Conan the Barbarian (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Trailer-Abduction Trailer-Colombiana Music Video-Promotion for The Blackbird Diaries Featurette-Staging the Fights Featurette-Battle Royale - Engineering the Action Music Video-Gypsy Girl from The Blackbird Diaries by Dave Stewart Main Menu Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	107:31 (Case: 112)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Marcus Nispel
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Jason Momoa Stephen Lang Rachel Nichols Ron Perlman Rose McGowan Bob Sapp Leo Howard
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Tyler Bates

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, Music video

"Enter an Age Undreamed of"

     The Conan the Barbarian (2011 version) story begins during the Hyborean age where a mask which has the power to control the world is magically created by sorcerers. The Cimmerians, led by Corin (Ron Perlman), battle with the sorcerers, and eventually triumph with the mask shattered and the pieces scattered so that they cannot be reunited. After many years, and during another war, Corin's son Conan is born on a battlefield, with the mother dying in epic fashion at childbirth. Conan (Leo Howard as the adolescent Conan) grows into a powerful youth, but is captured with his father by warriors carrying a two headed snake banner who are looking for pieces of the shattered mask. The warriors' leader Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang) finds the piece of mask he is looking for, but chains Corin and Conan together in a manner that requires a fatal decision to be made. Corin ultimately sacrifices himself to allow Conan's escape.

     Conan (Jason Momoa) is next seen twenty years later working as a mercenary with the pirate Artus (Nonso Anozie). The snake banner people who killed his father have grown into a formidable cult, and whilst in the city of Meddianta Conan recognises one of the group, Lucius (Steven O'Donnell), who captured him years earlier. Conan interrogates Lucius and learns that Zym and his daughter Marique (Rose McGowan) are looking for the descendants of the sorcerers who made the mask. Zym believes that the full power of the mask can only be unleashed by using the blood of a pure-blood descendant.

     The pure-blood they seek, Tamara, (Rachel Nichols) is attacked by snake cult warriors at a monastery, but is saved by Conan who eventually discovers her importance. With the full implications of Zym's search being revealed, Conan realises that his personal quest for revenge has a far greater consequence – that being the salvation of the world from the forces of evil that the mask could unleash.

     Morgan Freeman's dulcet tones as narrator, and Lord of the Rings-like introductions are quickly erased as Conan The Barbarian stumbles into a dark abyss that sucks everything into it like a film-maker's black hole. Momoa in Game of Thrones showed that he could act – without saying very much at all. In Conan however, he just doesn't have the brooding menace or screen presence that Schwarzenegger carried. Whereas Arnold was a hulking monster, Momoa is more studied and sanitised. The rest of the cast are good enough given the material they had, with McGowan particularly effective as the goth-like villain. I'd suggest however that Conan won't be used in a highlights reel of their respective careers in years to come

     Director Marcus Nispel must have thought that nice visuals and a hulking hero fresh from the Game of Thrones juggernaut would be enough. Unfortunately a lame script, no character development, and cartoonish action sequences means that Conan in 2011 is a weak reboot of the Schwarzenegger film.

Video

     As presented in the theatrical aspect of 2.35:1 Conan looks pretty good, but is hampered by an overly dark palette which becomes tiring after a while. I expect the decision before filming was to make everything look grim and dark, but in my opinion they went overboard in this respect. That being said the relatively few well lit scenes showed great colour and good solid blacks. The blood (and there was a lot of it) was the correct shade of red and the ocean shots were very nice indeed. Overall there was nothing to complain about apart from the aforementioned predominance of darkness.

     This is a dual layer disc but I could not see the layer change using my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Conan is delivered with a non-stop barrage of surround sound effects, with action pinging from all around. The action sequences are, as you would expect, bombastic, with precise clangs and thumps and slaps delivered discretely from all corners. The climactic scenes at the end provide an opportunity to test your subwoofer, as the LFE channel gets a severe workout that should delight the bass lovers amongst us. At other times the more subtle effects such as sea breezes and leaves rustling are well placed to provide the required atmosphere. Dialogue is clear at all times and there were no issues with synchronisation. The film score by Tyler Bates is suitably epic and follows that action well.

     This audio track is excellent quality.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

     The menu featured looping audio with animated background.

Staging the Fights (5:33)

     1.33:1 video aspect with Dolby Digital audio at 224 Kb/s. Five segments showing fight scenes as created and choreographed by the stunt team. The rehearsals are shown and compared to the final cuts in split screen.

Battle Royale - Engineering the Action (9:30)

     1.78:1 video aspect with Dolby Digital audio at 224 Kb/s. Behind the scenes footage including interviews with director Marcus Nispel, stunt coordinator Noon Orsatti, production designer Chris August, executive producer Avi Lerner, amongst others. Also features actors Jason Momoa, Stephen Lang, Rachel Nichols & Rose McGowan. As the title suggests this featurette focuses on creation of the action scenes and concepts behind the creatures and fighting styles.

Trailer (2:26) Abduction

Trailer (1:41) - Colombiana

Promotion (0:30) - The Blackbird Diaries

     Promotion for Dave Stewart's new album

Music Video (4:17) - Gypsy Girl from The Blackbird Diaries by Dave Stewart.

     This plays directly following the main feature. It is not available via the extras menu.

     This DVD seems identical in content to the US Region 1 version apart from language options - although I can't verify whether the US DVD includes audio commentaries. Also available is a two disc Blu-ray combo with 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD. There is also a single disc 2D Blu-ray version available. Judging from other reports the Blu-ray disc of Conan is excellent for audio and video quality. The Blu-rays also have additional extras including Audio Commentary with director Marcus Nispel; Audio Commentary with actors Jason Momoa & Rose McGowan, The Conan Legacy featurette; and Robert E. Howard - The Man Who Would Be Conan featurette. You can find the review of the Blu-ray on this site here. The movie still sucks however.

     Conan The Barbarian (2011) performed poorly at the box-office – and deservedly so. Momoa is no Schwarzenegger and doesn't have the visceral impact of the young Arnie. Nispel directs this like a video game and for me there was no emotional connection with the characters. If all you want is a bit of blood and sword-play then Conan might appeal - otherwise I'd suggest you look elsewhere.

     The video quality is very good.

     The audio quality is excellent.

     Extras are meagre but interesting.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall