Author: Robert Greenberger

Ready Player One burst out of nowhere and has become a beloved novel, already taught in schools around the country, making Ernest Cline a hero in the very pop culture the novel celebrates. He took his personal Golden Age and wrote an adventure celebrating the icons of the late 1970s and 1980s, the era when computers and video games changed the world, ushering in the Age of the Geek.

Of course it was going to be turned into a movie but the question is could any film essentially capture the brio of the novel, and could anyone secure all the rights necessary to populate the film with the very icons required to make the virtual world of the Oasis plausible? When Warner Bros. won the bidding war, they wisely turned it over to the one man whose name alone would help secure those rights as well as make a faithful film: Steven Spielberg.

The eagerly awaited film adaptation arrived this spring, earned some favorable reviews and enough box office receipts to make it a modest success, nowhere near the phenomenon the source material was. If you missed it or want to study it frame by frame, the disc release is coming tomorrow from Warner Home Entertainment.

The world has gone to hell by 2044 so people have retreated from reality by entering the Oasis, a virtual reality where you could be anything and do anything as long as you paid your utility bill. James Halliday (Mark Rylance), the co-creator and public face of the Oasis, died and left behind the ultimate video game: find three keys hidden in the Oasis and the winner inherits running the company that owns the game. Nolan Sorrento (NAME) wants to win so his Innovative Online Industries could rule the world and throws countless resources at the problem.

What he doesn’t count on is Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), a lonely teen who thrives in the Oasis as Parzival but really just wants out of the “Stacks”, the vertical Ohio ghetto where he lives with his aunt. He’s the next generation Halliday, having studied everything about the great man, making the elder’s favorites, his favorites. As he races to unlock the mysteries with his best bud Aech (Lena Waithe), he winds up teaming with Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), Zhou (Phillip Zhao), and Daito (Win Morisaki) to form the High Five, watching one another’s backs as they compete to win, literally, the keys to the kingdom.

Spielberg, along with screenwriters Cline and Zak Penn, take tremendous liberties with the narrative, collapsing story arcs, narrowing the scope of the Oasis, and showing much more of the real world than the novel attempted. Some of this is fine as it lets us see how squalid life has become and how tempting the Oasis can be but it’s all surface. Similarly, the High Five are largely reduced to hangers-on with little attention paid to developing them into characters. The exception is Art3mis, who in some ways feels more complex and interesting than Parzival which may be why Spielberg cast Cooke first.

All too often, the cultural touchstones are there in a blink-and-you-miss-them blur with exceptions being King Kong, Mechagodzilla, and the Iron Giant (substituting for Japan’s Ultra-Man which I was really looking forward to seeing). Warners wanted to avoid the Blade Runner riffs since they had their sequel in production at the same time so Penn and Cline used Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining as a substitute and it works quite well here.

What works less well are the conventional movie storytelling aspects, notably in the final quarter of the film where the constant ticking clock is repetitive and annoying.

Overall, the movie is good but nowhere near as engaging as I had hoped but Spielberg does manage to add some nice tenderness to Halliday and his one-time partner Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg).

The film is offered in a variety of combinations including the ever-popular Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD code package. The High Definition transfer is crisp and clear, which a film like this demands. Warner comes through, matching it with a wonderful Dolby Atmos soundtrack.

The packaging insists there are fun Easter Eggs scattered throughout the disc but I didn’t go hunting. I do note there is no commentary or deleted scenes, both would have been welcome. We do get the following Special Features:

Game Changer: Cracking the Code, a lengthy look at casting, costuming, set construction, and more (what’s missing is an honest conversation about which properties they didn’t get and other changes that had to be made); Effects for a Brave New World, the special effects gets its due here; Level Up: Sound for the Future, a nice look at the sound effects creation for the many layers, High Score: Endgame, spotlights Alan Silvestri, subbing for John Williams in his first ever-collaboration with Spielberg; Ernie & Tye’s Excellent Adventure, writer and star bond in Austin prior to the film’s debut in March; and, The ’80’s: You’re The Inspiration, the crew talk about how the era was deserving of a fresh look.

I had no idea that Rampage was based on a 1986 video game, I just knew it was a variation on the Dwayne Johnson and/or monster film to fill a spring slot (see Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island) until the good movies arrived. That it starred the always-appealing Johnson along with Naomie Harris, Malin Åkerman, Jake Lacy, Joe Manganiello, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan made it a cut above somewhat interesting. Still, I passed on it at the theater once the reviews talked about it being predictable and average at best.

