DVD Review

What?

Seamlessly blending live action and CGI, Avalon might be described by some as a Polish version of The Matrix, though that might also be considered an insult considering the influence of Oshii's Ghost in the Shell on the Wachowskis. Albeit a Japanese film, Oshii shot it in Poland, cast decent Polish actors and, bravely, decided that they should speak in their native language throughout. Set in a bleak, minimalist future, Avalon sees the young taking part in an illegal VR war game to deal with their melancholy. The film opens inside the game, treating the viewer to some stunningly beautiful visuals, before the opening credits throw a nod the Wachowskis way with the use of some Matrix-code-like characters. Avalon focuses primarily on one 'Class A' female Warrior, Ash (Malgorzata Foremniak), who has reached the upper echelons of game play, so much so that she earns a living from the game. When Ash runs into a lower-level Thief player called Stunner (Bartek Swiderski) who informs her of a secret level to the game, called 'Special A', that can only be reached through a hidden character, she becomes intrigued and resolves to discover the gateway to the new level.

Avalon delivers on several levels that, for many, will likely take multiple viewings and some serious musing and discussion to fully comprehend. As the plot develops, you soon realise that this is not the sci-fi action flick you thought it was going to be and that much more is going on here than first appears. By the end, you may exclaim a frustrated "Huh?!", but subsequent viewing pays substantial dividends. The film is gently-paced and uses visual and aural imagery as much as dialogue to relate the narrative, with even the score helping to yield a degree of insight (so much so that the lyrics of the choral theme are subtitled). Because of this, there are quite a few brief moments that are important to the plot but are easily overlooked on initial viewing.

Some may not have the patience for such a film, but those that do will be well rewarded. With its deep, multifaceted plot, stunning visuals and beautiful score, Avalon fully immerses the viewer into its fictitious world so that they are utterly mesmerised by it and never want it to end. Wonderful stuff indeed.

To expect a sharp, colourful, detailed image on any DVD release of Avalon would be a mistake as the cinematography is intentionally drab, colour-filtered, and mildly smeared and blurred for the majority of the film. enterOne's release nicely reproduces this, with few artefacts and little additional grain. Black levels could be a little better however, as evidenced during fade-out scenes and the end credits. This release also features a windowboxed, rather than letterboxed, anamorphic image, no doubt to help compensate for the overscan on CRT displays and so ensure that as much of the image is displayed as possible. The windowboxing has not resulted in any cropping but it does mean that slightly fewer lines of resolution are available to define the image. Though this doesn't noticeably affect its quality, I'm sure I'm not alone in preferring a letterboxed image and those owning displays with minimal overscan may not appreciate the additional black sidebars. The English removable subtitles are paced well and easy to read, but it's slight irritating that the opening on-screen text, which is in English, is also subtitled.

Both DTS-ES 6.1 and DD 5.1 EX soundtracks are featured on the disk, in the original Polish, as well as a dubbed Japanese DD 2.0 soundtrack. Both the ES and EX tracks are at full bit-rate and sound absolutely wonderful. LFE provides some truly room-shaking moments with explosions and gun shots being both deep and powerful. Surrounds never let up throughout the film either and are wonderfully detailed, being used for numerous panning and spot effects as well as for ambience in quieter scenes. The front soundstage is similarly well utilised, both for effects and dialogue, which float fluidly between the three channels (and to the surrounds). Kenji Kawai's exceptional score sounds beautifully natural too with startling fidelity. Overall, both soundtracks deliver a fantastically rich and balanced soundstage that is totally engaging. Comparing the two, however, reveals the ES soundtrack to have the slight edge over the EX, due to it being a little fuller bodied and dynamic, with finer detail and more disciplined bass.

This Korean special edition is a 2-disk set, with the film on the first disk and the extras on the second disk. Unfortunately, you'll need to speak either Japanese or Korean to enjoy the majority of the extras as no English subtitles are provided. Given that I am evaluating this release from the perspective of value to English speakers, I have no choice but to score the extras low - but only for this reason. When you consider that the two 'making of' featurettes, 'Days of Avalon' and 'Avalon VFX Making', run for nearly three hours in total, it's enough to make you cry. Still, all is not lost. The 'Visual Image Lib' runs for five minutes and features various image stills taken during production, sequenced to the Avalon score. Three theatrical trailers and three TV spots are also provided. All extras are in 4:3 with DD 2.0, except the theatrical trailers, which are anamorphic widescreen with DD 5.1. The disks themselves come in a single Amaray case, with a clip-in tray to house the extras disk, topped off with a smart gloss black slipcase. Unfortunately the cover art is ruined by the rather nonsensical English-language tagline, which also has the word 'miracle' misspelled as 'mirracle'. In case you were wondering, yes, the insert is also in Korean.

Avalon is an incredible film that will captivate many from start to finish. The lack of accessible extras for English speakers is a disappointment, but the decent image quality and terrific full-bit-rate DTS-ES soundtrack make it a release well worthy of your money.

Harry Agius