Eric Paddon wrote:I have to admit, based on the screencap comparison, if I'd been a fan of the movie based on the earlier DVD, I'd be ticked off too. The "1776" experience is for me the ultimate proof of how what the director thinks is not necessarily the best idea, especially if fans have been accustomed to seeing things a certain way.
Those screencaps vary and some of them are outright garbage. The movie isn't nearly as blue-hued as some of those screencaps appear, and what you can't see from merely looking at screen caps, is the level of detail in the image. Frankly I think some of the shots were darkened further from what the image actually is, just on the part of fanboys wanting to drum up more controversy. While I can sympathize with the viewers who just want it the way it was on DVD, the level of hyperbole in that thread is laughable...absolutely hysterical ("it's so blue I can't make out any details!" -- please get a new pair of glasses if you actually believe that to be the case).
The other end none of those people want to talk about -- isn't it possible the DVD could possibly be "wrong" as well? They use it like it's the Gospel, but for a movie about a ZOMBIE outbreak, the brightness of the image plays at odds with the tone of the movie. The darkening of the image, to me, makes dramatic sense when you see how the film plays out. It's probably something that the DP or director wanted to do all along.
Either way -- I understand the questioning of the changes, and they're offering refunds for those who don't like it. Given that SONY produced the transfer, however, there's nothing else TT can do.
Personally I watched it the other night and I thought the movie looked very good. I think it's a totally overblown controversy that -- judging from the fact the prices on the secondary market are all going up again, not down -- riled up a small amount of viewers (which is, of course, what most internet controversies are ultimately). The hell, the film
bombed at the box-office -- how many of these people, if any, actually saw the film in theaters? You'd think it was AVATAR or STAR WARS the way so many people seem to have such a miraculous memory of what the film looked like theatrically in 1990. It barely grossed $5 million!!
