Jason Bourne: Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Again? How many versions of these three films do we need?
Tags: The Bourne Conspiracy Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jan 26th, 2010
Jason Bourne has become not only a popular series of novels, with new sequels being produced even after the original author’s death (authorized by his estate, however), but also one of the more influential film franchises for the spy genre. The style of a hard and gritty secret agent influenced even the venerable James Bond franchise which rebooted a couple of years after Jason Bourne debuted on screens.
Universal knows it has a good thing, and the Bourne films have been a home video staple. Now we get the latest in a line of releases with Universal’s latest idea of incorporating DVD and Blu-ray on the same disc. While this is a great idea in theory, it feels a bit late. At this point in the game, DVD production is so cheap (no, really it is) that studios are able to include a DVD copy of the film with the Blu-ray on a separate disc for very little cost. The quality of having a separate disc is much greater than having to handle the disc more than necessary in order to discern which is the DVD side and which is the Blu-ray side.
Bedsides, Universal has been pumping this franchise out on disc enough that people can pick up the Blu-ray or DVD versions rather cheaply. I understand that the appeal of this is to consumers that would like the high definition upgrade, but haven’t done so yet, but would like to purchase the film(s) once. That’s fine, but since these films have been released on DVD and Blu-ray already, wouldn’t those people have already made a purchase in their respective format?
This is not so much a review of the Jason Bourne films as it is a review of the concept and execution of the Blu-ray/DVD hybrid that Universal is promoting. Wouldn’t there be better films for this format? Perhaps brand new theatrical films that are being released on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time?
The double-sided disc is a bad idea from the beginning, but rereleasing films that are already available in both formats just smacks of bad marketing practice and disregard for the consumer.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + The Bourne films are good | 1.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- The films are already released on Blu-ray and DVD, and cheaper - "Flipper" discs suck - Nothing new |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This isn't a good idea, especially with films that are already readily available on both formats. | |
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Tags: The Bourne Conspiracy
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jan 26th, 2010 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
