Anyone who is reading this review to get an understanding on the movie itself need look elsewhere. I'm not rating the movie as everyone has seen it anyway. My review is simply on the transfer.
Wow this is astonishing, make no mistake this is one of the best transfers ever FULL STOP.
Tigger 22, I'm sorry my friend but you are telling people to buy the DVD instead because it's too dark. Do you even have 20/20 vision. What equipment are you using?
Pay absolutely no attention to his "buy the DVD instead" remark.
This is the benchmark by which all old movies should be compared. I'll grant you this was one of the most expensive productions in all movie history so I dare to suggest that the best most pricely film stock was used but I am completely bowled over at how amazing this looks compared to previous TV broadcasts and video,DVD releases.
I have owned this movie on every format and It was like watching it for the first time, every scene had me marveling at the foreground and background detail. I was noticing things I'd never seen before in the background. Amazing. I'll admit that the sharpeness is so impressive that some of the effects shots now look quite poor but hey it's old right and models were used back then when no CGI existed, I can't fault the transfer because of that.
Grain haters will be delighted that this was shot largely in 70mm, so following this HD transfer we have the finest grain structure which you can hardly notice. No evident DNR processes have been used either to hide what is there.
The colours are incredible, so bright, so vibrant that the picture is truely alive. This film was a wonder in it's day, so epic, so grand, and now it looks like that again, because you know it's over 50 years old you are constantly wowed by how amazing it looks. If you compare this to the "Quo Vadis" transfer you'll see what is meant by colours looking washed out, not so with this release.
I will be honest and state that there is black crushing in some of the darker scenes but I'm being really picky here.
Incredible, one of the biggest examples of why Blu Ray is 6 times better than DVD. This is as near to reference quality a disc can get and deserves comparison with "Cleopatra" as one of the best transfers of classic cinema yet. Oh why couldn't everything of been shot on 70mm film stock.
Buy this at once. Amazing!!