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Motal Kombat Blu-ray Disc Review

Howard — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:38:02 +0000

MORTAL KOMBAT (1995, Blu-ray released April 19, 2011 – MSRP $19.98)

MOVIE:	★★★☆☆
VIDEO:	★★★½☆
AUDIO:	★★½☆☆
EXTRAS:	★★½☆☆
BLU-RAY:	★★★☆☆

Resurrection is the ultimate pay-off in playing video games. No matter how many times we die, we can pop in another token or re-start the level and try again. Coinciding with the rebirth of the original game available today for XBOX 360 and PS3, and the introduction of the Mortal Kombat: Legacy web-series, Mortal Kombat, the 1995 film by trash-auteur Paul W. S. Anderson (Resident Evil) has been given a new life on Blu-ray. The nostalgia factor will win out here….

MK seems an unlikely choice for a film, but it manages to bring the game to life. The fight between Johnny Cage and Scorpion even mimics the 2D, side-scrolling feel of the original game as they trade blows on a narrow platform. Right off the top, it gets you pumped with its booming techno theme music. Unapologetic with its corny, over-the-top performances, Mortal Kombat pulls you in, and you have to watch the camp. It’s fun.

Fatalities were never as brutally devastating as they were in Mortal Kombat when it first hit arcades in 1992. It was pretty new to have your head ripped off or your spine removed from your body, a level of violence that had people shouting “Finish him!”. The game’s popularity never really died; producing several sequels and showing up in different forms and incarnations like DC vs. Mortal Kombat.

The film’s heroes are Liu Kang, Sonia Blaze and Johnny Cage. Lead by Rayden (played by Christopher Lambert), they must battle for the fate of the world. Fighting otherworldly creatures and sorcerers is a regular day at the office for the pixilated characters in the game, but it’s not as easy to do convincingly on film. Surprisingly, the movie didn’t do too bad a job. Taken from the limited background stories of the characters and the worlds involved in the game, the movie tells a story that manages to bring together many of the characters, including that handsome four-armed, Prince Goro. Using similar scenery from the game, fight scenes are a hoot. I must admit however, that even though the three main characters are fairly well defined, and clearly we don’t want to see our world doomed, at times it’s hard to know who to cheer for. I always enjoyed playing as Sub-Zero.

The 1080p AVC encoded transfer is superior to the previous DVD release; MK on Blu is a treat to watch. In a film containing every garish color in the spectrum, the colors never appear overly saturated or even muted, for that matter. The colors are fantastic (in appearance). The overall image quality is quite sharp in the beginning, but softens about halfway through. Some digital noise is noticeable, but not distracting by my standards. As for contrast: deeper black objects do blend into the background quite a bit as the film goes on as well, unfortunately. And, as one would expect, the special effects stand out as slightly antiquated and obvious.

A dts-HD MA 5.1 surround sound track also isn’t always enough to distract from the fact that it’s an older film. The quality is a little all over the place. Sometimes delivering bass-pounding fight and fist music, then other times it’s difficult to make out dialogue. From time to time, the background and ambiance tracks fill the rear speakers adequately, giving a decent sense of space and location while deepening the mood of the scene, but still failing to deliver in instances where eeriness could be accentuated.

There really isn’t much on the Blu-ray disc, as far as extras go. I was hoping for a making-of of some sort. What we do get is a trailer for the new game (which looks like fun!), a standard def theatrical trailer for the film and a very odd animated/computer generated adventure. Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins is partially a retelling of the narrative of the film that also offers further details about some of the characters. Also included for gamers that purchase the new Mortal Kombat game for the PS3 is a code to unlock Jade’s original costume and a (code only) digital copy.

Making a successful movie based on a game is next to impossible; however based on this movie-victory… (and the overall success of the franchise), a sequel was made. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has also been released on Blu-ray, separately. This first film is my preferred of the two. Either way, the bottom line is, even though a director uses people that look the part and can handle the action for these types of projects, let’s be honest, we don’t watch a film like MK for the acting chops, we watch for the karate chops. It’s a pleasant trip down Memory Lane for those who remember the film or were fond of the original games (I loved how the credits still contain “Play Mortal Kombat III at arcades everywhere…”) and a fun and kooky discovery for the newer gamer.

