Film
Based on the Max Steel toy, we follow the adventures of a teenage boy Max McGrath (Ben Winchell) and his encounter with a Steel (voiced by Josh Brener), who becomes his alien companion. Max contains a type of energy in his body that is sought by those who would use that power for evil deed. These villains come in the form of both humans and aliens. Now Steel must show Max how to harness that power, so they can combine to for the superhero Max Steel.
A light hearted, yet action packed story. The oft repeated tale of a loner teen, one who does not quite fit in at school, and is moved about all too often. With a mother, Molly (Maria Bello – Lights Out, The 5th Wave) who cares dearly for him, after the tragic loss of his father, Jim (Mike Doyle), Max needs to learn quickly to adapt to these new found powers, learn to trust his new friend Steel, and do all of this in time to save the world. Convinced to move back to town by Jim’s old business partner, Dr Miles Edwards (Andy Garcia – Passengers, Ghostbusters), Molly is now closer to NTek, where the truth behind the death of Jim lies, and where Max might find the answers to the strange happenings that now plague him.
Max Steel has no plot twists. It’s a straight forward action, with a dose of special effects, and a bunch of wise cracks from a sometimes overly friendly Steel. The film is sure to delight younger viewers, yet would appeal to the older generation too, offering some pure escapism from daily life, and a glimpse into some fun, fights and super powers.
A fun film, with a few laughs, and some action, Max Steel is sure to entertain.
Disc
Overall, the disc is of a good quality technically. The main feature is good, but there is no additional content.
Max Steel is available now, to purchase on disc, in South Africa.
Video
Video is encoded at a high average bitrate. There are no visible artefacts on screen, even in the faster paced scenes that contain finer detail. Colours are vibrant where needed, with no colour bleed. A decent amount of detail is maintained in darker scenes.
Viewers who have the necessary hardware or software can scale up to a larger or higher resolution screen, should they so wish.
Audio
Audio is encoded at a high average bitrate, and delivered in a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, with a stereo 2.0 downmix option. Dialogue is clear via the centre speaker, with the fronts carrying most of the other sounds. Surround channels get a fair workout in the action scenes, serving to expand the on-screen action and further draw the viewer into the story.
Navigation
Navigation is simple, and easy to use. The main menu has a static background, saving space on the disc for the main title. It is accompanied by music. There are text menu items to play the main feature, select chapters or select audio options.
The chapters menu contains four colour, motion thumbnails. While these are numbered, they do not contain chapter titles, so some guesswork would be needed to find the exact part of the film you are seeking.
The audio menu gives a choice of a 5.1 or 2.0 soundtrack for the main feature.
Bonus Features
There are no bonus features on the disc, apart from trailers that auto-play at the beginning for Ballerina, Fallen, and for the Lego Dimensions Battlearena.
These trailers can be fast-forwarded, but not individually skipped. They are not accessible from the main navigation menu.
