xXx Blu-ray features poor video and superb audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
From Revolution Studios and and Sony Pictures, Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) is a notorious underground thrill-seeker who, until now, has been deemed untouchable by the law. But when crack NSA Agent Gibbsons convinces Cage to infiltrate a ruthless Russian crime ring, this new breed of secret agent (codename: XXX) takes down the enemies of justice with a vengeance in this high-octane, turbo-charged thrill-ride from the acclaimed director of The Fast and the Furious.
For more about xXx and the xXx Blu-ray release, see the xXx Blu-ray Review
If you're going to send someone to save the world, make sure they like it the way it is.
While Speed may
have helped usher in the era of adrenaline-based, extreme-sports inspired action heroes,
xXx actually makes the action hero himself an adrenaline junkie, extreme sports athlete.
Action films have always been replete with ridiculously impossible and over-the-top stunts, but
have you tuned into the "X-Games" recently? There are actually real people out there that
perform these kinds of death-defying stunts for a living, and so popular and incredible are these
athletes that they no longer perform in obscurity but rather have their exploits broadcast around
the world for people to enjoy with wonderment that most of these stunts are performed
so
flawlessly, and usually without serious injury to the athlete. An action character whose backstory
places him as a world-famous stunt man lends
credibility to some of the stunts he performs. Some of them are just too good, even for an
athlete of his supposed caliber, but so what? xXx showcases riveting action and
death-defying stunts, nothing more, nothing less. An extreme athlete as an action movie hero
seems a
no-brainer, and xXx could be one of those "everything I know about being an action hero
I
learned from..." posters, detailing the "how to escape down the side of a burning building on a
motorcycle as the flames engulf everything but me" to "I know how to handle a gun from the 3
months of first-person shooter video games I played while recovering from a broken leg."
Who do I consider a role model? Slim Pickens, of course.
Yet another clichéd angry Eastern European terror group bent on destruction has arisen, this one
calling themselves "Anarchy 99." Their beef is with the Russian government for fighting in wars
where their comrades were lost in battle solely for political reasons. In retaliation, they get their
hands on some
deadly Russian weapons and decide to kill everyone in Prague. Of course, it's up to the
U.S. government to infiltrate Anarchy 99 and put an end to the threat. Three agents have
already tried and failed, and Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson, Jumper) decides that
a new kind of special agent is required, one with no formal training and an extreme attitude. His
choice is
Xander Cage (Vin Diesel, The Fast and the Furious), a world-renowned extreme
sports athlete and no friend to politicians who want to ban video games or music deemed
"inappropriate." Xander passes two tests set up by Gibbons, agrees to go undercover in exchange
for a guarantee not to face incarceration for his past crimes, and special agent "xXx" is born --
the
name derived from a tattoo on the back of Cage's neck. Cage immediately immerses himself into
the
Eastern European night club scene and easily works his way into a position of trust with the
group's leader, Yorgi (Marton Csokas, The Great Raid). As xXx burrows deeper into the world of anarchism
and discovers he may not be the only spy in the group, it'll be up to his cunning, extreme
sports background, and prowess to take out the bad guys and save the day from sure disaster.
Like The Marine,
xXx this is a completely mindless and dumb action movie. Also like The Marine
it's
certainly good enough to be highly entertaining, funny, and lighthearted with enough explosions,
chases, gunshots, and humor to keep the action junkie completely engrossed for two hours of
fantastic entertainment. Make no mistake about it, classy, refined, stuffy, or Oscar material this
movie is not. What it is is an action movie lover's delight. It's not the créme de la créme of the
over-the-top action time waster (that title proudly and deservedly remains firmly tucked away on
Commando's
award shelf), but xXx is one of the genre's better offerings. This film offers no redeeming
value, unless you count pure guy-driven, high-octane, take-no-prisoners action and several
memorable and humorous lines redeeming qualities in action films, as I do. Vin Diesel and
Samuel L. Jackson are a bit
better than the old "going through the motions" criticism, the material and the characters they
play tailor-made for each actor's strength (Diesel the quick-thinking and tough guy with a heart,
Jackson the brains of the operation). Danny Trejo (Delta Farce) also makes a brief but
memorable appearance, spouting off a few good one-liners in true Trejo fashion ("cut off their
achilles tendon and watch them flop around like a marionette").