The Top 10 Reasons the PS3 is the Best Blu-ray Player

Brenden — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:00:13 +0000

In most cases, when a machine is capable of performing a great variety of tasks, it rarely has the ability to do any one thing particularly well. That’s not the case with Sony‘s Playstation 3. It can do a whole mess of things and amazingly manages to do most of them as well as any competitor. On top of being a technological jack-of-all-trades, the PS3 is the best Blu-ray player on the market. Here are ten reasons why:

10. FAST, ACCURATE, STABLE BLU-RAY DISC PLAYBACK: From the get-go the PS3 was heralded as an amazing Blu-ray player, capable of the fastest load-time of any machine on the market and the ability to playback any type of Blu-ray disc (single-layer, dual-layer, discs with complex BD-Java content, etc.) Several years on, it’s still up near the front of the pack due to the powerful Cell processor at its core and constant firmware updates that assure it stays up-to-date. And just to make sure all its playback-bases are covered, the PS3 is one hell of an up-converting DVD player!

9. BLU-RAY PROFILE 2.0 AND BEYOND: There are still a lot of early profile Blu-ray players on the market. They’re the ones being sold off for low, sub-$100 prices at the moment. And they’re probably great for playing back your favourite Blu-ray films. But players with modern firmware, called Profile 2.0 are capable of so much more, like Bonus view picture-in-picture, BD-Live networking and more! I bought my PS3 long before Profile 2.0 was upon us, comfortable in the knowledge that it was the only player available that could be upgraded when the time came. I am just as confident now that the PS3 can handle anything the future throws at it. Like the ability to playback future 3-D films on Blu-ray (see #4 on the list!)

8. HIGH-DEF VIDEO GAMES ON BLU-RAY: This is a no-brainer. The Playstation name is synonymous with video games. And though the PS3 can do so much more, it is, at its core, a video-game platform. It possesses the ability to deliver cutting edge graphics, sound and gameplay stored on Blu-ray discs and crunched through the uber-powerful Cell processor. And with studios finally becoming more comfortable with programming for the intricacies of the system, the PS3 is exploding with incredible, inventive and graphically sumptuous titles like Uncharted 2, God of War 3 and the amazing Little Big Planet. Oh and don’t forget, you get to play them all online over the free Sony Network!

7. FULLY UPGRADEABLE AND CUSTOMIZABLE: Sick of using your PS3 controller to manipulate the on-screen keyboard? Grab that old PC keyboard you’ve got laying around and plug it in. Voila! Instant PS3 keyboard. What’s that you say? You want to video chat with your pals? Likewise, plug in any-old PC compatible web-cam and you’re in business. The PS3 is not only user friendly, it’s customer friendly. Sony has learned from their mistakes of the past and no longer forces you to buy system-locked hardware to make the most of your machines. In fact, they almost encourage you to upgrade the PS3 hard-drive storage yourself by making it easily accessible and compatible with any 2.5-inch SATA notebook hard disk. Turn that 80GB system into a 500GB system in no time!

6. PSN STORE: Download movies, TV, music, games and more through Sony’s PSN store. With a constantly upgraded line-up of new content, you’ll be sorely tempted to forego watching your latest Blu-ray for the instant pleasures of the PSN download. Keep in mind, these shows don’t look anywhere near as good as the content on a Blu-ray but the convenience is incredible. And, let’s face it, there aren’t many people who’ll pay $40 for The Proposal on Blu-ray but a few dollars to watch a download of it is within the realms of acceptability! Sadly, the store experience differs by region with the USA having the most robust selection.

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EA exec: XBOX 360 has already been 'maxed out', putting more focus on PS3

Brenden — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:57:06 +0000

EA exec: XBOX 360 has already been ‘maxed out’, putting more focus on PS3 http://bit.ly/w7zQD #videogames #tech

5 Blu-ray Highlights from E3 2009

karl — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:37:50 +0000

Sony’s Playstation 3 platform already has a lot going for it as a Blu-ray player and media centre, so it’s nice to see developers taking advantage of the machine’s graphics potential in the newest crop of games announced at E3. The only thing wrong with this news is that we won’t see most of them on our televisions until 2010!

