Annapolis (Blu-ray)

My Two Cents (for what it’s worth):

I reviewed the SD DVD for Annapolis back in July and have applied my comments from that review here as well.

Annapolis is a film about a young man Jake Huard who for all of his life has lived in the shadow of the Annapolis Military Academy. His mother passed away when he was a boy but before that he promised her that one day he would graduate from there. Jake, played by James Franco who is familar to most of us from the two Spiderman films, has some issues. He is angry, stubborn and strong willed. He works with his father in a ship building yard which is located across the bay from the academy. Jake gains acceptance to the prestigious Annapolis where he encounters Cole ( Tyrese Gibson )an upper classmen who has character traits similar to his own. Jake and Cole ultimately end up meeting in the Brigade which is a Naval Academy boxing tournament held annually which dates back to 1900. The winner of the tournament has his name placed upon the wall of the school which gives every student even the lowly "plebes" a shot at gaining respect.

Of course this film is all about what leads up to the final battle between these two men. The gravy lies in Jake's inner struggle to overcome his anger toward his father. The relationship he develops with "Twins" portrayed by Vicelleous Shannon who struggles with his weight and faces expulsion due to poor training course times. Jakes does have a few people in his corner though. A potential love interest "Ali" played by Jordana Brewster and LT. Burton played by one of my favorite character actors Donnie Wahlberg. Annapolis is one of those feel good films that leaves you feeling that there isn't anything that can't be accomplished with hard work, and dedication as long as you realize your limitations. Adversity can sometimes be used as a tool to motivate but then again so can compassion.

Parental Warnings (hope this helps):

Annapolis is rated PG-13 and does contain some mild violence and adult language. There is nothing that I would deem inappropriate for children 12 and older.

VIDEO:

Annapolis on Blu-ray is a 1080p transfer with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It was encoded using the MPEG-2 compression codec. Image quality in terms of color reproduction and print quality are identical to the SD DVD. Colors are naturally rendered with good saturation and depth. There are a plethora of actors from varying ethnic backgrounds in the film. Skin tones exhibited fine articulation from one actor to the next. The print was clean and free of debris and artifacting. The only thing I noticed was early in the film as Jake sits on the peer looking across the river at the Academy, the river in the foreground is still while in the background closer to the Academy it is moving. The moving water exhibited fine video noise. I am not certain whether this is related to the video itself or scaling however I wanted to mention it just the same. This was the only time throughout the film it was visible.

Dynamic range and dimensionality were excellent. Blacks were deep although slightly crushed which caused some loss of detail in darker scenes. Grain was only present in those same darker scenes and was not objectionable. My only real complaint was with resolution. The transfer was a bit soft and rarely exhibited the sharpness and fine detail that I am accustomed to seeing from high definition. This did not negatively impact overall picture fidelity but was disappointing for a film this new and kept it from garnering a high video rating.

AUDIO:

The audio presentation on this Blu-ray disc was it's strength. The 5.1 48kHz/16 bit uncompressed PCM audio was outstanding. Keeping in mind that this is not an action based film, sound quality was dynamic when called upon. During the numerous boxing scenes the audio had a crispness and resolve that was detailed, well separated, and extended. Dialogue was crystal clear and intelligible from any point within the soundfield. The surrounds were used primarily for ambience but were used effectively during the training and fight sequences. Switching back and forth between this and the 448kbps Dolby track on the SD DVD version yielded a noticeable difference in the richness and texture of the audio.

Overall an excellent audio presentation.

BONUS MATERIALS:

Bonus features were a bit on the spartan side:

- Audio commentary with Director Justin Lin, Writer Dave Collard, and Editor Fred Raskin

- Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Director Justin Lin, Writer Dave Collard, and Editor Fred Raskin

- Movie Showcase: Instant access to select movie scenes that showcase The Ultimate in High Definition Picture and Sound

- Seamless menus

The bonus features were just average. The Movie Showcase allowed access to 3 scenes in high definition from the film. The deleted scenes were the same scenes contained on the SD DVD version as was the commentary. The ommission of the Making of featurette from the SD DVD is a shame because it was very good.

Wrapping Things Up:

Overall this is a definite improvement over the SD DVD release in both the audio and video departments. If like me you enjoyed this film, then this a worthy purchase in "Blu".

Recommended.

Reference Review System:

Sony VPL-HS51a high definition front projector
Dalite High Contrast Cinemavision 92" screen
Oppo 970HD universal disc DVD Player (480i HDMI)
Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD Player (HDMI Audio/Video)
Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blu-ray disc Player (HDMI Audio/Video)
Anthem AVM-50 THX Ultra 2 Preamp/Video Processor
Outlaw Audio Model 990 A/V Controller
Outlaw Audio Model 7700 seven channel amplifier
B&K Reference 200.7 Series 2 seven Channel amplifier
Canton "Ergo" Series speakers
Axiom Audio QS8 Quadpolar speakers
SV Sounds 20-39 PC Plus (12.3 Driver)
Monster Power HTS 5100 Signature Series line conditioner/surge suppressor
Canare, Esoteric, Wireworld, Audioquest, Bettercables, Best Deal Cables - Cabling