S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale Blu-ray

S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale

 (2009)

Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller



Seven years after her brother's death, Samantha Darko finds herself stranded in a small desert town after her car breaks down where she is plagued by bizarre visions telling of the universe's end. As a result, she must face her own demons, and in doing so, save the world and herself.

For more details about S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale on Blu-ray, see the S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale Blu-ray Review

S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


Presented in 1080p utilizing the AVC codec (at an average bit rate of 28Mbps), the visual quality of S. Darko is a bit underwhelming. As the film opens, I was immediately impressed with the intricate facial textures on Samantha’s face and the beautifully rich colors as she slowly walks along a stream. Unfortunately, occasional softness soon crept into several of the daytime shots (at around the 21:30 mark in the film, you can see a noticeable drop in detail when the camera skips between shots of Corey, Randy and Sam). It seemed to get worse as the film went on, with some scenes looking highly detailed, and others appearing slightly muddled. Moving on, color saturation tends to exhibit excessive brightness in daytime shots and the monochromatic nature of the nighttime shots doesn’t reveal much differentiation in tone. Having said that, I think both aspects are related to the directors’ intentions and do not reflect a deficiency in the transfer. Along those same lines, there’s a noticeable level of grain in several of the nighttime shots toward the end of the film. It’s not bad or overly distracting, but it does create some background noise that may be off-putting to some viewers. Lastly, black levels offer subpar depth and lack the inky quality of the best Blu-ray transfers. As a result, the nighttime sequences don’t possess enough contrast to reveal much shadow detail, which leads to a flat appearance at times.

I know this review of the transfer probably comes across sounding a little harsh next to the score I’ve given for the video quality, so I’d like to note that there are still a number of beautiful shots in the film (mostly during the daytime); but those interested in purchasing this title should know that the presentation is somewhat inconsistent in high-definition.

S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


The primary audio offering on the disc is a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track in the native language of English. Unlike the inconsistent video quality, the audio experience on this Blu-ray should give fans plenty to be excited about. Anyone who’s seen Donnie Darko will remember the creepy voice of the rabbit figure and delight in the inclusion of that voice on this film as well. I was caught off guard the first couple times I heard it on S. Darko, and could see some viewers scrambling to turn down the volume when the synthesized voice envelopes your room. Equally impressive, is a scene where there’s a meteor shower within the town. Explosions can be heard from every direction, and spatial separation is spot-on. Music selection was one of the strengths of the original film and although I wish the filmmakers had done a better job with their choices for the sequel, at least the volume level is decently balanced with the dialogue and environmental effects.

Despite the strengths in the audio track, S. Darko is still hampered by it’s low-budget roots and an occasional lack of intelligent sound design (which we’d expect if this was a big budget film). As it stands, the audio track is more than serviceable for a film of this nature, but won’t be something you’ll put in to demonstrate reference audio equipment.

S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale Blu-ray, News and Updates

• S. Darko Detailed for Blu-ray - March 20, 2009


• Darko DTV Sequel Coming to Blu-ray - February 5, 2009

S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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