The War of the Worlds (+ When Worlds Collide) - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The War of the Worlds (+ When Worlds Collide)



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The War of the Worlds
Paramount surprises me sometimes. They’ve been hot and heavy about making single disc sets for their movies for a while, stripping out the Blu-ray in the combo packs, downsizing their catalog releases, or just re-releasing titles they have already released a million times….just with a new master. But lately we’ve been seeing some nifty 4K releases with decked out combo packs and new special features on the Paramount Presents line of films. Last time it was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and this time we get another classic 50s film with the 1953 The War of the Worlds on 4K UHD, and a complimentary Blu-ray release of 1951’s When Worlds Collide.

Originally The War of the Worlds was put out on Blu-ray in 2020 by Criterion, which supposedly is sourced from the same master that this 4K UHD disc is culled from, but I never was able to actually get the disc and confirm for myself. Nor will I be able to compare against it for the video score. That being said, it’s great to see it in 4K, as this is a classic that I grew up watching over and over on family movie nights back in the 80s. Taken from the classic H.G. Wells novel of the same name (a novel which has been dramatized into film at least a half dozen times or more) it tells the story of an alien race from Mars crashing onto our planet. Unfortunately they had used up all the resources on Mars and needed a new habitat for them to take over and Earth was it.

I won’t go too much into the story as it follows pretty similarly to the old radio broadcast that started the craze (I was sad to find out that the whole story of it being played as a REAL radio broadcast, subsequently scaring people all over the nation was a myth. My childhood is ruined) and follows Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) and Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson) as they inspect a mysterious meteor that drops to Earth, only for it to open up and reveal an invading alien species. It’s sort of silly by today’s standards, with hammy 1950s pulp fiction dialog, and the overly dramatic female screaming like it’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. But then again, that’s part of the charm of the movie. Back in the 1950s sci-fi and horror were almost intertwined at the hip, and an alien race invading was less of an action/thriller like it was in the 1990s (welcome to Earth!!!) and more terrifying and claustrophobic.

Special effects are heavily dated, as you can see the obvious wire work, green screening, and suspended models, but again, part of the charm. The movie still works today as a classic bit of cinema that managed to grip a nation at the box office almost 70 years ago. Pulp fiction has long been a hobby of mine and watching this classic flick unfold reminded me a lot of growing up in the 1980s. Wide eyes, staring at the screen as alien monsters zapped humans into dust. I did get a chuckle out of the alien designs, which looks like a CRT tube for the eye stuck in the middle of a pink sponge bob looking alien. How far things have come!

When Worlds Collide
1951’s When Worlds Collide was never actually released stateside in Blu-ray, but it WAS released over in Australia via Imprint Studios about the same time The War of the Worlds was put out be Criterion. It’s been literally DECADES since I’ve seen When Worlds Collide, and I’m actually kind of curious why Paramount put it in the set with The War of the Worlds. It was a goofy sci fi flick made before the H.G. Wells classic (also penned by Wells) and I almost expected a separate release. Not going to complain though, as two films for the price of one is right up my alley. Then I stuck the disc in the player and half way through I started remember “ahhh, this is why it didn’t get it’s own release”.

I won’t say that When Worlds Collide is a bad film. In fact it’s a perfectly serviceable film. It’s just that it’s a fairly forgettable sci-fi flick that wasn’t a big hit back then, nor even in modern times. It’s fun, a bit goofy, and just isn’t as magical as I remembered. The film’s premise is that a renowned astronomer named Dr. Emery Bronson (Hayden Rorke) has discovered that the Earth’s orbit has shifted and is in a collision path with Bellus, a gigantic star in a newly discovered planet’s orbit. Pilot David Randall (Richard Derr) is hired to fly the information straight to the United States where competing scientists can analyze the data and confirm Dr. Bronson’s findings. And confirm it they do, announcing that Earth is going to crash into Bellus in a few months if nothing is done.

Simultaneously we have a group of skeptical scientists and government employees who feel that this is all nonsense, and that it’s best if we just sat back and governed the nations as normal instead of causing a national panic. But not to be dissuaded, Dr. Henderson and his lab assistants figure out the EXACT date of impact with Bellus, and with the help of a crippled millionaire (billionaire in today’s monetary world), the craft a space ship to collect the best and the brightest of Earth’s minds and transport them to the orbiting planet of Zydra (of which Bellus is the star) so that humanity can actually survive.

