This weekend I grabbed Sinbad separately and also got both other movies netflixed (I am expecting they are coming out probably in a short while).Az987 said:
Sinbad's quality is outstanding. Well, let me preface that. It is outstanding as LONG AS YOU KNOW what you are getting into. These were NOT big budget movies. To make matters worse, because of all of the optical effects and stop motion inserted into live action, there are obviously parts where the actual pristine negatives themselves were already worn just due to tons of cutting and compositing. What this means is that there is HEAVY grain in the film from the low budget and film stock used and there is visible wear on the film especially during the stop motion sequences. It's not because they got a bad print or didn't bother remastering it... this is how the movie looks. So with that preface in place, the movie(s) looks outstanding. Just don't expect it to look like Iron Man or even Nightmare Before Christmas. Of course the alternative is to DNR the hell out of the movie which would give it that smooth bright look, but on a movie like this DNR would cost all of the amazingly intricate work Harryhausen's company put into the miniatures, so it is wonderful to see Sony left that intact, grain and all.
The other two movies (It Came From Beneath the Sea and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers). The actual quality of the movies is pretty much identical to above except that overall the prints are a tiny more worn just due to age. Still, this is the BEST these movies have ever looked and are a dramatic leap in quality over the DVDs. The colorization process on these is on par with 20M Miles. You either prefer it or you don't. Personally I feel the colorization process actually brings the movies up to a level close to similarly budgeted technicolor movies. I'd go so far as to say I PREFER the colorized versions, and this is coming from someone who has seen ALL of these movies dozens of times in B&W dating all the way back to shock theater on sunday afternoons on our local independent station during the early 80's. My nostlgia is still for the b&w versions and I have watched the b&w version of 20M Miles, but we've (my daughter, niece and myself) actually watched the colored version a couple of times and I have had to watch the b&w version by myself just once so far.
yeah, a longish post, but these movies are kind of confusing given the quality of the actual film used and available and the colorization process on 3 out of 4 in the set.
