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The Movie:
It's the script that sinks the ship in "Virus", a long delayed sci-fi thriller that was thrown into theaters last January only to leave them a matter of weeks later. Unlike the other silly sci-fi films lately like "Deep Rising", this film actually had potential. It's directed very well by Oscar winning FX supervisor John Bruno, who worked with James Cameron in creating the groundbreaking special effects for "The Abyss" and "Titanic". The robots are created by Phil Tipett, who I believe did the effects for "Starship Troopers". The sets are quite well done as well.
The film revolves around the crew of a boat who stumble onto an abandoned tanker that's been taken over by an alien who takes the form of electricity and possesses all of the electrical appliances, creating a new race of robot/humans from the people it kills. What plays out is a mix of "Sphere", "Event Horizon", "Alien" and bits of just about every other major sci-fi film of memory. Some of the effects and as previously mentioned, a lot of the robot effects, are very well done and as effects go, they're definitely far above average.
Where the film fails is the screenplay, full of cliches and lines that are of the most basic "action" type. The actors, who range from William Baldwin to a very silly Donald Sutherland, don't do too much to help things along. Jamie Lee Curtis does what she can with how little material she has to work with.
The DVD
VIDEO: An excellent job by Universal creating a very clean and very "film-like" transfer with this 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer. A beautiful amount of detail is apparent in an image that is clean, clear and wonderfully sharp throughout. Colors are strong and vivid, rendered naturally and pure. Colors are also well-saturated and there are no instances of color bleeding. Black level is perfect throughout, always very strong and defined. What's really incredible is how strong and well-defined the image is during the darkest of scenes, of which this movie has plenty. Parts of it are similar to "The Relic" in that there's only use of a flashlight in the midst of the darkness and even in those conditions, we're still able to make out a solid amount of the image. Contrast is excellent and flesh tones are accurate, even in the darkest lighting conditions. There's the very slightest bit of artifacts in the darkest scenes, but nothing distracting. Overall, this is an excellent transfer - same as the Dolby Digital version.
SOUND: I thought that the Dolby Digital version of "Virus" was excellent - a great "action" movie soundtrack, with agressive surround use and some solid bass - it's one of those films where the audio wraps around the viewer, making the experience almost enjoyable enough to redeem the movie. Almost. The DTS version is better than the Dolby Digital version in that it does attain a smoother, richer feel with stronger detail - but it's not an enormous improvement or anything like that. Dialogue is clear and clean, surrounds are used heavily and often, and there are times when the audio really impressed me greatly, with a solid helping of bass. The DTS version is just more successful in building an environment, but the differences are not enormous, just noticable.
MENUS:: Pretty basic - just the cover art used for the main menu, but no animation - which would have been nice for a film like this one.
EXTRAS: As Homer Simpson might say, "D'oh!". The DTS version is featureless when it comes to the extras department. The Dolby Digital version includes a good commentary(which is suprising for a fairly bad movie),a documentary and featurette, as well as deleted scenes, a trailer and a couple of other little odds and ends.
Final Thoughts: The DTS version does have moderately better audio, but I liked the extras that the Dolby Digital version included. The movie itself stinks either way but, if you want to get it, your choices are moderately better sound and no extras or a lot of extras.
Film Grade
The Film D-
DVD Grades
Video 93/A = (372/400 possible points)
Audio 98/A = (392/400 possible points)
Extras 0/F = (0/300 possible points)
Menus 65/D = (130/200 possible points)
Value 79/C+ = (237/300 possible points)
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