Cosmic Voyage and Destiny in Space on Blu-ray disc

If there's one film format that seems born for Blu-ray's 1080p resolution and high quality sound, it's IMAX.

So it was with gusto that we tore open Warners' Blu-ray release of Cosmic Voyage with the bonus IMAX film Destiny in Space. What better way to explore the universe, from its tiniest particle to its greatest expanse (as the cover blurb says) than in 1080p and on our 106 inch screen fed by a lovely Epson front projector, with superb audio as provided by our Rotel-powered system and JBL speakers?

We can't think of one, except possibly for an even larger screen, but that would mean moving to an even larger house….

Anyway, Cosmic Voyage is an interesting and entertaining look at our universe, from the smallest objects known at the time of the film's production to the farthest reaches of the known universe.

Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the film uses extensive computer graphics to zoom outward from Venice to the edge of known space. The filmmakers' hook is a hula hoop, er, athletic hoop, a loop one meter in diameter, as their base. Zooming out, a new loop appears over the land, planet or starscape as each scale of ten is passed, which spoils the view a bit but which is quite illustrative of the scale of the cosmos.

The zoom itself is reminiscent of the one at the beginning of Robert Zemeckis' masterpiece Contact, so far as its structure is concerned, while the content is closer to the zoom used in Carl Sagan's Cosmos TV series from a couple of decades back. It's interesting, rendered beautifully, and looks great in high definition.

Then they head toward inner space, using the same "scale of ten" yardstick except now getting smaller, each successive ring being ten times smaller than the previous. In this manner, we bore in on molecules, and down to atoms and their component parts, ending with a CG rendering of quarks.

It makes for interesting perspective on our universe, a nearly incomprehensible vastness that makes us seem as insignificant as quarks – until we see that we're also "mini-universes" made up of even smaller particles.

The picture quality, 1080p of course, is spectacular, but we were disappointed in the audio. First of all, it's offered only in "regular" Dolby Digital instead of the new formats such as LPCM, Dolby TrueHD or dts HD Master Lossless. The quality is okay, but there's little surround except for the odd object whoosing by you via the rear speakers) and we had to crank it past our "default" level to get an acceptable volume.

Such wasn't the case with the bonus feature "Destiny in Space," a title we saw – and enjoyed immensely – previously on DVD.

Destiny in Space is a more "generic" release in that it doesn't cover a particular space mission but rather is meant as a tribute to the spirit of our extraterrestrial exploration. Narrated by Leonard Nimoy, the Blu-ray disc almost makes you feel as if you're in space as it presents IMAX's high quality images and sounds.

One of the best scenes puts the IMAX camera onto a satellite and kicks it into higher orbit, where it can look down not only upon the blue Earth below, but upon the space shuttle that took it into orbit, floating in space between camera and planet. It's wonderful and exhilarating!

We get to look inside Spacelab, float through the corridors of the shuttle, watch the astronauts undergo experiments into space sickness, living and working in space and learning what a human body requires in order to live in that environment, all in brilliant big screen detail and color.

There's other footage, too, simulated stuff of Venus and Mars as well as looks at Jupiter and, thanks to footage of and from the Hubble Space Telescope, the outer reaches of our galaxy.

Destiny in Space is more than just a look at the space we know now, but is a look ahead to the space we should, and will, get to know in the not too distant future. The fact that it's more than a tad dated (it's from the early 1990's) shouldn't prevent anyone from enjoying it or being left in awe of the glorious images presented.

Audio and video quality are both excellent. The films presented in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio that fills the widescreen TV's screen fully and the detail, color and contrast are all superb.

The producers also make excellent use of the 5.1 channels of surround sound on Destiny in Space, with voices coming at your from all around the home theater, depending on what's happening.

Surprisingly enough, while we enjoyed both IMAX presentations, the older "Destiny in Space" was a more enjoyable time in the home theater.

Cosmic Voyage/Destiny in Space, from Warner Home Entertainment
36/40 min, 10980p widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 audio

Dinosaurs Alive! on Blu-ray Disc

Big beasties still rule the world in this Imax-originated BD from Image Entertainment. And while we only get a 2D version of the original 3D production, that's okay since the 3D Blu-rays we've seen have left a lot to be desired as far as picture quality and eye strain are concerned.

Michael Douglas narrates this look into the science of paleontology and the hunt for ever newer (or is it ever older?) information on the gigantic creatures that walked the earth so long ago. Maybe you could call it "the greatest show unearthed."

Or maybe not.

Anyway, Dinosaurs Alive!, as misleading as the title might be, takes us along with some of the world’s pre-eminent paleontologists, with glorious IMAX-sourced picture and sound, as they look at some of history’s largest and most exciting dinosaur digs, from the dunes of the Gobi Desert to the sandstone buttes of New Mexico. No buttes about it! It's unfortunate that Alberta and its dinosaur-rich badlands aren't included, since they're only about an hour from where this review is being written (Not that we're self-indulgent!) and offer manyu spectacular dinosaur relics, but what can you do?  

The movie lets us watch as scientists make new discoveries about how these creatures behaved and lived, what their environments were like – and we're also there when they discover what could be the oldest dinosaur ever unearthed in North America. Why it's older than Robert Byrd!

The bones are augmented by reasonably realistic and supposedly scientifically accurate CGI animation that does a good job of bringing the creatures alive – at least in the manner scientists think currently is how they lived. It's interesting stuff and the movie is done well. The CG scenes may be more accurate than in movies such as Jurassic Park, though they don't look as believable (perhaps Spielberg had a bigger budget…), but that doesn't prevent the movie from being a fascinating look at the thunder lizards and the world they ruled.

We’re also shown some fascinating documentary footage from the 1920's, as the paleontologists of that day – the real pioneers – search for clues as to what made these fascinating creatures tick.

Of course a dino documentary wouldn't be a dino documentary without discussion on what happened to them so long ago that all we have left are bones. And so we look at the current theories about the mass extinction.

There are some pretty beautiful – and some pretty stark – locations in Dinosaurs Alive!, and if you watch the Blu-ray on a truly big screen (we viewed it on a 106 inch front projector system) you'll enjoy its lovely spectacle immensely.

Dinosaurs Alive! is presented in 1080p widescreen (1.78:1), which fits the 16x9 HDTV screen well, and the picture quality is excellent, with great detail and even pretty good depth. The audio is dts HD Master Audio, and it is also very good - quite immersive with dialog and narration presented well

Special features include an interesting full length “Making Of” featurette shot in HD in which we get to marvel at such things as the filmmakers hauling all this big, heavy and expensive 3D IMAX stuff around to some pretty isolated locations.

There are a couple of other features, too, including "Meet the Creatures", which is self explanatory, and also a dinosaur quiz.