Kronos
Image Entertainment
Cast: Jeff Morrow, Barbara Lawrence, John Emery, Morris Ankrum
Extras: Theatrical Trailer
Rating:
A ’top secret’ research lab is the target of a strange force. A space ship with a super-intelligence has invaded Earth’s orbit and sends out little control devices to take over the lab. At the same time, around the globe flying saucers and monster are seen draining the Earth from all its electrical energy. Nothing is capable of stopping them, not even the H-Bomb, and mankind’s fate seems to be sealed!
Image Entertainment presents ’Kronos’ in its original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio. The print on the packaging is a bit misleading, spelling ’preserving the anamorphic aspect ratio’ which to most DVD users means to expect a 16×9 enhanced widescreen transfer, whereas in fact it only refers to the optical anamorphic presentation of the Cinemascope film. The DVD itself is not 16×9 enhanced but manages to nonetheless render a very detailed image. The source print is mostly clear and only occasional dust marks are visible. The image is also very stable with only the slightest registration problems. The black and white transfer offers solid, deep blacks and good highlights. The film has very good contrast, never over-exposing the whites, but instead creating a very nice fall-off, running the entire gamut of gray shades. Compression has been done very well without notable compression artifacts.
’Kronos’ contains a monaural Dolby Digital track that is surprisingly well-done. Without sibilance or distortion, the track has much more natural frequency response than you’d expect. This can be attributed to the rather high bitrate applied for the audio presentation, which manages perfectly to reproduce the film’s original sonic presentation. The only extra on the disc is the movie’s theatrical trailer.
Atomic Age science fiction has been the landmark of the fifties and ’Kronos’ perfectly falls into this lovable category of nostalgic movies. With flying saucers, a giant monster, a lot of static shots and important looking actors, ’Kronos’ contains everything you could ask for from such a cultish science fiction film. With unintentional laughs, to laughable special effects, ’Kronos’ is another cherished classic science fiction gem that time forgot. Image Entertainment made sure it looks right on this DVD, so make sure to check it out some time.