Kite appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with a good but not great presentation.
Sharpness usually seemed fine. Occasional softness emerged – some of which resulted from visual choices – but the majority of the movie seemed accurate and well-defined. I saw no signs of jaggies or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. No print flaws marred the image either.
As I expected, Kite went with a stylized palette. Much of the time it veered toward a desaturated bent to fit the depressed nature of the tale’s society, but some bursts of color emerged, usually related to Sawa’s hair and clothes. These came across with pretty good clarity.
Blacks seemed reasonably tight, and shadows mostly appeared smooth. However, some interiors came across as somewhat dense, so those shots didn’t always display the desired accuracy. All of this left us with a more than watchable image.
Though also not dazzling, the film’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix worked well. As one might anticipate, the soundscape came to life best during action scenes, as the speakers displayed various violent moments in a pretty active manner. None of these ever became genuinely impressive, so don’t expect great usage of the surrounds, but the mix added decent involvement to the proceedings.
Audio quality seemed positive. Music was peppy and full, while effects showed good accuracy and range. Speech was natural and concise. Like the image, the soundtrack seemed mostly positive and earned a “B”.
In terms of extras, we find The Making of Kite. It runs 25 minutes, 18 seconds and includes notes from director Ralph Ziman, writer/producer Brian Cox, line producer Greig Buckle, production designer Willie Botha, costume designer Ruy Filipe, makeup/hair designer Meg Tanner, director of photography Lance Gewer, stunt coordinator Francois Grobbelaar, and actors Samuel L. Jackson, India Eisley, Callan McAuliffe, Deon Lotz, Cleo Rinkwest, Matthew Van Leeve, Lionel Newton, Terence Bridgett, and Jaco Muller. The show looks at story/characters, the source material and its adaptation, cast and performances, sets, locations and production design, hair/makeup/costume design, photography and stunts, and related areas.
The program delivers a reasonable look at the basics. It doesn’t provide a ton of depth about the movie’s creation but it gives us enough material to merit a look.
The disc opens with ads for The Possession of Michael King and Black Sails. No trailer for Kite shows up here.
A second disc features a DVD copy of Kite. It lacks any of the Blu-ray’s extras.
With Kite, we find a stale story told without much conviction. Outside of some graphic violence, the movie fails to boast anything memorable. The Blu-ray provides pretty good picture and audio along with a decent behind the scenes featurette. Kite boasts action film potential but it fails to capitalize on its strengths.