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DVD rating:
Movie Review
Blu-Ray Information
Like Dragon Dynasty's recent Blu-Ray release of An Empress and the Warriors, their new Blu-Ray for Legend of the Black Scorpion disappointingly has exactly the same extras as its' DVD counterpart.
Blu-Ray rating:
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Legend of the Black Scorpion
Presentation
Overall, the packaging is very nice, complete with a cardboard slip case. The artwork isn't as good as the Hong Kong version (released by Mega Star) but I guess we should at least be grateful that it doesn't have Daniel Wu dressed in a sleeveless black t-shirt punching at the potential buyer.
The Movie Given that The Banquet had the largest budget for a Mainland production to date, the HK DVD already had stellar audio/visual quality. But the Dragon Dynasty release does improve on matters, even if it's not to a huge degree. The picture on the DD version definitely has better color saturation and a sharper picture.
Dragon Dynasty
Mega Star Audio-wise, the DD version does punch things up a bit. There seems to be more attention paid to the surround effects, which really pays off during the action sequences. Do yourself a favor, though, and stay away from the English dub slapped on here. It's not a "Kung Fu Theatre" level of cheesiness, but it definitely detracts from the more dramatic parts of the film.Like Dragon Dynasty's other releases, the subtitles (available in English and Captioned English) are easy to read, and they do offer a better translation than the Mega Star version. They are put on the lower "black bar", which might annoy some people looking to make the picture fill out their HD set's screen. But for a movie with sumptuous visuals like this, I enjoyed not having subtitles plastered across the action.
The Extras
Commentary with Bey Logan: The only extra on the first disc, this is one of Logan's better commentaries on a DD DVD, even though (as Logan himself admits) he's not the biggest expert on Mainland films out there. But he still does manage to impart a lot of knowledge without coming across as too academic or rote. In particular, I found Logan's riffing on how the results here compare to the source material of "Hamlet" to be quite fascinating, and his breakdown of how certain scenes were constructed was enlightening. And, as with the case of most of Logan's other commentaries, learning the names of the actors and crew involved with the production (even the minor players) becomes invaluable for gaining geek cred.
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