Although It’s Not The “Extended Cut” – It Has Stunning Clarity on “HD DVD”
Despised by critics on release and costing more than my weekly wages (I work in a second-hand record shop, therefore I'm a millionaire), "Waterworld" was nonetheless embraced as a B-movie classic by fans all over the world - both at the cinema on release - and then on DVD reissue later. But with the new format upon us, "Waterworld" is the kind of movie that virtually screams, "...will look great on Hi Def". However, I was told by someone who's in the movie business that the transfer of this film onto HD was a little "soft" - disappointing even. I'd like to concentrate on that, because I absolutely don't agree.
I've both a Blu Ray player and a Toshiba HD player and a quality HDMI interconnect for both - and I've been buying up the HD discs like mad recently because (a) they're dirt cheap (it's now a dead format) and (b) the picture quality is just fabulous.
I was astonished by the clarity on "Waterworld" on "HD" - beautifully transferred - and it automatically formats to fill the entire screen - so you get the full impact. It didn't look this good in the cinema, I can assure you. Ok, it's not the 'extended cut' that was issued on the USA and is preferred by some fans, but man does this look good. It's clean and revelatory in almost every frame and because very little CGI was used, the sets are all real, so nothing looks dated or added on in post-production.
I haven't seen the BLU RAY version I'll admit, but if it looks this good in transfer, then I'd say buy it...
PS: the best picture quality I've ever seen is on the HD disc of "Ray" - the Ray Charles story - unbelievable clarity and depth. What a shame this format didn't make it.
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