With the film on disc this week from Warner Home Entertainment, in the wake of Johnson’s Skyscraper hitting theaters, it’s a good time to finally give it a whirl.

Produced and directed by Brad Peyton, it reteams him with co-screenwriter Carlton Cuse and Johnson, the three previously having worked on the more-of-the-same Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and San Andreas. The question is: do we really want to see more cities mindlessly destroy, collateral destruction of science gone awry? There’s a certain ho-hum factor built in these days and Peyton does little to try and rise above the dilemma. He’s content to just let things blow up, crumble, and go splat.

There’s a plot, derived from the eponymous game: a pathogen has come crashing to Earth, turning normal animals into lumbering, ferocious monsters in need of destroying. Among these poor victims is George, a rare albino silverback gorilla who has befriended primatologist Davis Okoye (Johnson), who just happens to be a former US Army Special Forces soldier and still rather buff. The connection between man and gorilla forms the emotional core of the film and is even more poignant in the wake of the recent passing of the real life Koko.

When George is exposed to the pathogen, he gets big and frightening and is, of course, captured by the government. A she learns from Dr. Kate Caldwell (Harris), the evil Energyne, run by CEO Claire Wyden (Åkerman), used her research to turn the pathogen into a biological weapon and the government wants it for their own uses, pitting Okoye against monstrous animals but also Agent Harvey Russell (Morgan).

All three animals are lured to Chicago, because it’s always a good idea to bring monsters to a major metropolitan area (as opposed to the Dakota badlands, for example) and things go haywire.

That’s pretty much all you need to know.

The film has been deemed to have broken even thanks to a worldwide gross of $24 million and much is being made of it being one of the more successful video game adaptations to the screen, but really, it’s all faint praise for a by-the-numbers production that should have had a lot more wow built in.

The film itself was shot digitally in 4K and the 2K High Definition transfer is quite good although the Dolby Atmos soundtrack is a trifle overpowering.

For a lackluster film, it has superior special features worth a look. We begin with Not A Game Anymore (6:15), tracing the game to film with Johnson trying to convince you this was the greatest gamer he ever played; Gag Reel (2:43); Deleted Scenes, seven in total; Rampage: Actors in Action (10:45), actors discuss their physical preparation for all the action and SFX sequences; Trio of Destruction (10:08), spotlighting Weta Digital’s fine contributions; Attack on Chicago (10:23), Peyton details how he destroyed the city; and the best of the lot, Bringing George to Life (11:53) as movement coordinator Terry Notary and motion capture actor Jason Liles collaborate to make George the most sympathetic character in the film.

Did we really need another DC Comics super-hero on television? That was pretty much the thought rattling in most minds when Fox first announced development of a series based on Black Lightning. When they passed on it, the CW snatched it up (of course), and ran the short first season starting in January.

The answer is a resounding yes. The show is most certainly heroic, but whereas the other Greg Berlanti-centric series fully embrace their four-color roots, this series pivoted for delving into its ethnicity. The production team of Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil wanted something more urban, something more “street”, exploring the black experience with heavy doses of super=powers to keep you riveted.  In the special feature Art Imitating Life: The Pilot Episode, Salim Akil described an all-too-familiar incident of being pulled over by a police officer and the choices a black man has at that moment. He wanted to translate that to something dramatic and make viewers understand in tangible ways.

The 13-episode series is now out in a two-disc Blu-ray set from Warner Home Entertainment well before the second season debuts in the fall. In case you missed it, this is a good chance to get familiar with the story. While there are heroes and villains, they are more relatable in some ways and they serve the black community well by showing a wide array of types.

We have the title star, Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams), a high school principal, his estranged wife, Dr. Lynn Stewart (Christine Adams), the albino criminal Tobias Whale (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III), and Police Inspector Henderson (Damon Gupton), all petty much as depicted in the comic book cocreated by Tony Isabell and Trevor VonEeden. However, another way this show differentiates from the Arrowverse is that Pierce has two daughters, teenage Jennifer (China Anne McClain) and her older sibling, Anissa (Nafessa Williams), a lesbian and counselor at the school.

Nafessa Williams as Thunder and Cress Williams as Black Lightning — Photo: Annette Brown/The CW — © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

The notion of Pierce being older, with children, went beyond Isabella’s original plan but enriches the character and setting. Pierce retired nine years before the show started, in order to give his girls a normal life. He threw himself into his work at Freeland High School, making the school a safe place for its predominantly black population.  That all changes when Jennifer gets caught up with a boy tied to The 100, the mob controlling the underworld, and is held against her will. Pierce suits up and gets back to work as Black Lightning, recognizing his city needs a hero.

