The story of what would happen if "Peter Pan grew up"
came to the screen at Christmastime, 1991, amidst all the hype that
only a film by Steven Spielberg - and starring Robin Williams, Dustin
Hoffman and Julia Roberts - could generate. With an amazing trailer
and a stellar cast, there were high expectations, but the final
product turned out to be a rare disappointment for Spielberg. I, for
one, hated Hook after first seeing it, but it happened to be playing
at a theater I was working at during that time and then something
weird happened... the more times I saw bits of it, the more I began to
like it.
With Hook, it is all about the small moments and
finding something good in a generally overbloated, sometimes painfully
misconceived would-be fantasy epic. For every sweet, effective
sequence that hints at what might have been, you'll have to suffer
through ten other horrendous clunkers that will make you want to click
your heels three times in the hopes you'll wake up and it will all be
a bad dream. With sets that look like leftovers from Disneyland and
enough bad hairdos for a decade's worth of Michael Jackson videos,
this is not Spielberg's finest hour. However, watching it all
again, Hook is a film best served by simply skipping around to the
best parts, and on that level it is kinda fun. THe early scenes in
London work best and have a nice fairy tale quality to them. A couple
of the still-overdone Neverland fight sequences do manage a modicum of
the spark that marked Spielberg's early work, and given the way-
overlong 142-minute runtime, the climatic scenes deliver a fair amount
of emotion, if only because you so want the thing to be finally over
it is more relief than true joy. And it is hard not to revel just a
little bit in Pan's final transformation near the end. So if you have
that "Chapter Search" button handy, Hook becomes a fairly
bearable experience.
Video: How Does The Disc
Look? 
Since the previous, largely movie-only edition of
Hook released back in 2001 was generally fabulous, I'm not exactly
sure what the rationale was for re-issuing Hook as a Superbit title.
The new DTS track is the real attraction here, as the transfer looks
just about the same and the bit rate allotted for the video is
actually just about the same throughout (and sometimes less). Colors
are strong and solid and never bleed or smear. While a handful of
shots are noticeably soft, the level of fine detail is amazing, if on
par with the old DVD. Fleshtones are accurate and both transfers boast
excellent contrast and shadow definition. While some very minor
pixelization and artifacts are seen - which is where the Superbit
bests the previous disc - there is still a bit of softness on both so
this isn't quite a perfect score. Still, Hook looks great.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
One of a handful of
films presented theatrically with a 70mm six-track soundtrack with
split surrounds, Hook can now finally be experienced at home with that
soundtrack - and at last on DTS. The dynamic range afforded to all
elements of the soundtrack is impressive on the Dolby but heightened
on the DTS. The front soundstage spreads wide across the front three
channels with great directionality, and even dialog occasionally gets
placed in accordance to its appropriate screen position. I was
somewhat surprised by the lack of effects placed into the rears, which
is a bit more pronounced on the DTS but is deflated a little with
appropriate level-matching. Benefiting most from the 5.1 treatment on
both tracks is John Williams' bombastic score. The music sparkles at
the highs and booms with the help of some strong.1 LFE, which is
deeper and richer on the DTS.
Other audio options are more
robust on the Superbit than the previous DVD: a French 2.0 surround
dub is offered, along with English, French, Spanish, Portuguese,
Chinese, Korean and Thai subtitles and English Closed Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
Nothing at all
here, which is no surprise for Superbit title. But given the lack of
any real supplements on the previous release - only a full frame
trailer and ultra-slim production notes - that is not much of a loss.
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc
in your PC?
No ROM extras have been included.
Parting Thoughts
This is one of those Superbit releases
where the improvements are minimal at best unless you are a DTS fan.
Given that the original DVD release of Hook goes for only $19.95 and
this Superbit will set you back $6 more, it is hard to recommend an
upgrade. But if you never picked this one up, you might want to
consider the Superbit if you can get it at a discount.
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