Coma Blu-ray Review

The Blu-ray presentation of "Coma" offers a visually engaging experience, vividly showcasing its complex blend of live-action and heavy visual effects. The 1080p transfer shines consistently with crisp, stable visuals. The dreamworld sequences are particularly striking, featuring color-tinted backgrounds and enhanced saturation that evoke painterly hues. The real-world scenes exhibit a similarly surreal aesthetic, augmented by subtle focus-related tricks in flashback bursts. The image maintains solid detail and textures throughout, running at a high bit rate with minimal issues—mild banding on harsh gradients is the only notable flaw.

"Coma" appears to have been shot digitally, resulting in a lightly added grain structure that occasionally manifests chroma noise. Though it does not detract significantly from the viewing experience, it is a recurring issue. The limited budget impacts the visual effects, leading to lower resolution in some elements and regular aliasing, especially in wide shots of the digitally-rendered cities and angular structures. Despite this, the Blu-ray features exceptional definition, with strong facial textures and environmental details that maintain sharpness. The contrast is particularly superlative, pairing dense black levels with subtle shadows to preserve detail without crushing. Using a digital color grading, the film leans heavily into thick grays and blues, with primary colors accentuating Coma’s visually unique world, albeit at the expense of the brightest hues.

The Blu-ray audio presentation of "Coma" features two DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio tracks, available in both English and the original Russian. Both tracks deliver crisp dialogue and an impressive surround sound experience, ensuring a formidable presence throughout the film. Ilya Andrus' original score is seamlessly integrated, providing dynamism and power without overshadowing background noises or dialogue. This meticulous balance aids in enhancing the film's exceptional visual presentation. Additionally, the release includes two English subtitle tracks: SDH titles for the dub and standard subtitles for a more literal translation of the original Russian.

Both audio tracks excel in creating an immersive environment with significant low-end activity. Notably, the reapers' footsteps are accompanied by satisfying bass, and the collapsing or moving pieces of limbo generate a substantial rumble that contributes to the overall auditory depth. While not the most powerful in terms of depth, the audio presentation is impactful enough to provide substantial weight. The surround speakers come alive during action sequences, such as a complex, tiered shoot-out where bullets sweep between speakers and voices emerge from multiple directions, enhancing the immersive experience. Each sound element is precisely placed, ensuring an accurate and reliable audio design that aligns perfectly with the film's visual dynamics.

The Blu-ray extras for "Coma" showcase a variety of content designed to offer a deeper insight into the film's production elements. However, the four featurettes, each running under two minutes, provide limited value due to their brevity and lack of depth. Their subjects include CGI development, character exploration, the romantic subplot, and the setting of "The World of COMA." Additionally, the disc includes a theatrical trailer available only in dubbed English. While comprehensive in listing, the supplementary material suffers from a lack of substantial content to significantly enhance the viewing experience.

Extras included in this disc:

Featurette - CGI: Short behind-the-scenes piece on the film's CGI development. Featurette - The Characters: Brief exploration of the characters. Featurette - Love: Insight into the romantic subplot. Featurette - The World of COMA: Overview of the film’s setting. Theatrical Trailer: Theatrical preview dubbed in English.

"Coma" stands as an ambitious Russian sci-fi film that masterfully intertwines elements from "Inception" and "The Matrix" to create a visually stunning and philosophically engaging narrative. Directed by Nikita Argunov, the film centers around Viktor, also known as Architect (Rinal Mukhametov), who awakens in a shared comatose dreamscape where the laws of physics are suspended. Here, Viktor is joined by other individuals named after their former professions or newfound skills like Phantom (Anton Pampushny), Astronomer (Milosh Bikovich), and Fly (Lyubov Aksyonova). These characters navigate a labyrinthine world, avoiding monstrous Reapers and unearthing memories from their past lives.

The shared comatose world in "Coma" is a mesmerizing and distorted landscape based on the collective memories of its unconscious residents. This offers an incredible setting filled with philosophical undertones and sci-fi actions. While the film does fall into the typical visual-first mindset seen in many Hollywood blockbusters, it manages to keep viewers intrigued with its core idea of a memory-driven dream world. The narrative intelligently cuts back to Viktor’s life pre-coma, slowly revealing a twist that adds depth albeit not wholly original. The film’s pacing can occasionally lag due to heavy exposition, but these moments are balanced by breathtaking wide shots and dizzying action sequences.

Moreover, the film delves deep into philosophical questions about the nature of reality and the ethics of life support. Characters grapple with eternal fantasy versus limited reality, and the dreamscape serves as a battleground for these debates. Phantom, as the alpha male figure, embodies the conflict of power within this dream world, while the pacifist Architect envisions a potential Eden. This dynamic adds layers to the narrative, exploring cult-like behaviors and moral dilemmas regarding life and death. Overall, "Coma" combines heady sci-fi concepts with stunning visual effects, resulting in a thought-provoking experience for fans of the genre.

Review 1: Coma on Blu-ray offers a visually striking presentation, with crisp image quality and vibrant colors enhancing the film’s surreal and elaborate set designs. The audio mix is immersive, effectively enveloping the viewer in the movie's action sequences and atmospheric tension. The supplementary materials, though limited, provide insightful context and behind-the-scenes looks that deepen the viewer's appreciation of the film.

Review 2: The transfer of Coma to Blu-ray is exceptional, showcasing detailed textures and balanced contrast ratios that bring the film's imaginative visuals to life. The sound design is equally impressive, delivering clear dialogue and dynamic soundscapes that heighten the suspense and drama of the narrative. The bonus features are minimal but informative, featuring interviews and making-of footage that complement the main feature.

Review 3: Coma’s Blu-ray release excels in technical quality, offering a high-definition visual experience that captures the intricacies of its special effects and set pieces. The audio tracks are robust, providing a powerful accompaniment to the film's engaging score and thrilling sequences. Supplementary content includes a handful of featurettes that, while brief, are valuable additions for enthusiasts looking to delve deeper into the film's production process.

Coma’s Blu-ray presentation stands out with its exceptional visual and auditory quality, enabling an immersive viewing experience. The high-definition transfer highlights the film's intricate set designs and vivid special effects with sharp detail and balanced contrast. Meanwhile, the audio mix ensures clear dialogue and dynamic soundscapes, effectively enhancing the overall suspense and atmospheric tension of the storyline.

Though the supplementary features are somewhat limited, they offer meaningful insights through short featurettes and interviews. These behind-the-scenes glimpses provide a complementary layer for viewers seeking to understand the creative process behind this ambitious film.

Though it cribs several ideas from established Hollywood productions (and falls victim to a few of their clichés and trappings in the process), Coma is an ambitious import that fans of potent, effects-heavy sci-fi and psychological thrillers should enjoy. MPI's Blu-ray serves up a decent amount of support, including great A/V specs and a few short bonus features. Unless you opt for the Steelbook variant instead, this is a recommended blind buy.