Some highlights, in no particular order:

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

I loved Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for its attention to honest storytelling and believable character acting. It was the perfect length and felt like a tightly-spun movie. And it looked incredible in HD. This sequel looks better in every way, if that’s possible.

2. Assassin’s Creed 2

While the first game was not without its problems, it remains a tour-de-force of high-resolution graphics and easy, intuitive parkour running. The most common complaint has been the repetitious nature of the mission system, which this Renaissance-era sequel seems to correct. Ubisoft has also outdone themselves with graphical improvements which will really shine in 1080p.

3. God of War III

I enjoyed the first God of War, but never managed to finish the second. The trailer for the third game is bordering on parody, as Kratos stabs everything in his path, from skeletons to ogres to innocent-looking birds. BUT… (you knew there was a but…) I could honestly not tell where the cinema scenes ended and the playable moments began. This game has been described as a painting come to life, and I’d have to agree. Worth a look just to marvel at the visuals and chuckle at the gratuitous violence.

4. The Last Guardian

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are some of the best games of all time – lush, subtle, and the story is delivered via gameplay rather than overt cinema cutscenes. Playing each of these games was like running around the imagination of Hayao Miyazaki, but far more melancholy. I’d have bought this third installment sight-unseen, but this new trailer really amped up my excitement. In under two minutes, I felt an emotional attachment to the main characters, and I have the utmost respect and admiration for an artist’s ability to pull that off.

5. Motion Controls

It remains to be seen how this will play out in software, but Sony’s new motion-control technology looks to improve upon everything Nintendo has made popular in the last few years. True one-to-one motion sensing allows detection of depth as well as lateral motion, so users can, in essence, reach into the screen to manipulate objects, navigate through on-screen items, etc. The tech demo was impressive and very responsive and, most importantly, appears to be ready to hand to developers! I think we’ll be seeing some really interesting applications of this technology very soon.

There was more. Much more. My hope is that in addition to the improved graphics and audio, Sony game developers pack these Blu-ray discs full of interactive extras, features and commentary.

PS3 Skate 2 enables red/blue 3D mode via cheat code

Brenden — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:47:15 +0000

PS3 Skate 2 enables red/blue 3D mode via cheat code … http://snurl.com/cxtz2

Sony: PS3-focused 'movie plus game' Blu-ray Discs coming this year

Brenden — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:58:12 +0000

Sony: PS3-focused ‘movie plus game’ Blu-ray Discs coming this year … http://snurl.com/bpoc3

Video game sales surpass DVD / Blu-ray for the first time

Brenden — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:10:25 +0000

Video game sales surpass DVD / Blu-ray for the first time … http://snurl.com/ar4mj

A Whole Day of PS3 Deals! (Update)

karl — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:23:47 +0000

Mark Thursday, December 18th down in your calendar! Amazon is offering an entire day of PS3 deals on their Gold Box page, starting at 12:01 AM. There’s no official word on the details of the sale, but Amazon is notorious for huge savings on events such as these, so if you’re in the market for a Playstation or, well, anything PS3-related, head on over there as early as you can.

(I’m personally hoping for a discounted PS3 Bluetooth Headset and Remote Control)

Update: Motorstorm Pacific Rift $39.98. Does 33% off constitute a “Gold Box” sale? The few items I’ve picked up on these sales have seen discounts beyond 50%. So far, I’m not impressed. - brenden

Update 2: 6:00-9:59 AM PST – PES 2009 Pro Evolution Soccer $29.98

Today's PS3 Game deals: Soulcalibur IV for $25, Lost Planet for $13 more

Brenden — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:44:39 +0000

Today’s PS3 Game deals: Soulcalibur IV for $25, Lost Planet for $13 more … http://snurl.com/7qqy9 [www_ps3fanboy_com]

Street Fighter IV Extras!

karl — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:22:52 +0000

February 20th can’t come soon enough! Capcom has announced the contents of their Street Fighter IV Collectors Edition, which includes a set of limited figures, a comic-book strategy guide, and a bonus BluRay disc containing a selection of trailers and a full-length animated movie specially created for the launch of the game. Hurray for original content!

Get the full details at Gamestop…

The Blu-ray Blog » Video Games

Motal Kombat Blu-ray Disc Review

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