Subtitles:

English (SDH), French, Castellano, Spanish, none

Extras:

 

 

The Film:

The last time we saw Mel Gibson in a leading role, he was throwing cold water on alien invaders in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs.” Now after a hiatus spent burnishing his reputation as the world’s pre-eminent director of ultraviolent dead-language epics, he tries a return to movie-star form in “Edge of Darkness,” in which he plays a grieving dad trying to solve and avenge the death of his daughter.

This is hardly new territory for Mr. Gibson, who has spent much of his on-screen career — from “Mad Max” (1979) to “The Patriot” (2000) — looking for paternal payback. Speaking of which: In the bluntly titled “Payback” (1999) he was both the agent of revenge and the principal victim, a situation that at first seems to apply in “Edge of Darkness.” Tommy Craven, Mr. Gibson’s Boston police detective, believes himself to be the intended recipient of the shotgun blast that kills his daughter, Emma. (Her mother, as far as we can tell, departed long ago.) And so he sets out to investigate his own attempted murder.

But it turns out the killer did not miss his target. At the time of her death Emma (Bojana Novakovic) was on a visit home from Northampton, Mass., where she worked for a mysterious technology company. She was packing a pistol and manifesting strange symptoms. Before too long Tommy, who occasionally hears his daughter’s voice and flashes back to her childhood, is undertaking the grim, dogged work of unraveling the conspiracy that led to her killing. This involves showing up at various people’s houses and places of work, accosting them with brusque questions and, when all else fails, punching them in the face.

Excerpt from A.O. Scott at the NY Times located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.
 

Edge of Darkness is housed on a single-layered Blu-ray and looks good using the VC-1 encode... but never stellar. Detail seems competent as we view a few more wrinkles on Mel than we may be used to. His eyes are real blue and... the blood very red. Grain and noise seem evenly positioned. Contrast appears strong enough but there is not much in the way of depth. The image actually looks a bit thin.  Daylight scenes are more impressive and some darker scenes exhibits crushed blacks. This Blu-ray will undoubtedly be the best the film looks but is without major flaw or weakness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio some in the form of an adequate lossless DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 2143 kbps. The first real aggressive sound will knock you right out of our seat and separations, like rain, seem to crisply tap out of the rear speakers competently. It may lose a bit in its robust nature but overall supports the films action sequences very well. I did have to fiddle with the volume control as there is a huge disparity between dialogue (especially Gibson's, often, hard top distinguish Bostonian accent) and the more potent gunplay. There are subtitle options and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
As a one-dimensional film this can work. It seems to hint at gaining more layers and some much needed depth - but essentially it is a revenge tale with constable Mel pursuing the evil meg-corp responsible for his daughter's demise. The sideline of imagining his daughter talking to him and reflections of her as a child never really was developed enough methinks. Ditto for the Ray Winstone guilt evolution. It is entertaining, for sure, but I thought the violence went overboard a few times. It was unnecessary as the crux of the story should have been investigation not bloodshed. My opinion. The Blu-ray produces an adequate, if not stellar, presentation. Mel may have slowed the pace - but he is still the same and fans may wish to indulge in a good'ol cop-seeking-justice popcorn flick. There really isn't much more here. 

Gary Tooze

May 2nd, 2010