Yesterday evening, I re-watched again MEN OF WAR in HD but this time I decided to take my time and alternate between the French and Austrian edition meaning between 2 different source materials, the first one from Metropolitan and the second one from DigiDreams.
I did that because when the Metropolitan's French edition released, I saw at first sight, that there was noticeable differences, pros and cons between the 2 materials. And the usual claim regarding that Metropolitan edition is better than DigiDreams always mades me skeptical about it. I always told to myself that I should take some time to compare those more carefully.
This is what I did and it confirmed many points from my first brief statement :
Both original materials were certainly not in perfect conditions of conservation and you can noticed it all along with various default and artifacts but the Metropolitan one has the worst presentation regarding that point and much more defaults visible on screen.
My second concern has always been the colors. Many people said the French edition is more faithful to the original photo tone meaning it is much more colder than DigiDreams, I mean not just a bit, it s very different. IMO all the scenes from landscapes on the island shine a lot more on the Austrian edition and are more natural with the global exotic tone and color that this kind of place have.
My question is : For people who saw the movie on big screen at the time, do you have any memories by any chance of how looked the overall photo ? Was it closer from the shiner Digidreams or more colder like the Metropolitan' one ?
Last but not least, the overall definition standing. Both edition suffers from image quality / definition dropping from beautiful to dvd-like sequence. I think this probably come from the source material but DigiDreams stand first in overall looks with less image drop. Plus the fact that Metropolitan's edition is presented in double features with The Peacekeeper in a sigle disc alternate the overall quality due to compression for getting enough space on one disc.
In conclusion, both editions are good, but I have a certain preference for the Austrian edition despite the common opinion that Metro transfer is better. For me he overthrown the French edition on every aspect, not by far, but each points are a bit better.
I never bought the US double features incorrect aspect ration edition of MOW. Despite that problem, Is anyone know if it is a third different source material ? How are the condition of it and from which edition it is the most similar regarding the photography colors ?