This Island Earth Blu-Ray

i must watch film

Carl Meacham is an atomic scientist, who after passing a cunning test, gets invited to work at a top secret lab out in Georgia by the rather odd looking Exeter. The project is apparently in the cause of finding world peace, and once arriving at his destination, Carl finds other notable scientists are also there, including the radiant Ruth Adams. As things progress things don't quite add up, and this leads to a realisation that the future of Earth is very much in the balance.This Island Earth not only divides the casual film viewer, it's also proved divisive amongst the most hardened of sci-fi genre supporters. Some say it's story is barely worth a second glance, whilst others point to a distinct lack of scientific nous as a reason to do the film down. To me I find it to be very much on the money for the era it was made. This film comes nearly ten years after America ended World War II with an atomic attack on Japan, nuclear reactors had been commissioned and were no longer seen solely as a weapon of mass destruction, the nuclear age was prominent and very much a reality.Yes the film is far fetched fantasy, and it tries too hard to encompass a myriad of plot strands, something which to the younger viewers is likely to fly right over their heads. But the value comes very much in the production as a whole. Marvel at the sets, the model work and the gadgets that feature heavily in this delicious slice of berserker sci-fi. Take in the incredible work of cinematographer Clifford Stine as we find ourselves on a desolate planet, it's a beacon of the genre because it identified the benefits of Technicolor to sci-fi and used it vividly to enhance its story (even if subsequent home entertainment releases have yet to restore it to a print fully worthy of the color venture).The lovely Faith Domergue and square jawed Rex Reason play our intrepid scientists with verve and vigour, whilst Jeff Morrow is uneasily quirky as the mysterious Exeter. This Island Earth is a technically wonderful film, a shining light from a time when cinema was a craft from all quarters of the medium, it's also intelligent and knowingly astute of its time frame.Don't believe the nay sayers, this is a smart, poetic fantasy that also contains genuine moments of beauty. 7/10

Great old sci-fi classic that was truly deserving of a bluray release, but this probably ISN'T the release you've been waiting for. The old DVD version may actually be better.This German bluray release has been butchered into fake widescreen format by zooming in and cutting off the top/bottom of the print. Passable ... but the result is that some shots appear strange and improperly framed since its inconsistent with the original filming. Zooming the image has also resulted in the film grain being stronger than it should ... especially in the stock footage and foggy airport scenes. The overall effect is a soft image that's not particularly crisp as other reviewers have suggested. Video encoding looks to be very low bitrate.Although not restored, the print used for the transfer is relatively clean with just a few occasional dust specks. This bluray is fine if you're a fan of the film - but its pretty disappointing. I would have preferred a crisper full frame version or a choice between the two. Although there is a full frame version available on the disk, its SD and has German-only audio.My purchase, via Nagiry, took almost five weeks to arrive here in Australia ... which is far too long. About a week to post, and then four weeks to deliver. It was beaten (by a week) by other items I ordered from Amazon.co.uk a fortnight later. Nagiry may want to re-evaluate their shipping provider or bump up to the next service tier.UPDATE: After a little more Internet research (at Gary Tooze's DVD Beaver website) its seems that the widescreen format is valid - with This Island Earth having been filmed to work in both widescreen and full screens formats. It seems that cinemas were in transition at the time - with a matt applied to adapt the image to the screen size. That being said, the transfer is still really just okay - and it would be nice to see a restoration of this under-appreciated flick. This is enjoyable enough in the meantime, and still recommended on the basis that its a great classic of 1950s sci-fi.

This film was bought as a gift and the recipient is extremely happy with it.

This Island Earth isn't a stone-cold classic of the 1950s technicolour sci-fi era but it was a solid entry and is fondly remembered. The only blu-ray until now has been a slightly shabby bare bones affair so this disc, from a 4K scan of a new interpositive, should be great. The extras package certainly is -- a 45 minute documentary, two commentaries and a slightly baffling interview with Luigi "Star Crash" Cozzi.And then you put the film on and -- it's cropped from full-frame to widescreen! You know, like it wasn't on release or on previous DVDs. Like it isn't anywhere in the accompanying features. It's left the picture a little grainy and the shots composed a bit awkwardly in places and, frankly, had I known this I wouldn't have bought it. Other reviews mention the original composition as a setup choice but that's not on this disc.I'm just plain angry that such a lot of love and care should go into mastering and assembling this disc but then it's sloppily matted to widescreen. Let's face it, if you're buying this film on blu-ray, you probably care about this stuff. So I feel grumpy and, more than that, conned. It's like buying a restored, rescanned version of The Maltese Falcon and finding the only version on the disc is colourised.It's still the same film (2-3 stars for plot, acting etc) and the extras are good so I'll give this three stars, one for the film and two for that extras package. But it could have been 4 or even 5 if they'd just respected the film enough to do it right -- after all that original 4K presentation does exist somewhere...