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Harry Potter Years 1-5 Blu-ray
Limited Edition Gift SetWarner Bros. | 2007 | Not rated | Dec 11, 2007
Harry Potter Years 1-5 Blu-ray ReviewContaining the first five Harry Potter BDs in a celebratory gift box, the set is a must-have for Potter fans of all ages.Reviewed by Greg Maltz, January 10, 2008 Since J.K. Rowling first introduced the world to Harry Potter in her enormously successful novels, the young wizard has captivated children and adults alike. It may seem odd that in an age of cynicism, the saga of a young, orphaned boy destined to discover his talents in wizardry and do battle with the forces of darkness should quickly rise in the ranks of our cultural icons. But in Potter, Rowling managed to imbue many core values shared by different cultures around the world: the element of self-worth, the triumph of good over evil, the magic of discovery and the power of both mentorship and friendship. Each of these messages is brought home with fascinating characters and an odd assortment of mythological creatures, including hippogriffs and centaurs. With the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Blu-ray, Warner also delivered on BD the four previous Potter films and issued a limited version box set. This review will focus on the Blu-ray gift box as a whole, with links to separate reviews of the individual titles. The box looks spiffy in low-res images online, but up close it is a bit chintzy in the look and feel department. Of course, it is meant to resemble an old piece of luggage, like Harry's case of belongings he carries to Hogwarts each year. Potter fans will find fun things inside--not the least of which are the BDs themselves. Each disc is enclosed in a case resembling a text book. The set also includes two extra DVD "books": the interactive DVD game and an disc full of Harry Potter extras (various short documentaries for each film). In addition to the BDs and DVDs, the box contains ornate trading cards and bookmarks. Each metal bookmark resembles a different symbol: Hedwig, Harry's broom, a golden snitch, the Gryffindor shield, and Voldemort's prophecy.
Let's quickly recap the saga of Harry Potter. In The Sorcerer's Stone, young Harry is adopted by his wicked aunt and uncle, who keep him as a virtual prisoner in a small room under the stairs. After much anguish, he is found by the groundskeeper of the wizards' school, Hogwarts, where he is invited to attend. Harry meets his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), and together they attend classes, master the art of broomstick flying, face detention in the Forbidden Forest and play a high-stakes game of wizard's chess as they try to find the Sorcerer's stone. In The Chamber of Secrets, a menacing force emerges from within Hogwarts itself. Together, Harry, Ron and Hermione must use their resourcefulness and burgeoning magic skills to pursue a series of clues. Following the trail of clues leads Harry into the darkest of places, including a nest of giant spiders in the middle of the forest and ultimately, into a Chamber in Hogwarts where a threat eminates. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the strongest film in the series. It focuses on a convicted murderer, Sirius Black, who escapes prison and tries to sneak into Hogwarts to find Harry. The theme of lycanthropy plays a key role in the story. Harry learns that people are not who they seem to be, and he must risk everything to find Sirius and learn his true intentions. But who will save Harry from the spectral, wraith-like creatures known as dementors? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire pits Harry in a wizardry contest with the most gifted seniors at Hogwarts. Harry proves his meddle but must face an even more serious challenge when Lord Voldemort returns to human form. This theme is quickly picked up in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In the first few minutes of the film, Lord Voldemort returns and attacks Harry. He finds himself facing off against an enemy that mainlines through his subconscious and threatens to take over his identity. In the end, his feelings of resentment and solitude are mollified by Hermione, Ron and other friends, who assist him in his battle against evil. Video  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: The first film in the series has a diffuse appearance. The film noise takes on an almost digital sheen--a quality I found lackluster in that it detracted from the dynamics we enjoy in reference-quality 1080p. Granted, these observations are by degrees, and overall The Sorcerer's Stone is significantly more detailed than the DVD. Part of the problem lies in the development of visual graphics and special effects, and the integration of CGI elements into the picture. Simply put, it was not done with the utmost care or quality compared to other films in the series, let alone films placing similar emphasis on CGI in children's fantasy. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: While the first film appears soft and diffuse, Chamber of Secrets has very good definition and contrast. With rich colors and convincing skin tones, it also shows none of the slight digital sheen within the grain noise observed in Sorcerer's Stone. Detail in textured clothes, facial expressions and hair are good. But the predominant beneficiary of the definition is the barrage of special effects, which are handled better this time around compared to the first film, where they appeared more canned. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The video quality is nearly reference quality. Unfortunately, while the graphics are gorgeous, the CGI effectively flattens the picture. While the depth of many scenes is admirable, several of the night scenes appear two dimensional. Contrast, black level, resolution and color richness are excellent. The detail is pure eye- candy--especially in daytime landscape shots, such as when Harry and his friends are hiding in the pumpkin patch on the outskirts of Hogwarts. CGI effects, such as the Dementors and the breakneck ride of the Knight Bus, are also very impressive. No motion artifacts or excessive noise was observed. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Digital manipulation appears to have dynamically squashed the picture a bit, and depth suffers. This is especially true where significant CGI imagery is used. The effects are impressive, and rendered with great care. But the cost is the absence of gorgeously palpable definition that 1080p is capable of delivering. Another factor is the slight aqua green tint in many of the computer-generated scenes. It almost looks as if a translucent film of toothpaste was applied to the screen. For example, watch Harry fend off the dragon during the first challenge in the wizards' competition. When Harry and the dragon take to the skies, the picture seems ever-so-slightly obscured by a green tint. The aqua green is gone during the brighter scenes which, not surprisingly, show superior depth and presence. