene in the elevator with the floating ghost. The times they do stray are typically Hollywood, in that they're bigger and have more eye candy than what was in the original script. This is a problem because, foreshadowing the ending, some mystery is lost for peole who can grasp it. The movie does have nice cinematography and is steeped in atmosphere. The shadows are creepy, and the play of light is well done to create a very nice tableau. The music is likewise appropriate, and punctuates the right spots to get the right scares. The script, however, is a bit less impressive. The actors on screen are capable, but the dialogue is somewhat simple and stilted. Another thing I didn't like is the fact that they have to explain things scientifically instead of letting the world of the unseen take over. Though strands of the spiritual are still around, they're hidden pretty far down. One more question I have is: why can she hear ghosts when she can see them and others can't? I won't dwell on this, though it's something I'd like to know. The movie has good atmosphere but the scares aren't as big as they could be because the style seems to contradict the pace, thereby negating a sense of build-up. The ending in the Hong Kong version is far better, but I'll steer clear of that. The psychological part of Sydney is far more interesting, but that, too, is neglected, in favour of forward momentum. The movie could have been better, but there are some creepy scenes and some nice cinematography, if that's what you want to see.
Video
2.35:1 widescreen, using MPEG4/AVC codec. Lionsgate has generally had good transfers and this one is no real exception. Blacks are very strong, but on the downside, shadow detail is a bit low in night shots. The movie has a very flat palette (or so it seems to me), so the contrast is a bit high, making the entire frame look a bit flat. The colours are very accurate, though, giving out strong yellows or cold tones. Skin tones are nice, reflecting the particular colour scheme used at the time. The print is free of specks and scratches, though I believe I saw very minor edge enhancement in a couple of shots. Overall, it's a very strong transfer.
Audio
English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 and French Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo are the audio choices for this movie. The lossless track is very nice and doesn’t disappoint. The movie does have a full 7.1 track and it manages to use every one of those speakers, even if only sporadically. The creepy moments use the rear speakers here and there, while the bigger moments, like the climax, envelop you with sound louder than far away footsteps. The score maximises speaker use with all 7 channels being used at times. The dialogue is always mixed in clearly and always audible. The track is a very strong one, though more atmosphere could have been used. English and Spanish subtitles are provided. An audio descriptive track is thoughtfully added to the disc.
Extras
Lionsgate provided a small but nice array of extras for this movie. To start things off, Deleted Scenes are here. There are 8 scenes: 'Bloody Hallway' (0:38), 'Sydney Sees Simon for the First Time' (2:15), 'Bloody Eyes Nightmare' (1:26), 'Meet the Cheungs' (1:14), 'Screaming Man in the Recording Booth' (1:19), 'Violin Shop' (2:00), 'Cognitive Testing' (1:09) and 'Clinica' (1:24). The scenes are pretty pointless, as they are either redundant or explain things that don't need to be explained. 'Bloody Hallway', for example, seems more at home in 'Return to the House on Haunted Hill' than 'The Eye'. The rest don't add much else. A few featurettes are the bulk of the extras. First, Birth of the Shadowman (1:39) is way too short. Basically, one of the crew tells you about the character of the grim reaper (or whoever), and then the actor talks about playing the role. A few bits and pieces of green screen photography are shown. Becoming Sydney (4:48) has Jessica Alba talking about playing the violin in her one scene. She talks about the practise she did to play it. She then talks about playing blind. A consultant talks about how he instructed her. They talk about the character and how she was to be portrayed, as well. Shadow World: Seeing the Dead (8:32) talks about the more paranormal aspects of the movie, like cellular memory and seeing dead people. Cellular memory is talked about, and tons and tons of creepy examples are given of organ transplant bringing along memories to the recipient. Some of these are really interesting. Then, more esoteric talk of new age ideas of life forces and bodies takes over. Overall, it gets nice enough, but not very convincing. The last featurette, The Eye: An Explosive Finale (6:09) talks about what you may expect. Various stunt people and designers talk about conceiving and visualising the climax. You see clips of the guys on set, prepping and explaining what they're doing. They also talk about what's supposed to happen, then you see what happens. The Theatrical Trailer (2:10) is the last thing here. You know what you're in store for, but it gives away a very important plot point that shouldn't be known until you get to that point in the movie. The music is also kind of nice. Disc two has a Digital Copy of the film. It's available in either Windows Media format or Apple media format. It's available in 2 sizes. One is a bit bigger (around 1.1 GB), optimised for your computer, and the other is smaller (around 350 MB), made for use with your portable media device.
Overall
|
|||||
|