Noah appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The visuals were good but not exceptional.
I suspect some of those “issues” resulted from stylistic choices, especially in terms of darker sequences. Blacks were reasonably dark, but low-light shots tended to be a bit dense and thick. That made them more difficult to discern than I’d like, but I’d guess this was intentional.
Sharpness was usually fine. A smidgen of softness occasionally occurred, but most of the movie showed good clarity and accuracy. I noticed no issues with shimmering or jaggies, and edge haloes and print flaws remained absent.
Colors tended toward modern visual choices. That meant a fair amount of teal, with some orange on display too. Within those parameters, the hues seemed fine; they didn’t have much life but they operated as planned. This was a mostly appealing image.
Noah included a DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack that appeared very active and involving. All the channels presented lots of material that kept the viewer at the center of a realistic and immersive world. Elements seemed appropriately placed and they blended together well. The whole thing meshed together quite nicely, and the piece worked nicely. Not surprisingly, disaster sequences were the most impressive, but the entire package seemed strong.
Audio quality equaled the positive nature of the soundfield. Speech was natural and distinctive, and I detected no issues connected to intelligibility or edginess. Music sounded bright and vibrant, as the score presented rich and full tones.
Effects came across as accurate and concise. No problems with distortion appeared, and these elements were clean and broad. Bass response was excellent, as low-end consistently sounded tight and powerful. The audio of Noah presented a terrific experience.
In terms of extras, we get three featurettes that fill a total of one hour, 22 seconds. We find “Iceland: Extreme Beauty” (20:40), “The Ark Exterior: A Battle for 300 Cubits” (19:46) and “The Ark Interior: Animals Two by Two” (19:55). Across these, we hear from director/co-writer Darren Aronofsky, producer Scott Franklin, director of photography Matthew Libatique, production designer Mark Friedberg, executive producer Chris Brigham, supervising location manager Thor Kjartansson, camera operator Chris Moseley, co-writer Ari Handel, chief lighting technician John G. Velez, military technical advisor Billy Budd, and actors Mark Margolis, Ray Winstone and Russell Crowe. The featurettes look at shooting in Iceland as well as other locations, the massive ark set and related movie elements.
Though the clips come with interview comments, they mostly act as production diaries. In that regard, they fare reasonably well, though I’d prefer better balance and more direct info about the shoot. Still, we get some useful material along the way.
The package also includes a DVD copy of Noah. It lacks any of the Blu-ray’s extras.
Though not a wholly satisfying Biblical epic, Noah does more right than wrong, and it gets better as it progresses. By the end, it turns into a fairly exciting and moving experience. The Blu-ray offers good picture as well as terrific audio and a decent set of supplements. Noah does enough right to earn my recommendation.