RIPD appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with a mostly appealing presentation.
Overall sharpness remained good. A smattering of wider elements or effects components could seem a little soft, but those didn’t create real distractions. Still, the movie felt a bit more tentative than I’d expect at times.
Instead, the movie tended to be accurate and concise. I noticed no shimmering or jaggies, and the film lacked edge haloes or source flaws.
The palette opted for a mix of the usual orange and teal – a heavy mix of orange and teal, as they seemed nearly comical at their extremes. Within stylistic choices, the hues looked fine, though.
Blacks were deep and dense, while low-light shots depicted appropriate clarity. Despite some softness, the image seemed to be more than satisfactory.
With plenty of action scenes, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix often opened up to give us active information. These used the various speakers to create an involving, effective sense of these situations and circumstances. The elements meshed together well and moved in a satisfying manner.
Audio quality also pleased. Music was peppy and full, while dialogue sounded accurate and concise.
Effects demonstrated good clarity and range, with fine low-end response as necessary. This wasn’t quite a demo-worthy track, but it fared well.
As we shift to extras, we open with cut footage. We find Alternate Opening #1 (4:37),Alternate Opening #2 (5:29) and four Deleted/Alternate Scenes (7:15).
Both “Openings” give us a formal intro to Roy much earlier than in the final film. Both feature Roy with the same “Deado”, though they progress in different ways. Both seem a bit long to start the movie, especially because RIPD is more about Nick than Roy, so it makes sense to get to Nick’s narrative more quickly.
As for the other four clips, the first two expand the Julia character, while the remaining pair offer more action and comedy with our leads. The fourth – “Roy’s Partner Shot Him” – adds a bit of useful material, but the rest seem superfluous.
A Gag Reel spans three minutes, 48 seconds and provides a pretty standard compilation of mistakes and silliness. Nothing especially interesting emerges.
With Bringing the Avatars to Life, we get a six-minute, eight-second “motion comic”. This offers an animated version of storyboards related to the human avatars of Roy and Nick. It’s a decent look at the processes.
Five featurettes follow, and Nick’s New Avatars runs one minute. It gives us a few alternate options for Nick’s new human body seen at the movie’s end. It’s more “deleted footage” than “featurette”, but it’s fun.
Transferring RIPD runs eight minutes, 18 seconds and brings comments from producers Neil H. Moritz and Mike Richardson, writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi,
and actors Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon and Jeff Bridges.
“Transferring” looks at the source and its adaptation along with cast and performances. Our glimpses of the original graphic novel offers some good notes, but most of “Transferring” leans too heavily on happy talk.
Next we find Filming the Other Side, a six-minute, 29-second reel with Bacon, Bridges, Reynolds, Moritz, visual effects supervisor Michael J. Wassel, production designer Alec Hammond, and stunt double Troy Brenna,
“Side” covers the work of director Robert Schwentke as well as visual techniques and effects. Like the prior featurette, this one includes a handful of interesting insights, but much of it pushes toward praise.
Walking Among Us fills seven minutes, 25 seconds with remarks from Bacon, Bridges, Hay, Manfredi, Moritz, Reynolds, Hammond, Wassel, and actors Marisa Miller, Mary-Louise Parker, Robert Knepper, and Devin Ratray.
Here we get material about the movie’s avatars and Deados. It becomes another erratic reel.
Finally, Anatomy of a Shootout goes for seven minutes, 59 seconds and features Hammond, Moritz, Wassel, Bridges, key grip James Shelton, and actor Stephanie Szostak.
As implied by the title, “Anatomy” concentrates on the shoot for one specific sequence. It continues to hyper/peppy tone of its predecessors, but it comes with enough behind the scenes material to make it better than the rest.
The disc opens with ads for 2 Guns, The World’s End, Despicable Me 2, Kick Ass 2 and Fast and Furious 6.
Previews adds promos for Jurassic Park Trilogy, Fast Five, The Bourne Legacy, Battleship, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Cowboys and Aliens, The Mummy and Van Helsing. No trailer for RIPD appears here.
A second disc provides a DVD copy of RIPD. It includes the deleted/alternate scenes, the gag reel and “Transferring” but it lacks the other extras.
Though it occasionally shows glimmers of life, much of RIPD remains too formulaic to turn into anything memorable. Partly thanks to a nutty performance from Jeff Bridges, the film keeps us moderately engaged, but it fails to develop into an actual good movie. The Blu-ray comes with mostly positive picture, effective audio and a mix of bonus materials. RIPD remains watchable but forgettable.