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Presented in 2.40:1 with a VC-1 codec, the video quality of Order of the Phoenix is crisp and detailed. The overall dark, shadow-heavy picture, featuring excellent black level and contrast, still delivers warm skin tones and light effects--fireworks and magical flashing lights. In CGI-laden productions, the processing required for merging the artificially generated graphics with the film reduces the element of depth. But the effects in Order of the Phoenix are rendered very convincingly and some sacrifice in depth is worth it. Audio Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: While not laden with reverb or smearing, voices and music do not have the precise, crisp definition associated with most audio content on BD. Like the video, it has a soft, foggy quality. The use of surround effects is good, and some content is fairly innovative, such as the quidditch game played on broomsticks where students from different Hogwart dormitories face off in not-so-friendly competition. Listen to the sound of the golden, winged ball that Harry must chase down. It hums, buzzes and blips with fairly engaging audio resolution. However, the broomsticks sound more like jet engines, often with heavy LFE content. Again, the production was held back by some amateur decisions and cannot quite achieve the magic it so desperately tries to depict. Insofar as the Blu-ray production is concerned, it feels like Warner's choices also held it back, as there is no high bitrate PCM track. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The sound definition adds greatly to the impact of the special effects. Taking the example of the scene with the basilisk in the chamber, each element of the serpent's movements is characterized by a tonally distinct sound. When the basilisk strikes, there is plenty of deep bass and mid-bass rumble, as the rocks of the sculpture break apart from the impact. Although the sounds are palpable and convincing, they occasionally have a canned quality that does not perfectly match the visuals. For exampls, in the quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the broomsticks sound more like flying jets than brooms moving through the air. Yet the overall impact is very impressive, and the audio quality has as much to do with this as the video. Surrounds are aggressive and so is use of the LFE channel. I would have liked to hear this mix in 24-bit resolution, but clearly Warner is unprepared to deliver the best that Blu-ray can offer. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The audio is near reference quality, which only makes one wonder how impressive it could have been with higher bit-rate PCM. Voices and musical arrangements are full and clear, the soundstage is immersive and apt sonic cues are delegated to the appropriate speaker(s) for a powerful home theater experience. The audio production values are admirable. Sound effects really hit their mark with more impact than previous Potter films. The rumble and squeal of the bus ride is a good example. So, too, is the quidditch match, in which a whole array of sonic cues barrage the ears, from the flying balls that tweak the tweeters to Harry's Nimbus 2000 broomstick that rumbles the subwoofer. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The surround sound is crisp, with pinpoint imaging of some effects. Voices are clear, with good detail, but many of the other effects and the massed strings prevalent in the score had a homogeneous quality to them and did not sound as dynamic or vibrant as in The Prisoner of Azkaban. The audio assigned to various characters, creatures and props at times didn't seem mastered at the correct level. Returning again to the dragon scene--which, done right, could have been a reference-quality, standout in the series--the sound of the dragon flying and Harry's broom made noises that were surprisingly similar. Now granted, I've never heard the flight of a dragon, or a broom either, for that matter, but one would think the dragon would create more voluminous audio effects and that a broom would be relatively quiet. But that is not the way the sound was produced. Part of the problem is that the 16-bit 5.1 PCM track, at 48 kHz, is not of significantly higher resolution than your average CD or DD track. That is not sufficient resolution for a complex audio mix with music and a variety of sound effects. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The audio is presented in 16-bit PCM 5.1 at a sampling rate of 48 kHz. With excellent use of surrounds and prodigious LFE content, the mix is produced with great attention to detail. It will give any system's tweeters and woofers a serious workout. One of the technical triumphs of the BD's audio content is the good definition of massed strings. Orchestral compositions by Nicholas Hooper figure prominently in the score. Making good use of the 5.1 soundstaging, "Order of the Phoenix" carries these symphonic passages through the scenes dense with audio effects and dialogue. Rather than constrict each element of the mix, the music, voices and effects maintain good clarity and resolution, even during the loudest moments of the battle scenes. Supplements  Without exception, the bonus materials for each film mirror the DVD versions, with very few featurettes getting the HD upgrade. For a more detailed roundup of the supplementary material included for each film, please see the individual reviews (links above). In general there is nothing in these bonus featurettes that would make one want the box over any other version. The main draw is the box itself and the gift materials--the cards and bookmarks shown above. These can make very enjoyable trinkets for children who are fans of Harry Potter. Final words The Blu-ray box set not only makes a great gift for fans of Harry Potter, it is a convenient way to collect all five films in 1080p. If you're at all into the Potter series, memorabilia, collector's items or box sets, this package is the way to go. The material is somewhat uneven in terms of the acting, direction, audio and video, with the third film in the series and the fifth taking top honors. But as a package, the Harry Potter saga offers many hours of solid, wholesome, imaginative and engaging entertainment. It's an expensive box set, but will find a good home in many burgeoning Blu-ray libraries. If you're interested, get it while the limited edition box is in production! 
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