Plot: What’s it about?
The internet is a strange, wild and wonderful thing. It’s allowed someone of below average intelligence to own and operate a site voicing their opinions on DVD’s and Blu-ray’s for the last decade, for one. It’s made a billionaire out of Mark Zuckerberg (creator of Facebook) and millionaires out of countless others. Above all else, it’s given us a new method to communicate. Case in point, I was conversing with a “friend” the other day and though we’ve never met in person he mentioned to me that I was part of a “new type of friend, one that’s online…” this got me thinking – he was right. And so we have Justin Bieber. Bieber’s mother put a few of his videos on YouTube and the right person saw them at the right time and, well, you know the rest. Granted his story is unique and for every Justin Bieber out there, there are hundreds of thousands just waiting for lightning to strike twice. The question isn’t “if” but “when.”
There’s not a whole lot of plot to “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” except that it gives us some back story as to how he came to be the star he is now and we get some home video footage of an even younger Bieber. This is spliced with footage from his current tour and a countdown to his sold out event at Madison Square Garden in New York City (the youngest performer to ever sell out the Garden). We follow Bieber from his rather modest roots in Stratford, Ontario and his early fascination with music and more to the point – the drums. We see the current hype around the teenager, the teenage girls who all squeak that they’ll be his wife and the entourage of managers, agents and voice coaches who are all a part of everything Bieber.
I have to admit that I wasn’t really ever a fan of Justin Bieber and to be honest, I’m still not. But after seeing this, I will say that the kid does have some real musical talent. Yes, he’s more than just a pretty teen face. I can’t really ascertain if he’d be the star he was without the assistance of YouTube, but we can’t deny the facts. Despite all of his success, Bieber actually seems fairly grounded. His mother is on tour with him and his father, who originally left when he was 8 months old, is now surprisingly back in the picture. A lot lined up for things to work out the way they did – Scooter Braun (Bieber’s agent) finding him, Usher producing him and sending him to L.A. Reid who got a CD out of him. I have no idea if Justin Bieber will be around five or ten years from now, but this did change my image of him. As for the target audience of this movie, well I’m sure this’ll be on plenty of teenage girls’ shelves…until the next big thing hits.
Video: How does it look?
“Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” looks great, though it’s somewhat of a mixed bag when it comes to the whole picture (pardon the pun). Paramount has given this film a 1.78:1 AVC HD transfer that shines in some aspects, but we do have a lot of archived home video footage that can only look so good. This isn’t a fault of the transfer, rather the source material of course. The concert scenes look amazing, with deep blacks never interfering with the contrast of the show. We see Bieber’s signature (now defunct) “hair flip” in all its HD glory and together with his signature color – purple – you’ll feel like you’re on the front row. I haven’t seen too many concert videos, but this one looks about as good as I can imagine and I doubt viewers will be disappointed.
Audio: How does it sound?
The DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack is loud. Let me say that again…it’s LOUD! Again, I don’t have that much experience with concert videos so I don’t know if this is indicative of all of them, but I had to crank my receiver down about 15 notches for this one. This, contrasted with the normal dialogue makes for a nice mix on the audio front. The songs we’re treated to do sound amazing, with LFE’s becoming very active and surrounds chirping all throughout. This is one powerful mix and if this is playing on your system – you’ll know it.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This 2 disc Blu-ray combo pack has enough supplements to merit a purchase (if you’re in that select niche, that is) and we start off with “Concert Dance Off” in which Justin and crew show their well-choreographed moves. We get the full version of “Favorite Girl” from a concert, evidently at each venue he picks a different girl from the audience in which to serenade – awww, ain’t that cute. Next we see some pretty recent footage (as of this writing, anyway) from late February in which Bieber’s signature hair flip goes the way of the dodo. It will be missed. Lastly we see Bieber’s crew do what they love to do, go around the concerts and give out front row passes to those who don’t have tickets. This disc is also BD-Live enabled and as of this writing, the only supplement is an audio commentary with director John Cho. You have to watch the movie in standard definition to view it, but it’s there nonetheless. A digital copy of the movie is also included.
