For fans eagerly awaiting the Star Trek into Darkness Blu-ray release, a lack of bonus content might make them unhappy.
It’s not that there is a lack of extras, but that getting all of the extras would require many different purchases of the same product from different retailers.
The Digital Bits’ Bill Hunt laid out the problem, after getting his review copy from Paramount and speaking to fans. “As regular readers will probably know, I actually liked the film,” he said. “But when it was finally announced for Blu-ray release, I was surprised at the list of bonus content in the press release, specifically the lack thereof – just seven featurettes. I quickly sent an e-mail to the studio PR people, asking if this was indeed the complete list of bonus content, and was told that it was. But somehow, I guess I just didn’t believe it.”
And he was right – more extras had been created for the Blu-ray release but they were not all where they should be. ”
“It turns out that more extras were created for this release – more featurettes and even an audio commentary with director J.J. Abrams and members of his crew,” explained Hunt. “None of it is available on the wide release Blu-ray or Blu-ray 3D SKUs. The commentary can only be found as an iTunes ‘extra’ download. And those extra featurettes? Some are on a Target bonus disc. Some are on a Best Buy bonus disc. And some are only available via CinemaNow and VUDU downloads.
“That’s right: More than half of the special features created for Star Trek Into Darkness were used by Paramount’s marketing team as retailer exclusives.”
The unique content adds up to one hundred minutes of contents, and that’s not counting the two-hour commentary.
It’s rather difficult to believe that the only audio commentary is not on the Blu-ray. It’s one thing to offer the occasional extra bit as a bonus, but to offer most bonus content created for the release in such a manner? It seems that this strategy is not a very good way to treat fans and may well alienate them.
Source: The Digital Bits
