| Reviews & Columns |
|
Reviews DVD TV on DVD Blu-ray 4K UHD International DVDs In Theaters Reviews by Studio Video Games Features Collector Series DVDs Easter Egg Database Interviews DVD Talk Radio Feature Articles Columns Anime Talk DVD Savant Horror DVDs The M.O.D. Squad Art House HD Talk Silent DVD
|
 DVD Talk Forum |
|
|
| Resources |
|
DVD Price Search Customer Service #'s RCE Info Links |
|
Columns
  
 
|
|
|
Stormchasers (Large Format) (2-Disc WMVHD Edition)
Image // Unrated // June 29, 2004
List Price: $19.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
THE MOVIE
Despite being educational and large in scope, there's just something about seeing a movie in an IMAX theater that is never going to translate well to home video – even if you have great equipment and a large-screen TV. So while Image has done a decent job of brining Stormchasers to DVD, it doesn't play much better than a Discovery Channel special once you take it off an IMAX screen.
Stormchasers looks at the study of storms, and the men and women who do so. We begin by going up in the air with a pilot, whose job it is to try and get his glider hit with lightning (so scientists can understand lightning better). The shots of the plane as it soars through the air are the kind that will give you both gasps and giddiness on an IMAX screen, but seem rather ho-hum on a 55" television set…and I'm guessing the shots lose even more as your screen gets smaller.
After spending a few minutes with the pilot and his work, it's off to India for a look at monsoons. The bad news? The crew seems to miss any monsoon weather…and we find out in the documentary that accompanies this DVD that even the shots of rain that are used in this brief segment were a created illusion.
Then it's back to the States as we follow a hurricane warning team as they track and try to determine where Hurricane Emily will hit the Eastern Coast. Although the shots of the hurricane are real, we once again discover in the supplemental material that the scenes featuring the scientists talking to each other were re-created for this movie…which may explain how calm and professional they look.
The high-point of Strormchasers is during the last section – where we get to join a group of "tornado chasers" from Oklahoma, who hit the roads in search of big twisters (much in the same way you saw Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt do it in Twister). Had Stormchasers totally focused on this group, it might have made for a stronger movie. Sadly, we don't really get to find out anything about the people in the group or their personalities – but they are able to track down one twister, and we get to see some of the footage (this time totally genuine) on film.
THE DVD
Video:
The video is presented in the full-frame format, but doesn't look too bad on a widescreen TV, considering the picture has that "IMAX-look" to it – curved around the edges, and with a lot of "head-room" toward the top of the picture – with most of the action occurring toward the lower-half of your screen. Although the transfer is pretty good, I did notice some dirt on the print, as well as some pixilation during the flying scenes early in the movie and a few other points in the presentation.
Audio:
The audio is easily the most impressive part of this DVD…crisp and very, very aggressive. Viewers will have the option of listening to a 5.1 DTS track, a 5.1 Dolby Track, or 5.1 Spanish and French Dolby Tracks. There's actually not a whole lot of difference between the DTS and 5.1 tracks, although the DTS one is preferable.
Extras:
The coolest extra is probably the HD Stormchasers Bonus Disc that accompanies the main DVD. This is a HD-version of the film that is only playable on Windows XP computers with a 2.4 GHz processor or better and a minimum of 384 MB of RAM. Sadly, although I have Windows XP, neither my processor or RAM is up to the requirements, so the version I viewed had a lot of freeze-ups…but the video quality did look vastly superior to that of the DVD.
On the main disc, extras include a Behind The Scenes Documentary that is almost as long as the feature itself (Stormchasers runs about 37 minutes, and I would say the documentary is about a half-hour). Other extras include some Trailers for IMAX movies, including Stormchasers; About The Producer and About Rainmaker, which are text pages about director Greg MacGillivray and the studio that did the image processing for this DVD; and Do-It-Yourself Science, which are text pages about how you can learn more about wind with a simple home experiment.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Sadly, there's not a lot of replay value to Stormchasers, and any impact the visuals might have had are really lost on a home television screen. On top of that, this is one of the least-entertaining IMAX movies I've seen – and the fact that some scenes are re-enacted, but this fact is only learned because of the behind-the-scenes material is kind of inexcusable for this type of documentary.
