Hey there, for those with TWOK on Bluray, I was watching the last half hour and noticed that the FX shots of the Enterprise and Reliant around Regula, including the shot of the Enterprise under Regula, and the tilt up past the planetioid, to reveal the Reliant above near the station are completely desaturated in color. Also the shots of the Ent and Reliant leaving orbit of Regula are "almost" black and white!? My DVD copy shows these with a warm tone, Regula is quite brown in hue on the DVD, but the Bluray has a totally different look? Almost like they used unfinished effects footage for this print. All other FX in the film look great. Just wondering if anyone else sees that difference? I'm watching on a very high-end system, including a full 1080p DLP projector, and the rest of the film, as well as other Bluray discs look cinema perfect.
The movie was supposedly restored to its 'proper' color. It is FAR different that any other version I have ever seen on home video. If you compare--as i did----the Blu-ray and the DVD---it is almost shocking how different the colors are. After seeing the darker reds and deeper colors all these years i just can't get used to the new 'bluer' version. hopefully when they finally get around to releasing the Director's Cut they will rethink this drastic change. I prefer the Director's cut anyway---so i can just continue to watch that---now for two reasons: cut and color. The Blu-ray has better clarity. Hey, what am I talking about TWOK or diamonds?
Thanks Grant, glad to see it's not just me! I gotta say, the color temperature/white balance change is really huge, I'm considering programming a preset into my projetor to try to compensate! Rob, I can understand in some scenes enjoying shift towards the blues, but do you really like the FX shots I mentioned? They look pretty awful to me, not just preference-wise but the quality just looks shoddy.
Here is what i could find easily online. Not sure the source for the HD, but this is a good example in any case: DVD http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twok/ch12/twok0878.jpg HD http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twokhd/twokhd0766.jpg
And this. The DVD warmer color temp is really the way I remember it in the cinema. Whoever changed this is just nuts in my opinion: DVD http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twok/ch12/twok0888.jpg HD http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twokhd/twokhd0776.jpg
Wow, i can't believe the difference side by side and I KNEW there was a big difference. I was groping for a word to descibe it and yes I agree the guy who did it---was just plain nuts. And I just realized, one of the very first pictures released in 1982 (a Starlog article) from TWOK was the Enterprise in orbit around regula and you know what?---Regula was exactly the color of the DVD and most certainly NOT that of the Blu-ray. i wonder if the guy thought 'Blu-ray' meant the color palet should be 'really blue' ? Now, I really want the Director's Cut on Blu-ray done right.
Lol, Grant, for those of us who remember ST II when it came out, Regula has been and always shall be brown I have to say this is just wrong, not even a matter of taste etc. the bluray shots just don't look like they should, or did.
Is it possible that people in the industry have become numb to anything that doesn't have LOTS and LOTS of blue and or grey in the images? I'm getting pretty sick of seeing this myself. It's become a crutch to hide FX work and a means to convey mood. Unfortunately, the majority of movies coming out now look like this. It sucks.
I know what you mean Destiny, but this is a case where i think the people tweaking the film print master, just moved things over to the blue as a matter of taste or accident, not for any real artistic purpose or anything. As Grant said, I'm sure there will be another Bluray release sometime correcting this. Maybe Paramount will give Darren Docterman and his guys the money to render TMP director edition FX in HD, and get that to us as well.
Yes, it looks just like a blatant mistake by someone who had never seen all the other versions of TWOK (theatrical, VHS, Laserdisc, DVD etc) and just 'pushed a button' too far in one direction. who knows, maybe it was shot that way and in editing, in 1982, they decided the red/brown palet would look much better. Then when the dude was doing the restoration he simply went to the original negative and went by that rather than looking to see how the director/cinematographer wanted it. they claim that Meyer supervised the restoration, but listen to his new commentary---at one point he is talking and realizes that it is not the Director's cut he is watching--he is completely surprised. How big could his invovlvement be if he didn't know what cut they were using??
Maybe the people responsible only heard the word blu. In any event the new version looks like Enterprise is leaving the moon. I can see Paramount's official response already: Oops. We'll fix that right up and have it on the shelves by Christmas.
Well the rest of the film looks great, the live action stuff looks very sharp, and the shift toward the cooler white balance isn't that upsetting, some might even like it. But these FX shots just look like crap, and it's a shame.
Rob, sorry i wasn't talking about the FX themselves, but the bluray transfer of them that I showed earlier.