This Blu-Ray not much better than regular DVD
931831
Best of the X-men films and I have almost every X-Men comic ever printed. Now onto this blu-ray transfer. Ive only had a blu-ray player a short time and have the ten free movies it came with. This is the only one of the ten that only uses the single layer 25g space. This was most certainly rushed to blue-ray to cash in on X-mas shoppers. The sound is exactly the same as the collectors edition DVD!! The picture is a little better. This I would not buy if you already have the regular dvd because the way this player (Sony S-300) upscales you barely notice. Shame on Fox for this one, they did a good job on Fantastic Four/ Surfer blu-ray though.
3821894
I thoroughly enjoyed season 7.  This review, is of the Blu-Ray disc and not the content of the season.

In short, the Blu Ray image quality wasn't much better than what I had just been watching on Fox HD during the season.  The image was still grainy, the colors not sharp, and the blacks not deep (and actually very fuzzy).  I'm watching on a Sony KDL 42V4100 LCD TV.  Compare to other Blu Ray discs (Iron Man, Quantum of Solace, The Dark Knight..) and you will think you're watching an up-scaled DVD.  If you MUST have blu ray quality, buy this if it makes you feel good inside.  In reality, I don't think you get much extra quality for spending over the DVD price.
1729692
I agree with all fans of the original English dub- the new English, rewritten dub ruins this blue ray. If I had known beforehand about this I would not have bought it. The new dub has no character or charm as in the original and the new script overstates things- as if aiming at a younger audience who isn't mature enough to infer themes and ideas through paying attention- and sounds extremely corny and obnoxious at times. It's just terrible! If you are a fan of the original you will notice it right away and most likely feel your heart drop when you hit the audio button on the remote and realize this is the only English audio option. Maybe then you'll go to the main menu screen to see if you access another audio option from there at which point you'll be assaulted by one of the most obnoxious and inappropriate menu screen musical themes of all time!
PS- the picture quality is beautiful, although I have heard some complain over over-brightening the color palate. This may be true but I can't make it through the movie with this audio track so it would be senseless to compare for me. I will not be keeping this Blu Ray.
And for those that recommend the picture quality of the Blu Ray but to not get rid of the DVD yet- I don't see the point. Have two copies? One for the picture and one for the audio? How is this supposed to add up to an enjoyable viewing experience?
Get the DVD or the VHS- that's all I can say. The picture quality is not that bad at all and the audio is light years better.
As for the Japanese audio track, I cant speak to that. I am unfamiliar with it. I am not sure if it is original or redone as well but I bought this on Blu fit the English dub which was one of the best English dubs of an anime movie ever imo.
Sorely disappointed.
PLEASE REISSUE THIS WITH THE ORIGINAL ENGLISH DUB TRACK AS AN OPTION!!!
4705607
Although I love this movie and I own it on regular DVD, I thought the Blu-ray version would be awesome and it isn't.  There are scenes that look like you're watching the movie through someone else's TV (Mercedes empty garage test drive scene) and some scenes are so dark that the color on it looks distorted with countless blurred scenes.  This movie is amazing, however anyone wanting to upgrade to the Blu-ray version, DON'T waste your time or money.....a huge disappointment.  They rushed this one to blu-ray.  The only nice thing was the alternate opening scene
1286941
I decided to write a review on this Blu-ray because some others think the DVD is better looking than the Blu-ray. I disagree. I also have the DVD and bought the Blu-ray. In every scene I have compared the Blu-ray is much sharper than the DVD. Any film grain in the original source material will become more apparent if you scan it at a higher resolution such as Blu-ray. I personally abhor film grain but I would rather the studios scan the original source material for the most detail possible instead of softening the image by digital noise reduction and other techniques. Hopefully some of the newer televisions will incorporate better image processing algorithms to eliminate film grain without softening the image. I would prefer to modify the image on screen myself instead of the studio doing it for me. So I say get the Blu-ray.