Supporting him, in the most Berlanti-esque way is Paul Gambi (James Remar), no longer the humble tailor, but a covert operative who was involved in the government program that gave Pierce his powers and was now searching for ways to create more metahumans. Between this and the 100 spreading a drug called green light that addictively gives people temporary powers, Black Lightning has his hands full. With Gambi operating from a secret base, guiding Pierce and being a computer whiz (of course), the two pick up where they left off.

They need help and it first comes from Anissa, who has discovered her super-strength and invulnerability, suiting herself up to strike her own form of justice. When she and Black Lightning faceoff, secrets are revealed and an alliance is formed. Jennifer wants nothing to do the family business, preferring to work towards college and having a good time. However, an adrenaline surge reveals her own powers and like it or not, is caught up in the fight.

The series’ thirteen episodes touch on life in Freeland, which is where it excels. We see all strata of people and the difference good people can make. There’s the flipside, the dropouts and wanna-be thugs who contrast nicely with those just trying to get by. Most of the good guys and bad guys are of color and race is not avoided. The show is less interesting when it comes to the government conspiracy stuff in the background and with luck, it’ll be less relevant in the second season. Pierce is a little too perfect, a little too much the role model as a principal but he certainly commands the students’ respect (if only…)

The writing is certainly a cut above the Arrowverse shows with the Salim Akil setting the tone with the first two episodes then letting Jan Nash, Charles Holland, and playwright Kelli Goff among others run with it. Akil also directed the first and final episodes, again, bringing his vision to life.

While OWN’s series like the admirable Queen Sugar do a wonderful job treating the black experience with the respect it deserves, its noteworthy that many of the same issues and themes are on display here, a series more likely to be seen by a wider range of viewers, letting its message waft over us, seeping in between bouts of electrically-charged action.

The high def transfer and DTS HD audio track are just fine. The other special features include the too-short A Family of Strength, the obligatory Black Lightning: 2017 Comic-Con Panel, and Gag Reel. It would’ve been nice to have the source material explored giving Tony, Trevor, and DC their due but maybe next time. The bulk of the Special Feature time is well over half an hour of Deleted Scenes, clustered together rather than interspersed episode by episode. They’re worth a look since there are some nice character moments among the family.

I recognize that I was in the minority, finding Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim loud and boring. Still, it made a ton of money encouraging Universal to release a sequel. What we got was the equally loud and just as uninvolving Pacific Rim Uprising, out tomorrow on disc from Universal Home Entertainment. The film cost something like $150 million to make and with a worldwide gross of $290 million, clearly didn’t connect with its audience, hopefully ending the franchise.

With Del Toro merely supervising, the film was handled by first-time director Steven S. DeKnight, better known for his screenplays. We have the perfunctory robots hitting kaiju with destruction raining on the poor populace but we are disengaged from the characters and without emotional connections, the film falls flat.

The film picks up a decade later and while the world has been rebuilding, the Kaiju threat we saw at the end of the first film, is ready to erupt. Keeping us safe fails to Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), son of Stacker Pentecost, who collaborates with scrappy Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) who pulls a Riri Williams and has built her own Jaeger suit out of spare parts she has scavenged. Both are pressed into service when the monsters come back. They are supposed to take orders from Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood), but we know better.

All the story beats are familiar as are the archetypal characters, leaving us with little to be thrilled or surprised by. There is absolutely nothing exciting about the character arcs or the fights, which are, oddly, slowly paced.

Thankfully, the 1080p high-def transfer is strong and you can enjoy metal versus muscle fights in the comfort of your home. The Dolby Atmos audio track is also fine, more than up to the needs of the special effects.

The combo pack of Blu-ray, DVD< and Digital HD comes with a handful of Special Features that are just as adequate and uninteresting as the film itself, We start with alternate and deleted scenes (6:56), with optional commentary from DeKnight; Hall of Heroes (3:25) with Boyega narrating a piece about the Jaegers; Bridge to Uprising (4:39), with cast and crew talking about building a sequel; The Underworld of Uprising (3:47); Becoming Cadets (5:58); Unexpected Villain (5:48); Next Level Jaegers (5:08); I Am Scrapper (2:42); Going Mega (3:21); Secrets of Shao (3:14); Mako Returns (2:08); and, Audio Commentary: Director Steven S. DeKnight, which shows how much thought and effort went into the planning for the film, but doesn’t explain why it fails to excite.

