Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The

Posted May 24, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

Daisy is an old woman, laying in the hospital with death lurking around the corner. Together with her daughter Caroline she’s waiting for hurricane Katrina to pass by and to pass the time that’s left she starts talking about the love of her life: a man called Benjamin who was born as an old man and grew younger as the 20th century passed by.

Sound and Vision:
When it comes to technical image quality there’s really nothing bad to be said. The amount of detail is amazing, black is truly black, the contrast is perfect and the movie is just awesomely stylized. Truly reference material, this Blu-ray disc’s image!

The sound comes sadly enough not with a DTS-HD track but instead we get a Dolby TrueHD version. Still, we shouldn’t be too disappointed as the track is very ambient and uses the surround speakers as well as the subwoofer as much as necessary. A very good track although a DTS-HD version would probably have just that little more punch that we could use in the few action scenes. People who love details in sound and crystal clear dialogues will certainly not be disappointed though.

Extras:
– Audio commentary track by David Fincher.
– First Trimester: a couple of features on the Pre-production
– Second Trimester: Two features on the production
– Third Trimester: several featurettes on make-up and visual effects
– Fourth Trimester: the premiere of the movie, a gallery and trailers

When combining the four trimesters, you get one huge documentary of no less than 183 minutes. Even if you’re not really into the movie itself, the bonus material is of unseen quality.

Conclusion:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was one of the movies that was tipped for a buttload of Oscars. Unfortunately, Slumdog Millionaire went running home with most of them so this one was left out in the cold a bit. Don’t worry about that, though, as the movie is definitely worth watching, even if you’re not into drama. David Fincher guides us through the 20th century by telling a love story without going too much into the details and making it too sticky and he does it very well. Of course, Button remains a bit a sidekick of Forrest Gump with the box of chocolats being replaced by a hummingbird, but who cares? We get to see 166 minutes of fantastic acting with an interesting storyline and great visual effects. What do you want more?

Also from a technical point of view this Blu-ray is worth checking out. The image quality is unequalled and eventhough there’s no DTS-HD track, the sound does an excellent job. Warner should be congratulated for this release, especially when considering that they’ve even made the effort to include a second disc with a buttload of extras that will give you a great insight into how this movie was made.

Must-have!

Dying Breed Uncut – 2 Disc SE Sex Drive