I have compared the DVD and the Blu-ray again and noticed that if I reduce the sharpness on my HDTV LCD or my Blu-ray player the film grain is greatly reduced or eliminated. Under these conditions the Blu-ray is definitely superior to the DVD. The Blu-ray is much sharper and has much more of a 3D effect than the DVD.
3814491
The Blu-ray picture quality is amazingly bad. It reminds me of watching VHS tapes in the old days. Is there no high quality negative of this great movie to make a digital transfer from? Or does Warner Bros. just not give a damn? Either way, if you already have this movie on DVD, don't waste your money on the Blu-ray. I promise it won't look any better than your DVD. If you don't already own it, then go ahead and buy whichever format (DVD, Blu-ray) is cheapest, because it's still a great movie, if for nothing else than James Dean's performance.
3541529
It is pretty bad when a Retromedia DVD is inferior to the Alpha DVD but that is the case here. The Retromedia Special Edition has that greenish cast made when a movie has been dubbed down too many times from the original source. It is barely watchable. And the letterboxing is bogus. I had heard the Retromedia disc was an upgrade but I find my old
Alpha disc to be far more watchable. At least it is in black and white and not murkey green.
760220
I was expecting the Sapphire Series version to be significantly better than the original blue ray I purchased when the film first came out on disc.  Aside from a few new scenes, the quality of the video and audio were not appreciably different and I think the original soundtrack was a bit better. If you already have the original blue ray, I suggest you not bother with adding this version to your collection.
1409434
Blu ray is only marginally clearer than the DVDS it replaced. Colors are better than DVD but not by much. Spent too much for what I hoped to be a restored, color-adjusted disc.
3596160
Not really Blu-Ray quality. Video is over-sharpened to give it the effect of being Blu-Ray, but not good quality video to start with.
119978
I am upset with this blu ray release of Mario Bava's first feature MASK OF SATAN (aka Black Sunday). First off, the picture IS more detailed than the Anchor Bay DVD released, but it is not a very clean print. Specks, dirt are in abundance. I don't mind the film grain. Glad they left that alone. But this great film deserves to be "cleaned" up (and I don't mean grain removed) to make its debut on blu ray. Something to "Wow!" Bava fans. This ain't that disc. No restoring this film to the brilliance it once was back when it was released to theaters. Too much "junk" that distracts from the beauty of this film. This print looks "cruddier" than the Anchor Bay version. Too bad Anchor Bay didn't use their print and upscaled it to 1080p because it would have looked better than what Kino offers.
The picture isn't the best, nor are the special features. The awesome commentary by the Bava scholar Tim Lucas (I love to hear this guy talk about film) carried over from the Anchor Bay DVD, a few trailers and that's about it. I am VERY disappointed that after all these years no one has the nerve to persuade Barbara Steele to do a commentary track. It would be great to hear the Queen of Italian horror talk about working with Mario Bava.
Big disappointment from this Mario Bava fan on this blu ray release. Mario Bava's BAY OF BLOOD from Arrow on blu ray is much better.
If you already have MASK OF SATAN on DVD, don't bother upgrading.
By the way, Kino uses the Italian print (English dialog) that shows the title MASK OF SATAN but below it in subtitles they put Black Sunday. Should we be reminded which version we are watching? This is not intended for the hardcore Bava fan. A wasted opportunity, indeed.
1878669
Very disappointed with the picture quality-Not up to Blu-Ray quality standards.  I bought the 40TH Anniversary Blu-Ray/Dvd Version to get a higher quality copy to show in my new home theater (project on a 120" Diagonal screen) the quality of the Blu-Ray Disk is not much better than the DVD I already had, and the sound gets out of sink at times in the 2nd half.  Love the movie but I feel this Blu-Ray copy is a rip off.
4460933
Poor image quality on this DVD--not sure if I've just gotten used to HD quality video, but this seemed poorly mastered for a DVD.  There are also no English subtitles for the Spanish voice track.  Overall, I'd say get the blu-ray, unless you really need it in Spanish.
2179741
The transition to blu ray for this version of Ninja Scroll is very poor. It is not 16x9 and not in 1080p. The audio quality is also poor on this version of Ninja Scroll. I played my DVD version and the quality is better than this version. I would avoid purchasing this until a better version comes out.
3951696
This is a review of the quality of the Blu-ray disc, not the movie itself.

Ever since this movie was first released, it has become one of my all time favorite movies.  (Blade Runner is #1 on my list.)

This movie on Blu-ray was supposedly "digitally remastered."  This is one of the worst transfers to Blu-ray I have ever seen.  Most of the frames have so much noise, that each frame looks like a stipple painting.  (Stippling is a painting technique with a bunch of dots grouped close together.)

Bottom line, this Blu-ray quality was so bad that it was distracting enough to reduce my enjoyment of the movie.

It might be best to stay with a good DVD version of this movie until they release a better quality version on Blu-ray.
3286066
Although this is one of my favorite set of movies, it was so disappointing to watch the poor recording quality as other reviewers have stated. Wish I would have read the reviews first. This set is not a 3 DVD boxed set like the picture, it is a single blu ray case with a 2-disk insert that is not secured. As for picture quality it is definitely not the expected crisp HD blu-ray quality you might be hoping for, but instead choppy transitions, few lags, and a lot of picture "noise". Very very disappointing and in some cases it actually is somewhat dizzying, similar to the effect of watching a 3D movie without the 3D glasses, but to a lesser degree. I would recommend buying the regular DVD version as this is absolutely NOT worth it.
4527437
Be careful which one of these you buy.  The Blue-Ray is the one that is restored, and the music is upbeat and matches the action of the movie. The Televista DVD is fuzzy, the picture is centered with much chopped off. The stereo doesn't fit with the action,  or the scene changes., and the mood of the music is more serious. It's unclear if the one advertised as 'dual format - BlueRay + DVD' will actually play on a regular DVD player.