THE MOVIE

I actually was not too keen on watching this movie, but figured I would give it a shot. After watching and re-watching it, I would say that this is the best movie release of the month in my opinion (yes, even beating Men In Black in the movie department!). This movie is Wonderful (those who watch the first part of the movie will know why I used that word).

The movie is the story of Joan Of Arc (the sexy Milla Jovovich), a young girl from a small village who helped France rise up and battle against the invading English in period of 1429 - 1431. Jeanne (Joan), recieves visions and voices, prompting her to meet with the King of France, Charles VII (the magnificant John Malkovich). She convinces him to let her lead his army against the English, but eventually is betrayed by the King and burned to death at the stake in 1431 for heresy.

The movie is enthralling, drawing you in with the brilliant camera work and plot. I cant praise this movie enough.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

With the colours and amount of detail in the video for this movie, it would have been easy for it to have been bungled, and producing a bad transfer, but once again Columbia Transfer have given us a wonderful transfer, I dont know if these guys and girls know the meaning of bad transfers these days! As usual the movie is presented in its proper aspect ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

The movie is mostly browns and greys, which are all presented wonderfully. There was no problems with any mpeg artefacts, aliasing, scratches or those types of things that we usually complain about.. just a great all round transfer.

Hmmmmm... I was just about to mention the layer change on the disc, and couldnt recall seeing it! After a search I finally found it at 79:47, its definately not noticable at all (once again the layer indicator on the Sony 725D player helped me locate it).

Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful. Thats all I can say.

Audio:

Wonderful. Yet again Columbia Tristar outdo themselves.

From the wonderfully presented vocal audio, to the bone crunching fight scenes, this movie does not go wrong in the audio department.

On the DVD we are presented with 3 audio tracks, English, German, and a seperate isolated music score. I listened to the English track, plus also to the isolated music score while doing other things during the day.

The whole sound field is used to enhance the 3D environment and feel of the movie, which is does perfectly. The battlefield scenes are an excellent example of Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, you feel like you are sitting right in the middle.

THE EXTRAS

This is where this disc lets itself down. After looking at the extravagent Men In Black Limited Edition DVD, this one seems pretty lame.

Firstly we have the menus (note to Columbia Tristar and other studios.. Menus should NOT be considered an extra!). These are pretty plain and boring with no animation, but easy to navigate. I guess that they are only used for navigation, but its still good if they look good aswell as being functional.

Next we have the featurette The Making of the The Messenger. This is not only about the making of the movie, but also the story behind Joan of Arc. As usual this is something you will watch once, maybe twice, but nothing to get excited about.

The talent profiles are the usual static single page entries for each of the main people behind the movie:
Milla Jovovich
John Malkovich
Faye Dunaway
Luc Besson

There is also a couple trailers, the full theatrical release trailer, and the teaser trailer.

Like I said, the extras on this DVD are nothing to write home about. Or maybe im just spoilt after seeing Men In Black?

SUMMARY

A brilliant movie, only let down by the lack of substantial extras on the DVD, but the movie more than makes up for it.

I personally prefer this to Men In Black, if I had a choice of only purchasing one DVD this month, Joan Of Arc it would be. I cant give any higher recommendation than that :)