 "holy action" | 2009-11-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1S55DMR9D13D9 |
9.4 THE SHOW ITSELF
9.0 VISUALS
10 SOUND
8.4 PACKAGING
8.3 EXTRAS
*** SOME SPOILERS ****
Lost season 3 really picks up the pace and the action that was so severly missing in season 2. However, season 3 does take awhile to get started. The first few episodes really focus on Jack, Kate and Sawyer with the Others, while there are alot of other characters that we know nothing about (current situation wise, not character wise) so while that may be abit annoying to see the same characters every episode, this is on blu-ray so time flies. Watch as little or as much as you want. But the bottom line is that this season really picks up the action, marvelous story-telling and a jaw dropping season finale. If season 2 made you question your faith on Lost, season 3 will surely make you forget all the anger you felt before.
The main feel that I get from Lost season 3 is a "man vs man" feel with our castaways finally being involved with the mysterious world of the Others. And once we know who the Others are, their mysteries are not all lost. They're still a very hard to read group of individuals. And the story telling is wonderful (as it usually is) and characters that I couldn't really tolerate before (Kate) don't seem so terrible anymore. And Locke really comes into his own as we see him and Jack really begin to separate from what they believe in.
Episodes are action packed, many episodes have long-drawn out plot lines solved - and of course - more questions are raised. But the way that the story is weaved together here it never feels like anything drags or isn't touched on enough. And with new regulars in Ben and Juliette thats an impressive task to accomplish.
Season 3 is easily the most action, fast-paced season yet. Lots of explosions, guns and tense moments fill the season and the terrific season finale cannot go without comment. It's a mind bending, jaw dropping, heart racing stomp through the lucious green jungles of our perfectly hidden little island.
VISUALS 9.0
This was the first season to be released on blu-ray, but it's technically "newer" than season 1 & 2 so it looks surprisingly (aka: better) different from the later released first 2 seasons. The colors jump off the screen, and since we now have new location shown ("New Othertin") once we see the ocean and greens again, they really make you stand in awe. And seeing character sweat? Now that's impressive, yet kind of gross.
SOUND 10
The sound will almost always be a guaranteed 10 for Lost. The musical score is always masterful and always captures the scenes perfectly. And by now the cast and crew have figured out how to make great voice-over works and how to not have the ambient jungle / ocean noise smother the dialogue.
PACKAGING 8.4
Finally, a booklet! I hate that seasons 1 & 2 have no booklet but the DVD counterpart does. But here, we have a booklet! And that booklet gives directions for how to work "Access: Granted" the main special feature. Thank god they did because I could see people getting confused with that feature, but having instructions here? Extremely helpful. Very great addition. The discs though are the same as the DVD, kind of a let down. But the main menus are real time and everything looks stunning and feels correct for the season.
EXTRA FEATURES 8.3
"Access: Granted" (77:13) Is a massive feature that has inside looks at 21 (21!) loose-ends / unanswered questions from the previous seasons. While we don't get alot of solid answers, it's a decent feature. What happens is Cuse and Lindelof (main creative team for the show) talk about a certain topic, then you can watch what TV personalities think is happening (sometimes eerily close to what is actually the truth) and then watch a clip series about that segment. Like I said, decent at best, but some interesting tidbits are to be found.
"Blu-Prints of Season 3" (16:31) A look at 5 of the sets in the season. The most interesting is the tour of Ben's house by Michael Emerson, but all have something interesting to learn about them.
"Lost: On Location" (58:10) Almost an hour of footage for the standard "on location" shoots. Here there are 10 different features for the segment. I've never been a huge fan of this feature because it's very 'behind the scenes' / production-like feel and doesn't add anything to the show. Will be good for fans of this type of work.
"Crew Tribute with Evangeline Lilly" (7:18) A useless feature that has Lilly showing us the behind the scenes people who make the show work.
"Lost in a Day" (25:34) An astounding half hour feature that shows just what the hell goes on in a busy day in the world of Lost. I was stunned at how much I learned about how many episodes are being worked on at once and how hectic every hour of a day can be. Phenomenal.