One of the first titles released on Blu-ray, xXx's 2.40:1, 1080p high definition
transfer is a mess. This is without a doubt the most disappointed I've been with a Blu-ray so far.
As such an early release, no doubt part of the problem can be attributed to growing pains, but I
nevertheless expected a better looking transfer than this. The opening segment of the movie
just looks bad. There's really no other way of describing it. Black levels are terrible, any segment
of the picture that should be dark is far too bright, fine detail is absent, and every edge is soft and
lacks definition. The transfer cleans up somewhat after this awful introduction to the film, but
the same problems remain, just on a smaller scale. Detail and sharpness are disappointing in
many
shots. Long-distance shots fare poorly. Trees, for example, look like a glob of a green-colored
mass smeared onto the
film. Façades and distance shots of buildings lack texture and detail, looking flat and dull instead.
Blacks remain disappointing, although sometimes they rise to the level of respectable, such as
during a nighttime battle in chapter four. Although mostly flat, the image does at times have a
fair amount of three-dimensionality, but these instances are too few and far between to really
count for much. A few scenes, notably those that are very brightly lit, such as a sequence on a
snowy mountainside near the end of the move, look alright, about what we would expect from an
average high-definition image. There is a bit of shimmering in some scenes as the image
becomes brighter and darker from one frame to the next. Flesh tones fare rather well, never
appearing overly red. There is no doubt that this is one of the lesser Blu-ray offerings to date. To
this disc's credit, I skipped around on the DVD version I own and every scene, especially the film's
opening, looks equally bad (or worse) on that disc. Still, the Blu-ray is only slightly better, just a
bit
sharper and cleaner with better color reproduction, but not much more in the way of detail. I
expected much better, but chock this one up to
the growing pains of a new format that less than two years after its launch is producing truly
breathtaking imagery that puts anything I've ever seen at home to shame. Hopefully this movie
will be re-released in the future and if the video quality is markedly improved, I'll be first in line to
buy it.
Even though the picture quality was substandard, the PCM 5.1 uncompressed soundtrack that
accompanies xXx is anything but. This loud and entertaining track is awesome,
guaranteed to make you jump out of your seat on a few occasions. The uncompressed mix is
decidedly
superior to the Dolby Digital mixes on both the Blu-ray and the DVD, coming off as louder and
much more defined. The heavy metal tune "Feuer Frei" heard
at
the beginning of the movie courtesy of the band Rammstein attacks the listener through every
speaker. The scene is an awesome
sonic experience, and even as someone who doesn't generally enjoy this kind of music, I
found myself feeling the urge to head bang, so loud and crystal-clear was it that I
felt like part of the crowd and lost in the moment. Bass is punchy and loud through the entire
movie, and every action
scene is first-rate. Directionality is excellent. Sounds pan seamlessly form one speaker to the
next, and are always in just the right spot in relation to the action on the screen. Jets scream
from the front to the rear, bullets come at you from all directions, and the music finds its way
into every corner of the listening area. An avalanche in chapter 12 offers some of the deepest,
foundation-rattling, headache-inducing bass yet. When the scene was over and the room briefly
quiet again, all the neighborhood dogs were barking and my cats had scurried out of the media
room, and I'm frankly surprised my ears weren't bleeding. Dialogue reproduction is perfect. This
is a first-rate track, and the sins of the video are almost forgotten and forgiven by the wonderful
action experience that listening to xXx on Blu-ray is.
This Blu-ray is completely devoid of supplemental materials related to the movie itself. Only 1080p
trailers for Stealth,
S.W.A.T., and Into the Blue are to be
found as extras on the disc. To the contrary, the DVD version of the film offers viewers "The
Xander Zone," a section of the disc complete with a director's commentary, featurettes, deleted
scenes, a music video, and more.
There is no doubt about it: this is a silly, ridiculous action movie, and taken as completely straight
and serious, it stinks. However, if you allow yourself to have a load of fun with it and accept it for
the adrenaline-pumping, hard rocking good time it is, xXx proves itself to be one of the
finest action movie delights since the genre's glory days in the 1980s. Unfortunately, the disc's
subpar video quality and non-existent extras make the disc a letdown. The audio quality is
undeniably strong, and anyone who
likes this movies and has a decent lossless set-up owes it to themselves to upgrade from the DVD
for the sound mix alone. Those simply looking for pristine video quality should skip this one, but the
movie itself is definitely worth renting for action and adrenaline junkies.
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