Let me stipulate upfront that I have never played a Lara Croft game or saw the first film adaptation of the Tomb Raider franchise. I have a passing familiarity with her thanks to the virtue of Lara being the first major adventure video game female star (where are the others?). As a result, I approached the Blu-ray release of the March Tomb Raider film, out tomorrow from Warner Home Entertainment, with an open mind.

While Angelina Jolie seemed picture perfect in her turn, the slightly smaller, more athletic Alicia Vikander has made the part her own. It helps that the film is effectively her origin story and for 118 fun minutes, we watch her go from clueless Millennial to adventurer after being told she has to claim dad’s inheritance or lose it all…now. She is 21, aimless, and seeking a purpose when life hands it to her and she decides to grab it. Then hang on to it, when she heads for the isle of Yamatai. Dad (Dominic West) leaves a message warning her off, but by then she’s invested and goes for it. I gather this script from Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons is based on the 2013 reboot of the video game franchise.

Lara Croft feels right and solid as a character, thanks in a large part to Vikander’s strong acting in any role. Unfortunately, Lord Richard Croft, rival Mathais Vogel (Walton Goggins), and other supporting roles are less well-defined, a disservice to actors involved, notably Kristin Scott Thomas and Derek Jacobi.

The movie zips along just fine and the stunts and escapades feel good, more than just an 8-bit video game come to life, but there’s also an unevenness throughout spoiling the fun.

The film comes in a variety of packages and the Blu-ray, DVD; Digital HD combo pack was reviewed. Word is the 4K UltraHD looks spectacular and since it was shot digitally, it looks pretty darn sharp in 1080p. The lossless Dolby Atmos/TrueHD 7.1 and DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio tracks are equally attractive.

The film underperformed at the box office, which is a real shame, but it may explain why we get a mere four bonus features. First up, is Tomb Raider: Uncovered (7:04) as cast and crew talk production; Croft Training (6:03), Vikander prepares and gets buff; Breaking Down the Rapids (5:33), Director Roar Uthaug leads us through the set piece; and, Lara Croft: Evolution of an Icon (9:51), a nice history of the video game that became a phenomenon with fans/experts Megan Marie and Erika Ishii giving us gushing context.

With still a year-plus to go before the final season of HBO’s brilliant Game of Thrones, and who knows how long before the next novel in the Song of Fire and Ice series, there is anticipation that needs tending. HBO is addressing that with the roll out of their 4K UltraHD editions of the first six seasons.

Out Tuesday is Games of Thrones the Complete First Season in a four-disc slick package. If you own the DVD, should you upgrade? Absolutely. If you own the Blu-ray, should you upgrade? Well, that depends. If you have the first Blu-ray release, you might want to upgrade to get not only the sharper image but the Dolby Atmos audio track. If you have the edition with Dolby Atmos, then you have to decide how much you crave the slightly better picture.

The 2K to 4K upgrade is certainly lovely to look at and they do an amazing job with the shadows, rather important for a series such as this. However, it’s incremental so you have to decide for yourself. This is a nicely enhanced upgrade of the original footage, shot digitally at 10 bit, 1920×1080 resolution. With Blu-ray often providing us with 8-bit recordings, the extra 2 bits makes quite the difference. Apparently, the technicians coaxed every bit out of the original digital recordings and provides with additional visual detail as well as a more natural range of colors in the texture of people, places, and things. While not revelatory, you certain gain a new visual appreciation for the production values that were present from the outset.

Keep in mind that all the Blu-ray special features are carried over to this set and the Digital HD code provides you with the same sharp streaming option. You should be aware that the In-Episode Guide feature isn’t here. It would have been nice, for completeness’ sake, to have HBO include the retail exclusive featurettes that appeared on Target, HBO Shop, and Walmart editions.

Looking back at the show, you think about how much younger and more innocent we, and many of the characters, were back then. The, ahem, starkness of good versus evil was very clear and only towards the end of the first ten episodes were the moral gray areas beginning to cast its own shadows over the characters and their connections.

There are far worse things you could with your lazy summer days than revisiting Westeros and enjoying how it all began.

The Bridge: How the Roeblings Connected Brooklyn to New York
By Peter J. Tomasi and Sara DuVall
208 pages, $24.99, Abrams ComicArts

Once upon a time, Brooklyn was a city separate from New York, separated by a river and giving rise to vastly different cultures. Yet, people commuted from the Brooklyn shore to Manhattan Island and in the 19^th Century, a visionary engineer thought a bridge was needed to connect the two.