"The Lost Flashbacks" (5:39) There are 3 flashbacks, all of which are completely useless. I have no idea why they add these, there's nothing close to interesting in 2 of the 3. And the one 'okay' one is just an extended scene. Fluff piece for sure.
"Deleted Scenes" (16:20) A little bit better than usual, but still nothing that needs to be seen. Surprisingly, alot of the scenes have to deal with Nikki and Paulo. That sucked, but some are decent.
"The World of the Others" (14:12) I was expecting more of this feature. Sadly, all this feature is is Emerson and Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliette) talking about what they think the Others are. Other cast members join the discussion, but nothing is revealed.
"Terry O'Quinn: Throwing from the Handle" (1:40) Terry O'Quinn throws a knife into a dollar bill. That's it.
"Lost Bloopers" (6:35) More jungle hilariousness that sometimes isn't hilarious.
"Lost Book Club" (8:12) I was really interesting in seeing what literature had to do with the main story of Lost. Sadly, I was again disappointed as the feature gives away the ending of several books and talks with cast members about what they think the book means. I wish there was a list of books used / shown in the show so I could make like a checklist to read to see if it connects with the show. Did I get that? Nope.
"Cast in Clay" (5:13) Fluff piece about Todd McFarlane making the toys of Lost and watching the making of process. Kind of interesting, but feels like a quick add in to build up the features.
"The Next Level: Inside the Videogame" (4:04) Another fluff piece about the making of the (supposedly, but I haven't played it yet) terrible videogame of Lost. Comes off to me as the creators of the show trying to get people to buy this product already.
"The Orchid Instructional Video" (2:10) A neat, but almost disturbing DHARMA video. It says alot in a short period of time about what seems to be going wrong with DHARMA experiments. I wish there was more DHARMA videos on the blu-ray / DVD releases.
The set also comes with four commentaries. I enjoyed all of them except for "I Do" in which Josh Holloway never talks and LIlly just rambles on about the same three moments of the episode. I was pleasantly surprised by "Expose" which was done by just the writers of the episode (who are not Cuse or Lindelof). They do a great job of adding great details and back story to a puzzling episode. The other two are good and great because they have Lindelof and Cuse, and on "The Man Behind the Curtain", Michael Emerson! Elizabeth Mitchell is with Cuse on "A tale of Two Cities" and while it's a little dry, it isn't too bad.
FINAL VERDICT
Lost season 3 certainly seems to have learned from the complaints about the first 2 seasons and it doesn't take long to dwelve into the chaotic nature of the show. More guns, more great characters, more tension building character moments and a magnificent ending. The season is filled to the brim with terrific episodes almost to the extent that I worry what season four could possibly do better (don't worry season 4 is better). The extra features are the best yet for a Lost blu-ray / DVD set, really making this set worth it.
But, if you have the DVD counterpart, should you upgrade to blu-ray? Well, that depends how much you love the show. The main special feature that is 'blu-ray exclusive' is "Access: Granted" which is over an hour of footage about certain mysteries, but it doesn't give you anything concrete. So if you're upgrading to find out mysteries, you will be extremely upset.
However, visually, it is stunning. DVD cannot come close to matching what the show looks like on a great 1080p set on blu-ray. Evene with a top of the line upconvert DVD player and HDMI cable, you'll be amazed at the massive difference. It certainly is a great visual piece for fans of blu-ray who want to show off what it looks like.
Lost has easily become one of my favorite shows, based on just the show. But the addition of impressive bonus features makes me enjoy the show even more. Fantastic third season of a fantaastic show.
9.5/10 "INCREDIBLE" |
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| "The Best Season In Television History" | 2009-09-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: AZAC7B4HD5ZVC |
This is my favorite season of LOST. It never seems to get boring it's constantly moving and changing. First they're captured then they're freed with a twist involved. The first six episodes are a mini season ending with a cliffhanger that left you stew for three months breathless. This season had a lot of great twists and turns with the Hatch, Nikki and Paulo, Charlie finding his fate, and Desmond teleporting through time. Then the finale hit and by the way the finale is my favorite episode of the series. It left you breathless and keep you wondering and obsessing over the long hiatus just what that last scene meant and what it would lead to. In a way the series had no where to go but down.
