Next

Blu-ray Review

Paramount

Release: June 3, 2008

Next has made its way onto the Blu-ray format, with its leading actor having the ability to see the future. Next stars Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, and Jessica Biel as they join together in a thriller from Paramount. There is no secret that Next did not have the best showing in the box office. To be frank it actually performed very poorly in the box office. Does that mean it is a terrible movie or was it just passed over?

Next revolves around the character Cris Johnson played by Nicolas Cage. Cris earns his living doing a Las Vegas magic act and has the ability to actually see into the future, at least a few minutes into the future. Next is a sci-fi thriller in every sense of the word but also has a lot of action. Fans of past films such as Total Recall, Minority Report, and such will likely really get into Next and may love it.

The director of Next is Lee Tamahori and it was written loosely based on the Golden Man by Philip K. Dick who also worked on Total Recall, A Scanner Darkley, etc. Writers who also worked on Next include Gary Goldman who did Total Recall, Bit Trouble in Little China, and producer Minority Report, as well as Jonathan Hensleigh who did Die Hard 3 and The Punisher, as well as Paul Beenbaum.

With all of these writers you would actually expect too much story and too much character development. Unfortunately though what you end up with is many bland story plot sequences and action scenes which end up being just average.

Cage does a decent performance in Next as he plays a character that is definitely a normal everyday guy who just happens to have this supernatural and surreal power to see into the future. Lee Tamahori comes off of the extremely sub-par xXx: State of the Union to direct Next and unfortunately does little to really bring the big scenes and sequences to life the way they could have been.

The other big thing with this type of action sci-fi thriller is that there should be some top notch SciFi blockbuster. What you end up with though is questioning where exactly the big budget was spent as the action sequences are not what they could have been as the CGI leaves plenty to be desired. In the day and age where films such as Transformers set the bar high for films to keep up with CGI, Next may set a standard as to what you want to avoid.

The extra features packed into this release include all that were in the HD-DVD release of the film, starting with a feature called Making the Best Next Thing and runs for a little over 8 minutes. This is a making of feature which has interviews with the cast including Cage and Biel. It also has interviews with the producers and writers of Next and shows how it was made. This is an interesting viewing but will probably only be watched once.

The next feature is Visualizing the Next Move and runs for almost 8 minutes. This shows how the visual effects of Next were made. It goes from the pre-visualization phase and then progresses to show how the final product was reached. Considering that the special effects in the film were not that great to begin with, this is not the most entertaining feature to view.

The Next Grand Idea is a 7-minute feature and revolved around a part of the movie which was at the Grand Canyon. Two Minutes in the Future with Jessica Biel runs for 2 and a half minutes and is an interview with Biel talking about seeing the future, what it would be like, etc.

The Blu-ray release of Next comes in 1080p / AVC MPEG-4. It looks great, with the only problem being the black levels, which was actually a problem in the DVD release is issues with the black levels. At certain points throughout the film there will be overly dark scenes as well as some color issues at times when scenes have a lot of color going on.

Also coinciding with the DVD release is the fact that the CGI work used in the film cannot keep up with the quality of Blu-ray. Movies on Blu-ray are exposed for every positive and negative aspect of their filming. Working against Next is the fact that some of the CGI is so mediocre and poor that it looks almost foolish in the Blu-ray format. It is not terrible and cannot be put down just because of some bad filming with CGI and such, as it is a decent Blu-ray transfer. The quality of the movie is what brings it down.

The audio presentation on Blu-ray for next is very solid as it includes a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track. The audio is in 48KHz/24-bit and actually sounds pretty solid. There is also a standard Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 surround track presented in 768kbps.

The audio for this Blu-ray release is pretty solid considering that the action sequences were not really done to take advantage of such set-ups.

The explosions and the action sequences come off very realistic and make good use of the channels and subwoofer to pull you into the action. This is far superior to the DVD release of Next. The musical score is also presented very well as is the dialogue. The film is really a mix of heavy dialogue scenes ad then action. It is presented in the audio on the Blu-ray release in such a way that it sounds very solid. A great audio presentation from Paramount here.

Next is definitely superior on Blu-ray compared to the DVD release. The video is far improved as it should be but still not perfect. The audio on the other hand though is a huge leap forward and makes the film much more enjoyable to view. The movie itself may not be the most impressive thing ever as it is brought down by sub-par CGI work and a lacking story plot. Still though fans of sci-fi thrillers with action packed in should give this one a rent at least.

Film: 6.5 The movie goes along the lines of Total Recall but fails to really pull you in with any story depth, action, special effects. The entire movie is just average at best but may be worth a rental for fans of the genre.

Video 7.5 The CGI brings down the video transfer and some spotty black levels in scenes as well as color issues make it just an average Blu-ray video presentation.

Audio: 8.5 The audio for the Blu-ray release is solid as it does a great job of presenting the dialogue, action, and musical score in a mix that really brings you into every scene.

Extra Features: 7.0 The same feature set from the DVD release is on the Blu-ray release with the only added bonus being that it is all in high-definition. For Blu-ray, more is needed. The extra features total just over a half-hour of content.

Final Score: 7.0