The feat of engineering is something worth celebrating and David McCullough did that with his 1972 The Great Bridge, which served as the source for Ken Burns America Collection: Brooklyn Bridge. But, there are other ways to tell that story and Peter Tomasi, a comics writer and editor, has been longing to tell this story for years.

Thankfully, his dream, like John Roebling’s, has become a reality. Unlike the elder Roebling, at least Tomasi is still around to see it. Tomasi is known for how his humanizes his heroes, making them relatable in ways that do not diminish their amazing accomplishments. Partnered with Sara DuVall, we get to see the people who toiled for decades to make the Bridge a reality.

As with so much of the 19^th century, the story begins with the Civil War as John’s son, Washington, experiences much. A Union soldier, he had been trained at his father’s side and more than once used his knowledge to help construct bridges for the soldiers to use. He saw much, endured much, and brought home those memories and more than few injuries.

Washington also fell in love, meeting Emily Warren at an officers’ dance. They were infatuated with one another and they formed a partnership that was stronger than the steel wire the Roeblings’ factory produced.

No sooner did Washington return from the war in 1865 than he and his father embarked on drafting plans to convince the governments of two cities that a bridge was not only necessary but also possible to build. By this point, the cold, taciturn John has ingrained a worldview and work ethic in Washington that ensured the two would work compatibly which proved fortuitous when the suborn older man died from an untreated infection.

The difference in Washington, much as it separates Tomasi from many of his comic book peers, is the touch of humanity. Over the years between construction (1869) and opening (1883), Roebling goes out of his way to ensure the men’s safety, shortening work hours, having an on-site doctor, etc. His loyalty to the men is inspiring as is his relationship with Emily. She comes into her own as his cheerleader, champion, and ultimately surrogate when he is too ill to leave their home.

With 208 pages to work with, DuVall paces things nicely and her art, simple and clear, helped by Rob Leigh’s strong lettering and nice palette from colorists Gabriel Eltaeb and John Kalisz. They help us see the depths men had to dig before hitting bedrock, the physical and emotional toll the work took, as well as the political shenanigans that almost derailed the project in its final phase.

Overall, this is a masterful use of the graphic novel format to tell an important story in a compelling way. Highly recommended for readers of all ages.

In the 1950s, Batman was transformed into a variety of beings or wore a colorful assortment of costumes to goose sales. Thankfully, that silliness was retired with the New Look and wasn’t resurrected until the Elseworlds what if stories of the 1990s. That same approach has now crept from the page to the screen with Batman Ninja, out now on DVD from Warner Home Entertainment.

This anime-style adventure comes from director Junpei Mizusaki, (producer of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure), working from a script by Kazuki Nakashima (Kill La Kill, Gurren Lagann) and character designs from Takashi Okazaki (Afro Samurai). As a result, it comes with a strong pedigree for the creative approach.

Rather than a posit an ancient Japan that needed a protector styled in the form of a bat, this gonzo story actually takes the heroes and villains of Gotham City and transports them into the past. It’s weird, wild, wacky and not at all to my taste so your mileage will almost certainly vary.

We have the Dark Knight (Kōichi Yamadera/Roger Craig Smith) sent to feudal Japan without his high-tech gadgets and has to go back to the basics to save the locals from the Joker (Wataru Takagi/Tony Hale), Catwoman (Ai Kakuma/Grey Griffin), Harley Quinn (Rie Kugimiya/Tara Strong), Two-Face (Toshiyuki Morikawa/Eric Bauza), Gorilla Grodd (Takehito Koyasu/Fred Tatasciore), Deathstroke (Junichi Suwabe/Fred Tatasciore), Penguin (Chō/Tom Kenny), Bane (Kenta Miyake), and Poison Ivy (Atsuko Tanaka/Tara Strong). Also transported are Alfred (Hōchū Ōtsuka/Adam Croasdell), Nightwing (Daisuke Ono/Adam Croasdell), Robin (Yuki Kaji/Yuri Lowenthal), Red Robin (Kengo Kawanishi/Will Friedle), and Red Hood (Akira Ishida/Yuri Lowenthal). Along the way, he finds new allies and becomes a ronin of sorts, a masterless samurai out to protect the innocent from the wicked, fulfilling a prophecy about a foreign bat ninja coming to save them.

I guess

 the creators thought they were getting one shot at this project and therefore threw in every trope you could ask for, making it feel weirdly familiar but also oddly humdrum. The most interesting turn comes when villains lose their memories and acclimatize to their surroundings. There’s also a nice twist with Grodd.

