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For picture and audio quality, this Blu-ray is obviously superior to prior releases. There is moderate film grain to the transfer, giving it a natural feel. The special effects (i.e. the launch sequence) receive the greatest benefit and the clearest visuals, but on the whole the film is beautifully rendered and, for these benefits, the Blu-ray is worth picking up.
I do concur, however, that this disc has some slight issues. It takes too long to load -- I timed it at roughly two minutes on my slim PS3. This is mildly annoying but comparable to other Universal and Disney releases. I was more annoyed that after waiting for the BD-Java to load, selecting "English," waiting for more loading, waiting for the menu to animate, and selecting the film that I was treated to a "social BLU" splash page asking me if I wanted my Facebook status updated. What aggravated me was that this admittedly brief interruption occurred after I had already selected to play the film, and it would seem that it will occur every time I choose to do so; it was an unwanted and, in my opinion, rather lame attempt to add "interactivity," if having your Blu-ray player post that you're watching a film on your Facebook wall can be considered as such. I would rather that this option could be turned off BEFORE I select to watch the film, and that this setting could be saved. Additionally, advertisements for other Universal products pop-up in the background of the menus, presumably for "shopping convenience" but really an irritating marketing gimmick. These so-called bonuses serve to make the general experience of navigating this disc feel very clunky.
Overall, the content in this package (which carries over most of the content from the last two-disc DVD) is fantastic, but the design of the disc's menus and bonuses suffers from baffling and annoying gimmicks that are mildly aggravating but hardly ruin the experience; you'll forget about the hiccups once the film starts and you're engrossed. If you are a fan of the film and have the necessary equipment to benefit from the technical improvements in this release, it is highly recommended.
But, Universal? In the future, either streamline your gimmicks or leave them off the disc. We purchase these to watch the films, not to update our social networks.
EDIT 3/15/12: If possible, disable your player's internet connection when playing this disc. Without streaming trailers and that other crap, this disc loads right up. HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you do so. Makes the experience much less bile-inducing.
Anyone who's interested in filmmaking will be riveted by both the Ron Howard running film commentary and the hour-long "Making of" documentary. Perhaps even more intriguing is the Marilyn and Jim Lovell audio track, in which you get to hear how Lovell feels about Howard and Hanks made his movie. This is made all the more interesting and informative for the filmmaking student in that _Apollo 13_ wasn't just the retelling of Lovell's real-life experience, it's also the film version of his book. Getting his perspective both as narrative object and storyteller is fascinating, as are Marilyn's observations on Kathleen Quinlan's Academy-nominated performance.
Combine all this with the superb technical brilliance of the encoding here, and you've got a DVD that's entirely worth the surprisingly modest price.
Probably the best of director Ron Howard's movies, it is well acted by stars Tom Hanks (as Jim Lovell), Kevin Bacon (Jack Swigert), and Bill Paxton (Fred Haise) as the three space-bound astronauts, Gary Sinise (mission-bumped astronaut Ken Mattingly), Ed Harris (mission control Gene Kranz), and Kathleen Quinlan (Marilyn Lovell). The movie was nominated for 9 Oscars including best picture, writing, supporting actor (Harris), supporting actress (Quinlan), music, and visual effects, and won for editing and for sound.
There are a lot of special effects thoughout the movie, including the entirely-recreated lift-off sequence from a bird's-eye viewpoint. The weightlessness scenes were achieved by filming in a KC-135 airplane that did a series of parabolic climbs and dives, allowing about 25 seconds of filming at a time.
An exciting 220 minute movie about one of the most-watched successful rescues in history, the DVD contains a good "making of" documentary, a commentary by director Ron Howard, and another by Jim and Marilyn Lovell. "Bill Paxton's home movies" were never located, and the "comparison with NASA footage" and the "extensive exploration of special effects" were brief parts of the "making of", not separate items. Text-based production notes and cast/crew blurbs, and a trailer. Undocumented feature is the isolated score which plays in its entirety at the main menu (can skip forward, but not backward, however). The 2.35:1 wide-screen movie has 56 (!) chapters. Highly recommend for fans of any of the actors listed above, the space program, or adventures in general.
"With all due respect, sir, I believe this will be our finest hour" - Gene Kranz
