Included with every HD DVD player sold 300 is no doubt viewed by everyone with an HD DVD player. Deservedly so … 300 is one of the coolest movies ever made. To start, the hot Lena Headley stars as Queen Gorgo and Dominic West from The Wire (one of the BEST shows ever) as Theron. Ultimately those names mean nothing. This movie is about visual style and HD DVD is a great format for this production. The movie is a grainy feature with stylized tint and shadows – 1080 really brings out the contrasts, colors, brightness, etc. For heavy CGI effects movies, King Kong is the bar for me. King Kong looked great in the theatre, bit its effects were exposed in HD DVD format. 300 passes the “Kong” test. The effects were not stymied by the format and actually looked good

In addition to the visual elements the audio is huge – the Dolby Digital mix is spot on. As always with movies that fail to inclue a TrueHD mix, I missed it here. Ultimately, that’s what keeps this a 4/5. Regardless, the production relies heavily upon audio to tell the story. When Xerxes army marches to the gates, the bass, and marching is clear, powerful and impresses upon the viewer how big his army really was – even on a home theatre.

The PIP bonus features are very cool. 300 was filmed on a shoestring in front of a blue screen (not to be confused with a Blu-ray). Watching the film a second, third time while simultaneously viewing the blue screen shots was very very cool.

Despite not having a TrueHD mix this is easily one of the coolest movies in HD and deserves a place as one of the movies included with a HD DVD player.

ILHDDVD Rating 4/5 (Where is TrueHD)
Video/Image: 5/5 (A beautiful movies)
Audio: 3/5 (Needs a TrueHD track)
recommended

Did you see this HD DVD? Rankit: (5 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

 Loading …

Sphere: Related Content