HD DVD Review: Zodiac

THE MOVIE: 4 1/2 stars out of 5

Zodiac, presented on HD-DVD as a two disc director’s cut, is a fascinating and compelling account of the hunt for the “Zodiac” killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960’s through the early 1970’s. The film is directed by David Fincher (Seven and Panic Room) and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey, Jr. The film contains some rather graphic violence and starts off with a rather gruesome shooting. Robert Downey, Jr. ‘s character is a boozing and drug taking investigative reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. Jake Gyllenhaal's character on the other hand is the paper’s cartoonist who takes a keen interest in the investigation after the first of the Zodiac killer’s letters arrives at the paper taking credit for his murders and predicting more. In fact, it is this character’s relentless pursuit of the killer’s identity over the years, much to his personal detriment, which drives the film. While the film is long, clocking in at over 3 hours, the time does seem to fly by as you are sucked into the pursuit of the killer and experience the fear that gripped the Bay area during those days. Highly Recommended.

THE VIDEO: 4 stars out of 5

Encoded with AVC and presented in its original aspect ratio of 2:35:1, this is a rather stylized film with the overall color scheme skewed to what I would describe as a California gold which was popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s. As such, the film does not present very accurate looking colors. Black level is solid however. There was no visible noise that I could see in the film. The print is as pristine as one would expect from a new film. My biggest complaint about this presentation is the overall softness of the film. I found the opening sequence in particular to be very soft. The overall color palette is also rather drab which contributes to overall soft looking picture. I did not see this film in the theater so I can’t comment whether this was how the film appeared in the theater. My assumption is that it was and was intentional on the part of the director to make the film look lie it was filmed in the 1960’s and 1970’s. While I am sure that this is a very accurate presentation of the film, it just doesn’t have the snap and pop of the best looking HD transfers.

THE AUDIO: 3 3/4 stars out of 5

Sad to say, the audio encode of the film is more lackluster than the video. Presented in Dolby Digital Plus at 1.5 mbps, the film is very front heavy with little use of the surrounds. Considering the tension and suspense of the film, I thought that there would have been a better sound mix accompanying the video. The audio just does not contribute much to the overall feel of the film. The audio that is present is clear enough but is rather flat. Dialogue is well recorded however and easy to follow which is very important given the nature of the film. While there are those out there in HD land who will no doubt complain about the fact that there was no True HD track included with the film, I doubt very much that it would have made any difference given the quality of the original sound mix.

EXTRAS

There are some excellent extras included on this two disc set in high definition. My favorites are those involving interviews with the real people who are depicted in the film. The interviews are compelling and well worth a look.

IN CONCLUSION

While I found the video to be nothing spectacular and the audio rather lackluster, this is nonetheless a riveting and compelling look in to hunt for the Zodiac killer, even given its rather extensive running time. Highly recommended.

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