Mystery of the Nile Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
On Christmas day of 2003, Pasquale Scaturro and a team of explorers set out on an
epic quest
to become the first to complete a full descent of the world's greatest river, the Blue
Nile and
the Nile, from source to sea. Four months later, on April 28 at 7:01am, Pasquale
and his
expedition partner Gordon Brown, reached the mouth of the Nile at the
Mediterranean Sea,
becoming the first in history to complete this 3,250-mile journey. Their amazing
journey is the
basis for the IMAX film, 'Mystery of the Nile.' The film tells the story of this
emotional and
historic expedition while also exploring the cultural and environmental links between
the
Ethiopian, Sudanese and Egyptian civilizations. 'Mystery of the Nile' is both a
captivating
human adventure and a serious in-depth look at this most fascinating yet little-
known region.
Once again we are taken on a wild adventure through nature, but instead of being up on a mountain peak, we are on the Blue Nile headed on a "source to sea" adventure. This adventure is brought to us by the same awesome film company and purveyor of the IMAX format MacGillivary-Freeman Film Company. There is just no other film company that can capture nature in a way this company can. Their intimate, detailed, grand, and awe inspiring visuals are captured like no other can, and that speaks to the creative genus of the individuals that make up MacGillivary-Freeman Film company.
The Nile is one of the most dangerous rivers in the world, and it is also the longest. It has two contributing tributaries, the White Nile, and the Blue Nile. It is widely agreed that the Blue Nile contributes the most water to the Nile overall, so that is where our adventure begins.
The Mystery of the Nile is more than just a series of images set to music. It is the story of an expedition down the Nile by a group of experienced, and non experienced people all under the leadership of hearty and unflappable leader Pasquale Scaturro, and his partner Gordon Brown. This expedition began on April 28, 2004, and for the next 114 days they travel down the entire 3,260 miles of the world's greatest river. In a single descent from the Ethiopian Highlands to the Mediterranean Sea, we follow the crew from one seemingly insurmountable challenge to the next. This includes bouts with crocodiles, hippos, some of the worlds most dangerous rapids, waterfalls, exposure to malaria, armed bandits, machine gun toting militia, blinding sandstorms, relentless heat, and the fierce desert sun just to name a few. You will witness the human physical and emotional struggles while they travel down the river through three countries in a life raft and kayak.
Mysteries of the Nile comes to Bluray disc in a beautiful 1080p/AVC high bit rate encode presented in a 1:78:1 aspect ratio and boy is it a feast for the eyes. Natural film grain is present, but is never distracting or introduces artifacts. Black levels are consistent, shadow detail excellent, but contrast can get just a bit on the hot side. Colors are well saturated and rich without bleeding, and there is no chroma noise to be found. Particularly well captured are the desert colors, deep sunsets and the golden sand. There is tons of detail to be seen, from carvings in the interior shots, to the different layers of stone on the pyramids. This is indeed a very impressive visual presentation.
There are three audio flavors to titillate your sonic senses. There is a 5.1 Dts-HD Master Audio track (lossless) and French and Spanish Dolby Digital tracks encoded at 448kbps. The Dts track is very impressive, with a very wide, high, and deep soundfield and frontal soundstage. The music is built around percussion, and the transient attack and punch of the drums is clean and well delineated. Since the music is recorded as 4.1, it leaves the center channel exclusively for the dialog, which is clean and never buried, but can sound detached from the soundfield as a result of its isolation.
The extras on this disc are much the same as the Alps IMAX release. First up is the Making of (43 minutes) which features Writer, Director, Producer Jordi Llompart and others telling of the difficulty of the trek, both logistically and emotionally. One of most notable points has them describing the difficulty of travelling downstream with 7 tons of film equipment, and setting them up to capture shots at points along the way. Another thing that captured my attention was when they discussed the day that Scaturra and Brown decided to cross a lake by themselves at night, and was caught up in a bad wind storm. One can only imagine what they were thinking as the waves were striking the boat knocking them around, and making rowing extremely difficult. It almost made them quit the expedition. Awesome stuff here, that is for sure. Next around is Film Trivia Quiz which asks questions about things the film covered and is well handled if not difficult to read. Nile Knowledge follows that, and is a fact sheet with information that covers everything about the Nile. Next up is Companion Book, a text page about the book of this journey called Mystery of the Nile. Closely following that is Learn More , a list of sites to visit and learn more about the Nile and Africa and its people. Winding up the extras is About the Producersa fact sheet with biographical information that you will find on every IMAX released to disc. Also on this disc are trailers for 10 MacGillivray-Freeman films in High Definition with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound. And last but not least is Dynamic Connection which contains a link to e-enabled features.
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I must admit I have enjoyed the IMAX films that I have recently reviewed. However this offering seemed a lot more captivating than The Alps. I really felt the peril that participants did more so than I did in The Alps. There is no way you are going to get the same level of experience viewing these films outside of the IMAX theater, but it is still a great watch on the small screen, and IMAX film lovers will definitely enjoy this title.
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