"HEROES: SEASON 3"
Blu-ray Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars)
BLURAY EXPERIENCE: ***** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Jack Coleman as NOAH BENNET Hayden Panettiere as CLAIRE BENNET Sandhil Ramamurthy as MOHINDER SURESH Milo Ventimiglia as PETER PETRELLI Masi Oka as HIRO NAKAMURA James Kyson Lee as ANDO MASAHASHI Adrian Pasdar as NATHAN PETERELLI Greg Grunberg as MATT PARKMAN Zachary Quinto as SYLAR Not Rated Studio: NBC/Universal Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
The heroes reach a turning point in season three, beginning with volume four, entitled “Villains.” Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) recruits Sylar (Zachary Quinto) to work with him in capturing criminals with abilities. Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) and Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) are mixed up in uncovering who is trying to kill Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar). We see the introduction of Peter and Nathan’s father, and another eclipse threatens the lives of all the heroes. In the fifth volume “Fugitives,” the heroes find themselves hunted again, and they must dig into the past to find a way to survive.
WHAT I LIKED
Ever since “Heroes” premiered, I have respected the fact that the show basically took the premise of “X-Men” and made it something different. I also appreciate the high concept of comic-book stories being played out on the small screen every week.
In this season, at least in the “Villains” section, I liked where they were going with Sylar’s character. He showed some depth, and Zachary Quinto is doing a fine job keeping the role interesting. Secondary heroes played by Kristen Bell and B
Hiro (Masi Oka) continues to be one of my favorite characters, and it’s great to see his sidekick Ando (James Kyson Lee) get some action as well.
Overall, the first volume in this season was really pretty cool. It offered some different storylines and touched on some really fantastic topics and options (as we saw with the Shanti virus in season two, which was left in the dust thanks to the writer’s strike). However, things folded in on themselves by the fifth volume.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
There are two things that are threatening to cripple the “Heroes” television series. First, too many characters are killed. Too many cool powers are introduced in someone, and that person is wiped out by the end of the season. We saw it happen with Jayma Mays in season one, and it’s happening even more in season three.
Tim Kring should take a nod from Stan Lee, who ran the “X-Men” series for so long at Marvel. Stan the Man has shown us that there’s nothing wrong with killing off a character now and then, but it should be done rarely and only for emotional impact that’s pertinent to the story. Having Sylar or any other heroes hunter cut through your cast of characters so easily is just getting annoying.
Second, “Heroes” needs to stay on target. It’s starting to recycle storylines, and loyalties are shifting too much. A switch here and there can be classic, but having it happen too often can get tedious. Plus, people seem to gain and lose powers too often and too easily. Once these possibilities are introduced into the series, it’s very hard to write around them without it happening every season.
Finally, as much as I love Sylar as a villain, his character has been played out. Not every Batman comic book featured the Joker as the villain, and not every Superman comic featured Lex Luthor. Sylar is the basket that all of the stories eggs are placed, and this is already starting to unravel.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
It’s clear that whoever is putting together the Blu-rays and DVDs for the “Heroes” series has a love for the format. There’s tons of bonus features scattered throughout the discs. All five discs include U-Control features: picture-in-picture commentaries and “Hero Connection” bios. They also include deleted scenes in standard definition and are D-Box Motion Enabled. Additional features are in high definition.
Disc one includes access to the BD-Live center, which includes a sneak peek at the fourth season. There’s also a featurette about the powers of the different heroes.
Disc two includes a Pinehearst Paper commercial and a feature on the construction of a scene. The best feature in the entire set is included on this disc, which includes three alternate stories which were available on the internet. Two of them are decent, highlighting a soldier given abilities and a postal worker dodging an assassin. However, it’s the third story “Nowhere Man” about The Puppeteer trying to start a new life... and failing.
Disc three includes a spotlight on the prop department and a gallery of screen art.
Disc four includes the development of a scene.
Disc five includes a look at the writer’s forum and how the production team build the set for Coyote Sands for the season finale.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
“Heroes” fans and anyone who wants to a see a different take on the “X-Men” stories.
