Even before this Blu-ray finally streeted this past Tuesday, the bitchbabies were out in force. No, actually the slights across various video-centric forums started upon MGM’s initial announcement back in August. Cries to the tune of “It’s great MGM is bringing out the classics!” and “How can this get released when so-and-so is still MIA on Blu-ray?” Or even more extreme sentiments pointing to some screwy notion that ascribes to films like these not deserving to be on the format.
Okay, I get it, Claudio Fragasso’s sweeping tale of a young boy and his family besieged by vegan townsfolk-turned-goblin isn’t high art by any measure. But I say this type of snobbery needs to take a long walk off a short pier. Troll 2 and the phenomenon stirred by its critically acclaimed documentary, Best Worst Movie, illustrate something these A/V nitwits may never understand. The ability to appreciate the intentional and sometimes unintentional intrinsic value of film.
This glorious misfire definitely sits in the latter, as it fails miserably as a horror feature, but I’ll be damned if Troll 2 isn’t a comedic masterpiece. Of course, most who’ve witnessed the film are already aware, but the elitism surrounding its Blu-ray release only goes to show a sizable chunk of the format’s supporters are tone deaf on the grounds of film appreciation. That is, films that aren’t mega-budgeted light shows with huge stars spouting contrived bullshit with flash pots igniting every five minutes. It might be the most hollow pile of dung ever made, but wow it is stellar on my Sony Ruby piping through my Paradigms!
I’m not saying all BD owners are like this, quite a few were psyched about Troll 2 dropping in high-def, but this off-putting mentality makes one question support for the format. Those vomiting this crap forth are either asses or idiots ignorant of home video distribution. It’s not a film’s fault for being released onto Blu-ray when your beloved director truncated Star Wars or the Bond series also-rans still remain in limbo. Nothing is wrong when a small studio releases a small film or a major studio releases a cult favorite onto your “sacred” format. While the advantages of Blu-ray are valuable and unprecedented to the consumer, this snarky baggage is best avoided and discouraged.
Although Troll 2 had the last laugh. Much to the chagrin of these haters, MGM’s Blu-ray transfer is superlative (check out the full rez screenshots in DVDTalk’s review). Watching it last night, the picture quality honestly ranks amongst the best looking ’80s product on the 1080p format thus far. The film doesn’t appear shot yesterday, but appears to be a perfect representation of the original source blowing away the prior DVD and even MGM-HD’s cable presentation. Simply beautiful and I dare say it’s never going to look better. The downside being the inclusion of only the theatrical trailer, but crazily, it’s the best looking Italian horror flick on Blu-ray by a long shot. It also acts as an example that most times “unpopular” films that weren’t released on DVD over-and-over arrive in high definition with excellent results. Given the quality of this Blu-ray, hope burns eternal for films of even the most shoddily quality and budget. As for pretentious Blu-ray enthusiasts…I guess they’ll shut up as the next big catalog title that’s been in-print forever that everyone has already seen countless times arrives. Hooray!