I did enjoy the tornado-chasing moments in the movie, but that wasn't quite enough for me to recommend a rental of this title. Pick it up at your own risk.
Despite being educational and large in scope, there's just something about seeing a movie in an IMAX theater that is never going to translate well to home video – even if you have great equipment and a large-screen TV. So while Image has done a decent job of brining Stormchasers to DVD, it doesn't play much better than a Discovery Channel special once you take it off an IMAX screen.
Stormchasers looks at the study of storms, and the men and women who do so. We begin by going up in the air with a pilot, whose job it is to try and get his glider hit with lightning (so scientists can understand lightning better). The shots of the plane as it soars through the air are the kind that will give you both gasps and giddiness on an IMAX screen, but seem rather ho-hum on a 55" television set…and I'm guessing the shots lose even more as your screen gets smaller.
After spending a few minutes with the pilot and his work, it's off to India for a look at monsoons. The bad news? The crew seems to miss any monsoon weather…and we find out in the documentary that accompanies this DVD that even the shots of rain that are used in this brief segment were a created illusion.
Then it's back to the States as we follow a hurricane warning team as they track and try to determine where Hurricane Emily will hit the Eastern Coast. Although the shots of the hurricane are real, we once again discover in the supplemental material that the scenes featuring the scientists talking to each other were re-created for this movie…which may explain how calm and professional they look.
The high-point of Strormchasers is during the last section – where we get to join a group of "tornado chasers" from Oklahoma, who hit the roads in search of big twisters (much in the same way you saw Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt do it in Twister). Had Stormchasers totally focused on this group, it might have made for a stronger movie. Sadly, we don't really get to find out anything about the people in the group or their personalities – but they are able to track down one twister, and we get to see some of the footage (this time totally genuine) on film.
THE DVD
Video:
The video is presented in the full-frame format, but doesn't look too bad on a widescreen TV, considering the picture has that "IMAX-look" to it – curved around the edges, and with a lot of "head-room" toward the top of the picture – with most of the action occurring toward the lower-half of your screen. Although the transfer is pretty good, I did notice some dirt on the print, as well as some pixilation during the flying scenes early in the movie and a few other points in the presentation.
Audio:
The audio is easily the most impressive part of this DVD…crisp and very, very aggressive. Viewers will have the option of listening to a 5.1 DTS track, a 5.1 Dolby Track, or 5.1 Spanish and French Dolby Tracks. There's actually not a whole lot of difference between the DTS and 5.1 tracks, although the DTS one is preferable.
Extras:
The coolest extra is probably the HD Stormchasers Bonus Disc that accompanies the main DVD. This is a HD-version of the film that is only playable on Windows XP computers with a 2.4 GHz processor or better and a minimum of 384 MB of RAM. Sadly, although I have Windows XP, neither my processor or RAM is up to the requirements, so the version I viewed had a lot of freeze-ups…but the video quality did look vastly superior to that of the DVD.
On the main disc, extras include a Behind The Scenes Documentary that is almost as long as the feature itself (Stormchasers runs about 37 minutes, and I would say the documentary is about a half-hour). Other extras include some Trailers for IMAX movies, including Stormchasers; About The Producer and About Rainmaker, which are text pages about director Greg MacGillivray and the studio that did the image processing for this DVD; and Do-It-Yourself Science, which are text pages about how you can learn more about wind with a simple home experiment.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Sadly, there's not a lot of replay value to Stormchasers, and any impact the visuals might have had are really lost on a home television screen. On top of that, this is one of the least-entertaining IMAX movies I've seen – and the fact that some scenes are re-enacted, but this fact is only learned because of the behind-the-scenes material is kind of inexcusable for this type of documentary.
I did enjoy the tornado-chasing moments in the movie, but that wasn't quite enough for me to recommend a rental of this title. Pick it up at your own risk.
|
| Popular Reviews |
| Sponsored Links |
|
|
| Sponsored Links |
|
|
| Release List | Reviews | Shop | Newsletter | Forum | DVD Giveaways | Blu-Ray | Advertise |
|
Copyright 2024 DVDTalk.com All Rights Reserved. Legal Info, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use,
Manage Preferences,
Your Privacy Choices 
| |||||||