BLU-RAY REVIEW

Passengers

Featured In Issue 139, March/April 2009

Picture4
SoundNR
WSR Score3.5
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
25637
(MPAA Rating):
PG-13
(Rating Reason):
Thematic elements including some scary images and sexuality
(Retail Price):
$39.95
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
93
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
A
(Theatrical Year):
2008
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
05/12/09
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Rodrigo Garcia
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

While helping a handful of plane crash survivors cope with their grief, young psychologist Claire Summers (Hathaway) begins to uncover conflicting accounts of the accident. At first, Claire believes that trauma is behind her patients' wildly different stories—until the survivors mysteriously begin disappearing one by one. Eric (Wilson) a surviving passenger she has grown dangerously close to, may hold the key to unlocking the truth about the tragic incident. Passengers is a psychological thriller that reveals a secret not of this world.(Gary Reber)

Special features include commentary with Director Rodrigo Garcia and Patrick Wilson; two featurettes: Analysis Of The Plane Crash (HD 16:28) and The Manifest And Making Of Passengers (HD 23:15); three deleted scenes (HD 97:16); up-front previews; plus BD-Live interactivity.

The 2.40:1 1080p AVC picture quality exhibits a filtered and soft presence throughout, with occasional frames of sharp imagery. The picture casts a green tint overall, possibly to create the feeling of the cold weather scenes that predominate. The entire feel of the picture is dimness and bleakness. Colors are subdued and muted throughout. Fleshtones are generally natural, but not always. Resolution is inconsistent, with some scenes or frames exhibiting good detail, but generally soft in most interior and outdoor scenes. Anne Hathaway's facial features always appear soft and undefined. Blacks are deep and solid, and at times, reveal good detail, and shadow delineation is generally excellent throughout. The dark night scenes look superb, but the daylight, what light there is, is wanting in contrast, though, probably intentionally. One has to experience this movie to the end to appreciate the stylization. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby® TrueHD 5.1-channel soundtrack is not distinguished, except for the excellent low-level ambient surround envelopment, and the occasional flashback crash scene sound effects. Dialogue is poorly produced throughout, with processed production sound and ADR that sounds, at times, forward and not well integrated spatially. Often there is a reverberation presence that is completely out of place with the scene environment. This is especially heard in outdoor scenes, where the dialogue sounds as if the actors were in a room. Intelligibility is fine, though. The music score lacks the clarity of the better soundtracks and overall sounds a bit veiled. Throughout the soundtrack there is a monaural focus to the sound, but with low-level surround envelopment support that is, at times, directionalized with a sound effect. Reenactments and flashbacks of the crash ignite the soundfield with impressively strong SPL engagement, deep bass in the channels, and the LFE .1 channel, and aggressive, directionalized holosonic® surround envelopment. But these scenes are few. (Gary Reber)