The series in my mind has gone down after this season. The fourth season was still pretty good, but the fifth season was a mistake. They did however rectify it in the season 5 finale and it looks like season 6 the final season may rival this season for the best of the series. Anyway the third season is a must watch as you learn more about the others, the island, the man behind the curtain, and most importantly you delve deeper and with finer focus the lives and pasts of the survivors. This season like the previous two had a much different feel. It introduced so much information that is still prevalent in the final season. This season is the greatest 23 hours of television you will ever watch. The Blu Ray is crisp and clear and brings you closer to the island then you ever thought possible. If you're on the fence on whether you should buy this on Blu Ray or DVD do yourself a favor and pay the extra money the video quality and extra special features are well worth it. Rating 5/5
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| "DVDs" | 2009-09-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: AROMSUF2XHT3E |
| DVD set arrived promptly and exactly as described. Very satisfied and would purchase from this seller again. |
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| "Awesome quality!" | 2009-09-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A209W8NNR4P7JX |
| Clear HD picture and sound, season play feature is awesome if you have all the seasons!! |
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| "Through the looking glass" | 2009-09-01 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1ZWDTXSH1ZV8E |
The tag line for this review references the title of the finale of Season 3, a jaw dropping, mind bending, shocker that pointed the series in a new direction and laid the groundwork for the endgame that would begin to unfold in Season 4. Yes, it is an extremely pivotal episode for this groundbreaking show, yet it seems that it is the only thing that people remember from what was an otherwise excellent third season. Critics and fans alike grew extremely frustrated with this installment of the series, only to jump back on board the Lost bandwagon at the season's end. That's unfortunate since Season 3 is the most underrated of the show's run and quite possibly the best.
The season opens where season 2 left off. Jack, Kate and Sawyer are being held captive by the others while Syaid, Sun and Jin try to rescue them. Much of the first half of the season focuses on this plotline and gives us a closer look at the inner circle of the others. We learn more about Ben and his true motives. We are also introduced to a new character, Juliet, a member of the others who may or may not be loyal to them. Viewers are also introduced to Alex, the daughter Russo has been searching in vain for.
The first half of the season focuses largely on Jack, Kate and Sawyer and their capture by the others. I suspect that fans felt aggrivated by this since it took the focus off of the remainder of the survivors. But it allowed the show to deepen its mysteries even further, to develop its three main characters more fully and to allow the audience to start to get an understanding of who the others are and what they are doing.
The season's second half reunites the three with their island mates but continues to muddy the waters with the introduction of Richard, a member of the others whose role is unclear and who seems to never age. We get some backstory regarding Ben's childhood where we finally see the Dharma Initiative in action as well as finding out what happened to them. The mysterious Jacob, the never seen but revered leader of the others, is introduced into the plot as well. Meanwhile, Desmond becomes a cast regular and gets an episode that shows what happened to him after the hatch exploded. This episode not only deals with the ongoing theme of fate, but it also hints at the time travel element that will come to the forefront of the series down the road. Elsewhere, Mr. Echo's time on the island comes to and end and Charlie learns what fate has in store for him.
There's a lot to mull over in Season 3. I haven't even mentioned the continuing identity struggle of Locke who eventually ends up joining the ranks of the others, or the sereis of events that brings Sawyer face to face with the man who was responsible for his parents' deaths. Quite often, it can feel like the show is spinning its wheels; providing more questions than answers. But be patient. Season 3 is a dark, mystery filled journey that is extremely crucial to the show's story arc. Even before arriving at the finale that changes everything, this season had already proven to anyone who had been paying attention, that Lost was about more than just survivors stranded on an island. Something much bigger was happening to the surivors of Oceanic 815 and Season 3 is a major step towards figuring out exactly what that is. |
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| "Totally Awesome !!!" | 2009-08-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1XGUZS1TCTWJ4 |
Probably one of the best TV series ever made ! JJ Abrams rocks !
I have been following several TV series since I was a child. Knight Rider, A Team, Macgyver... More recently Alias, Starscape and now LOST. Every episode gets your mouth open.
A MUST HAVE !!! |
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Expedited Available
