By Fred Topel | Image property of respective holders
Contact
I got Contact late but it’s still worth it. Robert Zemeckis’s old technology still holds up. That opening space/galaxy shot is perfect digital art with bright colors and pure blacks.
Contact on Blu-Ray
Live-action footage is clear and crisp too. The wide vistas of forests, satellite fields and tropical South America look fantastic. The night sky is pure lack and the actors are well lit below it. A lot of the film takes place in techie labs but there’s a lot of nature to balance it out.
Occasionally you might see a minor speckle but the film is 90% crisp, and at two and a half hours that’s a lot of crisp HD. Some of the satellite fields get a little fuzzy, but see above, many shots of stunning.
From cluttered labs to elegant D.C. parties, there’s a lot of detail to see. The crowed gathered at the machine and the explosion of the first attempt has a CG polish but it looks great.
The finale is shiny and colorful. That’s probably what it looked like in Zemeckis’s computer but we had to settle for the film version until now. Even the senate hearing epilogue looks like C-Span Blu Ray.