DVD Corner

Spartacus: Blood And Sand Blu-ray Review

“Spartacus” is deepy flawed, but the series is somehow still worth watching.

‘Spartacus’ opens with the Thracian people making a deal to fight with the Romans. Things quickly go south, however, when the Romans betray the Thracians causing a rebellion against the Romans. The unnamed Thracian protagonist (later named Spartacus) is later captured by the Romans (along with his wife) and forced into slavery due to charges of desertion. To make matters worse, the Thracian is placed into a Gladiator training school and becomes owned by a treacherous man named Quintus Lentulus Batiatus. From there on out, Spartacus has to fight for his life at the Capua arena and survive an angry Gladiator opponent/enemy/rival named Crixus. Other subplots involve murders, injuries, secrets, explicit sexual encounters, betrayals, a Roman General (and his wife), a senator, and an uprise in the season finale. The first season contains 13 episodes.

By all accounts, ‘Spartacus’ should not work. It rips off the style of “300” and “Gladiator” (complete with slow motion fights and similar music cues), it’s filled with poorly written dialogue, inconsistent acting, and pitiful CGI blood, and there’s arguably more fighting than actual story. And yet, even with all of these problems, the series is still somehow compelling. Essentially, ‘Spartacus’ is like an addicting, excessively/exhaustingly violent, sex filled manly soap opera. It is certainly not for everyone, but if you can stomach or aren’t fazed by the content, the series sucks you in thanks to high production values, gutsy dramatic/emotional scenes, exciting action, and some fine performances by the likes of Lucy Lawless and John Hannah.

Summary: It’s not Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus,” but ‘Blood And Sand’ is certainly worth a rent at the very least.

Video/Audio:

The 1.78:1 1080p picture quality is top notch. Every grain of sand in the arena and every flame from a fire is noticeably sharper on this Blu-ray release. A job well done on these transfers.

Whether it’s a Gladiator battle in the arena or a steamy sex scene, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1  audio track delivers.

Extras:

* Anchor Bay trailers and a Spartacus vengeance trailer.
* Extended/enhanced versions of episodes 1, 2, 5, 6, 8 and 13.
* Pop-up history track.
* MovieiQ BD-Live feature for each episode.

* Commentary on episode 1 by Rick Jacobson, Steven S. DeKnight, Rob Tapert and Joshua Donen. Fans wanting to know about alternate scenes, behind-the-scenes information, etc. will want to give this a listen. This team also provides commentary on episode 2 (minus Joshua Donen).

* Commentary on episode 4 by Jesse Warn and Andy Whitfield. The two chat about location shooting, behind-the-scenes set information, directoring conversations, and so on.

* Commentary on episode 5 by Michael Hurst, Lucy Lawless and Andy Whitfield. The three chat about special f/x, sets, directing, characters, etc. Probably the most entertaining commentary.

* Commentary on episode 6 by Rick Jacobson, Steven S. DeKnight and Erin Cummings.
* Commentary on episodes 9 and 10 by Andy Whitfield, Lucy Lawless and Viva Bianca. Like the episode 5 commentary, these are also enjoyable tracks.
* Commentary on episode 12 by Brent Fletcher, Steven S. Deknight and Nick Tarabay. Expect conversations about characters, stories on set, CGI backgrounds, etc.
* Commentart on episode 13 by Steven S. DeKnight, Peter Mensah and Katrina Law.

* “Gladiator Boot Camp”- Behind-the-scenes featurette of the actors training to do Gladiator scenes.
* “Spartacus: Battle Royale”- A collection of battle scenes from the series.
* “Spartacus: Blood And Sand- Behind-The-Scenes”- A Starz featurette about the series.
* “Grime And Punishment: The Hole”- A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the gross hole scene.

* “Andy Gets Plastered”- A behind-the-scenes look at actor Andy Whitfield getting plaster molds.
* “Legend Re-Imagined”- A featurette about the history of Spartacus and what they added/changed about the legendary figure’s story.
* “Oh, Those Randy Romans”- A featurette about the sexual characters.
* “Shooting Green: The Shadow Of Death”- A featurette about the green screen work.

* “Exposing Your Ludus”- A collection of footage of the cast on set.

September 22, 2010 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Andy Whitfield, Lucy Lawless, Spartacus: Blood And Sand Blu-ray Review, Starz