Just got my 895 copy last tuesday and got to watch the DVD last night. Excellent material. No problem so far. The faux leather packaging looked nice, but it was too large to fit in my DVD rack. The Astro lady said it contains a booklet of photos. At twice the price, nevermind.
This was my first time to see the film, as I didn't have the time to watch it at the theaters. It has the epic sweep and brutality of Gladiator. It even has the awesome spectacular fight scenes of ROTK. The duel moves between Brad and Eric are unique. But somehow, there was no emotional drain, nor involvement, that i experienced in the other spectacles mentioned above. Maximus's final fight scenes and his death in Gladiator was a real edge of the seat experience and elicited a feeling of waste at the end. Achilles and Hector's fight scenes were more acrobatic but I didn't feel any emotional involvement whatsover. Even when Hector died, I didn't feel sympathy for Suffron Burrows character. No relief of a justified comeuppance. Same when Achilles dies. Nothing. I think the death of Patroclus, Achilles' cousin was more sad than the others. For all his obnoxiousness, Brian Cox's Agamemnon's death was not even satisfying. Peter O' Toole gave the most convincing performance and yet his death didn't elicit any emotion from me either. I must really be getting old.
Or numb at such spectacles. Or that the film really had no drama, only epic sweep. But that's just me.
Just one other note of interest. Orlando Bloom's Paris looks and sounds very familiar. Kinda difficult suspending my earlier image of him as Legolas. Most specially when he started taking up the bow and arrow in the end to smite the Greeks and finally Achilles. Very Legolas.
All in all, the DVD tranfer, the colors and the sound are definitely up there.