The film is laughably painful science wise if you look at it too hard, but back then we didn’t have as much information about our solar system, so this completely fantastical idea could easily be glossed over as “pulpy fiction” and no one would be the wiser. Still, it’s a sort of fun science fiction romp that blends a serious “end of the world” drama with cheesy space flight that would seem out of this world back in the 1950s. Much of the melodrama and scientific mumbo jumbo is badly dated and even the love triangle feels like a distraction from the more serious themes. At 82 minutes the movie runs about 10 minutes too long and is more a relic of it’s day than a true sci-fi classic.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA (both films)




4K Video: Video:

The War of the Worlds :
Otherwise the colorized film looks incredible. Deep colors and ruddy skin tones dominate, with the red/blue/green of the Martians space ships and eye colors and laser beams showing up with deep saturation. Fine details are REALLY good, as the film looks very….well...filmic. Grain structure is nice and clean with no major swarms, and the black levels are HUGELY improved with the application of HDR/Dolby Vision. The DV looks a tad better in the black levels than the HDR, but it’s a close run. I did notice a few optical shots that looked wonky, such as the green screening and pasting of the alien ships against the model town. But other than that this is a picture perfect transfer.


When Worlds Collide
From all reports, the Imprint No 6 release was really mediocre and came from an aging master, but it looks like Paramount has done a fairly new remaster for the film, as the Blu-ray disc looks utterly fantastic. Maybe not PERFECT as I could detect some softness to the image and a few optical effects were wonky, but this looks like real FILM. The image is bright and clean, with natural looking grain patterns and that sort of warm look that comes from recoloring a 1950s movie. Textural details are resplendent, with great colors and background details showing up in ways I never even remembered in the film. Black levels sometimes get a bit wonky, but only for brief instances. An all around great looking Blu-ray with a very healthy bitrate to support the short 82 minute runtime.










Audio:

The War of the Worlds :
For being a 1950s film, the 5.1 DTS-HD MA lossless track is VERY lively. Sure, it’s got some dialog quirks hear and there, but overall it’s near impeccable. Vocals are crisp and clear up front, and the surrounds are actually really really engaging. I was floored by how much side energy I was hearing during the latter half of the movie when the Martians were blowing everything up. You could hear screams emanating from the back of the room, as well as energy blasts sizzling from one side to the other. Bass was intense and more than powerful enough. Ironically, more intense than even some modern films. All in all, this is a great sounding mix that is highly addictive to listen to and a true treat for fans of the film.



When Worlds Collide
When Worlds Collide has a much more subdued 2.0 DTS-HD MA track as it’s not as polished or as spritzed up as the film that would surpass it 2 years later. It’s faithful to the original source, but suffers from some crunchiness in the score and some harshness on the high end of the vocals. Nothing wild as it gets to satisfactory detail levels across the board, but it was a simple 1951 film with a simple 2.0 Monorail track. There’s some heft to sound part way through the film when the shuttle takes off, or the buildings shake, but this is a fairly demure and laid back track at the end of the day. Quite well done for it’s type, but not ground breaking or amazing.










Extras:

The War of the Worlds
• Audio Commentary with Actors Ann Robinson and Gene Barry
• Audio Commentary with Film Director Joe Dante, Film Historian Bob Burns, and Bill Warren
• The Sky Is Falling: Making The War of the Worlds
• H.G Wells: The Father of Science Fiction
• The Mercury Theatre on the Air Presents The War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast
• Theatrical Trailer

When Worlds Collide
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

As a film The War of the Worlds is a blast. It’s a classic film that has held up over time and well worth watching if you’re a fan of classic 50s sci-fi. When Worlds Collide isn’t super awesome, but it’s still a welcome addition to the set. Extras are middle of the pack, with plenty of extras that are new, some from the Criterion release, and a few of the Criterion extras excluded as well. Definitely a great looking 4K UHD disc and the new print for When Worlds Collide is great too. Fun watch ...


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Sandro Giglio
Directed by: Byron Haskin
Written by: H.G. Wells (Novel), Barrey Lyndon (Screenplay)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 HEVC / 1.37:1 AVC
Audio:
The War of the Worlds English: DTS-HDM 5.1, German, French DD 2.0 Mono
When Worlds Collide: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono, German, Spanish, French DD 2.0 Mono
Subtitles:
The War of the Worlds: English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch
When Worlds Collide: English, English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Spanish
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR
Runtime: 86 Minutes (TWOTW) / 82 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 27th, 2022

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Glad it looks good.