Shout Factory delivers once again in the Blu-ray special features department. Both Lundgren and Benben are interviewed separately and reminisce about the making of "Dark Angel." Benben had to wear 4-inch lifts just the fill the movie frame with Dolph! Director Craig Baxley is interviewed as well, revealing that the film was supposed to be a $25 million picture originally.
The trailer for "Dark Angel" appears, too... it’s hilarious that not only is the entire plot given away in the 4-minute trailer, but the ending is shown. Watch the trailer if you want to save yourself 91 minutes.
Blu-ray.com review
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dark-Ange ... 93/#Review
Video Quality 3.5 of 5
Dark Angel is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally a nice looking transfer from Shout!, but it has a couple of small anomalies which may bother some videophiles. While there is absolutely a fine layer of rolling grain throughout this presentation, I was just a little surprised by how minimal it seemed to be at times, especially since so much of this film exploits low light sequences. This is not meant to imply any DNR was applied, since grain is definitely in evidence, but serves only as an observation of something that piqued my curiosity. More problematic are a couple of just flat out soft moments that suddenly crop up, sometimes in the middle of otherwise quite sharp looking sequences, perhaps signs that an older master was utilized. One of these can be seen in the third screenshot (with Lundgren and Betsy Brantley). Aside from these admittedly fairly minor distractions, the rest of this presentation looks very good, with nicely saturated color and good contrast, something which helps this film's tendency toward rather dark or dimly lit scenes. Fine detail is good in close-ups. The BD-50 provides more than enough room for this feature and the minimal special features, and no compression artifacts were in evidence. While this may not be reference quality, it is certainly a major step up from the previously available MOD DVD.
Audio Quality 3.5 of 5
Dark Angel was released theatrically in Ultra Stereo, and this Blu-ray offers both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS- HD Master Audio 2.0 versions of the soundtrack. The 5.1 mix definitely has distinctive channel separation and good surround activity in some of the most hyperkinetic action sequences, but it tends to focus mostly on the front channels. The sound seems fairly widely splayed in the 5.1 mix, with some at times slightly overpowering foley effects and less than pleasing amplitude in the dialogue. Things are much more cohesive in the 2.0 mix, which seems to prioritize dialogue a bit better. Jazz-rock guru Jan Hammer's score sounds great in both versions. Minimal midrange distortion pops up now and again but is not a major distraction.
Special Features and Extras 2.5 of 5
• A Look Back at Dark Angel (1080p; 24:19). Though only director Craig R. Baxley and star Dolph Lundgren are credited on the title of this featurette, it actually also includes good interviews with Brian Benben. This is a really well done and consistently entertaining piece which gets into some of the rigors of the shoot and the kind of bizarre melding of science fiction and cop procedural elements.
• Trailer (1080i; 2:43)
• Poster & Still Gallery (1080p; 4:06)
Overall Score and Recommendation 3.5 of 5
Dark Angel is just goofy as all get out, at least when it doesn't devolve into Schwarzenegger-lite theatrics. The first half of this film is really artfully structured, providing just enough information to captivate the audience's interest without giving away too many revealing plot details. Unfortunately, the second half of the film tends to lose steam as things get into more of a predictable rut. Lundgren is a surprisingly affable star, incredibly agile in the action sequences and at least decently believable in the emoting department. This Blu-ray features generally very good video and audio and comes with one really worthwhile supplement. Recommended.
