Warner Home Video held another of its media nights yesterday, sampling a number of its fourth-quarter releases — “Ocean’s Thirteen”, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, the fifth Looney Tunes box, the super-magic-lucky edition of “Blade Runner”, the final episodes of “The Sopranos”, the remastered Kubrick films.
Basically, if it has the Warner logo on it and it’s going to be in stores before the end of the year, it was on a table somewhere.
The event was also used to launch the studio’s new high-def website, which — though strangely fixated on “The Reaping” — looks to be a nice informational resource for Warner’s HD DVD and Blu-ray releases.
This being a week away from Halloween, the entertainment included owls and an olde-timey freak show … but the most eye-popping material were the high-def trailer loops playing in separate corners of the event on the new Toshiba HD-A3 players.
It was just a selection of trailers and sales reels, but it was mesmerizing. The saturated color scheme of “Ocean’s Thirteen” leapt to candy-colored life; the countless floating candles of the Hogwarts dining hall stood out in individual twinkles; the creepiness of Robin Williams’ ingratiating smile in “License to Wed” seemed to be pressing through the frame to threaten me …
… and when “Blade Runner” came on, well, wow.
The clips were positively gorgeous, with a resolution so detailed that, for the first time on any video format, I could make out fine interior details through the omnipresent smoke. I’ve never been a huge fan of the film — it’s far too in love with its own lugubriousity, and Ridley Scott cares a lot more about the production design than the characters — but I’m looking forward to seeing it again in high-def. It’s going to be beautiful.