Star Trek Into Darkness 3D (Blu-ray 3D Review)
- Review Date: Sep 18, 2013
- Format: Blu-ray 3D
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Director
J.J. AbramsRelease Date(s)
2013 (September 10, 2013)Studio(s)
Bad Robot/Skydance (Paramount)- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: N/A
Review
Hot on the heels of Iron Man 3, the summer’s second blockbuster precedes it to home video by a week. But in its quest to reach the final box office frontier, Star Trek Into Darkness attempted to also go where no Trek had gone before; into the third dimension. A full-on post-production conversion, Into Darkness has the additional distinction of being the first feature film to shoot IMAX on almost 30 minutes of the movie, and then undergo a post conversion.
The squeaky clean look of the Flying Federation Apple Store, combined with the high detail and depth of field of the IMAX cameras, brings a lot of good punch and depth to parts of the movie. The red forest opening in particular sports some great layering, but the bridge scenes didn’t get as much pop as I was hoping for. To be honest, I think I found the split-diopter camera process used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture to be revelatory when it came to expanding the space, a credit to Richard Kline’s cinematography. This film could have used a similar touch.
Still, those who are looking for eye-poking imagery will be pleased as flung spears, fire hoses and space debris try to virtually stick themselves in your retina. I wish the same could be said for the biggest thing I was looking forward to: starship combat. Maybe it’s just the composition of the images or the rapid fire pace of the shots, but I was hoping to get some amazing visceral punch from the pounding the two ships take. It wasn’t to be. Most of the depth feels about 90% as good in the 2D version as it does here, so it’s a real missed opportunity in my opinion to push for some really great three dimensional porn.
Star Trek Into Darkness was probably a Top 3 3D experience in theaters this summer, but with the reduction in screen size at home its best bits have a reduced impact, so your mileage may vary a bit depending on your TV acreage. It’s a worthwhile upgrade if you still haven’t purchased it, but (based on our review of the 2D version’s lack of extras) if you’re planning a more feature laden purchase down the road, you may want to wait to buy 3D then.
- Jeff Kleist