Produced in Japan, the Blu-ray release offers up both the original Japanese vocal cast and an English audio track. Visually, it is an amazing piece of animation, mixing traditional drawings with 3-D virtual realities so you’ve not quite seen a Batman animated feature like this before.

The Blu-ray comes with a handful of useful features delving into this project’s background. We start with East/West Batman (10:00) where Mike Carlin (Creative Director Animation, DC Entertainment), Ames Kirshen (VP Interactive & Animation DC Entertainment), Eric S. Garcia (Producer, English Screenwriter), Leo Chu (Producer, English Screenwriter), and Junpei (Director),  Mizusaki, Nakashima, and Okazak take turns discussing the challenges with bringing an American super-hero to Japanese storytelling.

Then there’s Batman: Made in Japan (15:00) which goes further into the traditional Japanese storytelling elements while focusing on Okazaki.

Of course, there’s New York Comic Con Presents Batman Ninja (40:00).

Much has been made of the budget allotted to the big screen adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel A Wrinkle in Time and how Director Ava DuVernay was a woman tackling something so massive. That’s a lot of press and pressure on a risky venture considering the novel may be beloved but not in the public consciousness. Thankfully, there have been other hits and misses to take attention away from the fact that this entertaining effectively flopped.

The movie, out today on Blu-ray from Walt Disney Home Entertainment, is a solid if flawed adaptation, that somehow missed the magical touch to enthrall younger viewers. As a result, the film is hovering near the $100 million domestic gross with prognosticators estimating it will lose the studio at least that much.

And that’s a shame because it deserves to be seen. The movie is colorful, visual treat that fully realizes L’Engle’s worlds, from typical suburban America to otherworldly Camazotz. The color saturation works with the look and feel, especially when the fairy tale trio of Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling), and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey) respond to Meg Murry’s (Storm Reid) plea for help in finding her father, Dr. Alexander Murry (Chris Pine), who disappeared four years earlier.

Meg is very much an idiosyncratic adolescent, unfashionably iconoclastic with unruly curly hair making her the object of derision by the cool kids led by her next-door neighbor Veronica (Rowan Blanchard). All she has is her sad mother Dr. Kate Murry (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), who just happens to be an undersized genius. (The movie leaves out his ability to read her mind as well as their twin siblings Sandy and Dennys.)

The Wallaces are portrayed as capable physicists, working in tandem, but Alexander has been most vocal about his theories on folding space, traveling from point to point through a tesseract (which has nothing to do with Marvel’s Cosmic Cube). One night, his theory becomes reality but he vanishes without a trace.

Now, four years have passed and Meg continues to sulk and act out until she’s visited by Mrs. Whatsit (who in the novel is a new neighbor, here she’s effectively Glinda the Good Witch). She’s come to help and the others arrive soon after because apparently Alexander is in the clutches of the It, an elemental force of evil that is spreading its tendrils across the universe, threatening Earth. We see a nice montage of the seven deadly sins visiting the supporting cast, adding some complexity to their cliché roles.

Meg and Charles Wallace, accompanied by Meg’s friend Calvin (Levi Miller), have to go save dad and we’re off across the galaxy that will forever change the children in the eternal struggle between good and evil.

It’s an engrossing story that sands down the novel’s details and hones in on the action. We see the power of not only love, but the need for self-confidence, and perseverance. If anything, the film suffers from big ideals and not a lot of character development so everyone, even the trio of supernatural beings, feel like models of archetypes than fully realized characters. The screenplay by Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell fails the stellar assortment of performers, notably Kaling. Storm Reid is a welcome new performer as Meg.

The high def transfer, thankfully, captures all the color and spectacle making for pleasant home viewing. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack is adequate but pales compared with the visuals.

Perhaps because the film failed to explode into a hit, the extras are more perfunctory than magical. We have A Journey Through Time (30:28), the behind-the-scenes story; Deleted Scenes (9:36 ), totaling four moments with optional DuVernay commentary; Audio Commentary: DuVernay, First Assistant Director Michael Moore, Visual Effects Supervisor Richard McBride, Screenwriter Jennifer Lee, Producer Jim Whitaker, Film Editor Spencer Averick, and Production Designer Naomi Shohan, offering interesting insights but little new; Music Videos: “I Believe” by DJ Khaled and Demi Lovato (3:46) and “Warrior” by Chloe X Halle (4:02); and finally, a handful of Bloopers (1:36). (Bellamy Young has one scene and I kept expecting to see more from the actor, making me wonder why she took the part.)