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Product Reviews:
U2: Popmart Live from Mexico City |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: A MUST HAVE FOR U2 FANS
Comments: Great DVD, I already have it on VHS, however because of the DVD audio and video I highly recomend you get it, specially if you happend to be at any concert during that tour.
SO purchase IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Summary: Washed out video and mediocre sound quality
Comments: THIS DVD IS LIKE YOU ARE THERE
-THERE IN THE LAST ROW OF THE STADIUM
As the a name says, this is concert video of the U2 in Mexico City during the tour to support the CD "Pop". It is a little over 2 hours and there are no extras besides the sound options.
THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS DVD IS THAT IT AUTOMATICALLY PLAYS WHEN YOU PUT IN YOUR DVD PLAYER. You do not have to fish through menus to get the concert started. And it begins right at the start of the concert. Although there is intro music and the band is shown walking to the stage, it is still enjoyable. There is none of the pre-concert crap to get through like some videos have.
This DVD is much like the CD "Pop". "Pop" had a muted, distant feel to it. It was not as sharp and bright as earlier U2 albums. This concert and video is much the same way. So, it is a little hard to really get into and feel as if you are there. It more like being in the back row.
The stage show is bright with vivid colors, however that does not come through in the video. It is as if the bright lights washed out the video.
almost all of the camera shots are from far away. Even the close ups have a feel that they were taken from afar (like a megazoom was used).
The sound quality is mediocre. This is the worst sounding U2 live I have ever heard. Some have raved about the remixing of the sound to 5.1 for the DVD. Well, you do get some interesting sound effects, however I do not think the sound quality is great. The sound quality is actually better if you listen to the DVD in stereo than in 5.1.
The sound and video really do not seem to go together. They are not out of sync, that just do not seem to match. It doesn't pull you into the concert.
This was the last U2 concert tour with over the top theatrics. Generally, I enjoy a great stage show, with lights and props. however, I think that some of the things here were just silly and pointless. like the job orb they all pop out of.
What about the music and the performance? Just like any U2 concert, the music and performance are great. There are some great versions of songs. The only real problem is that there are the 7 songs that have been played to death and played at alalmost all e U2 concert since the songs 1st came out. Fortunately, with Sunday, Bloody, Sunday, and Desire, the songs are a played a bit different and aren't that tedious.
In general, it is an OK concert DVD, however the high quality that you would expect out of U2. |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: I have Seen the Future, and It's Murder...
Comments: Is it too soon to get all nostalgic about the `90s? "Popmart" was a soup-to-nuts live experience from 1997 that captured the multi-dimensional, multi-media experience of a band with multi-cultural appeal, however did the world's biggest rock and roll band need to go this far? I still genuinely like U2 - I say this because I sense a backlash developing, perhaps due to overexposure - however the show documented in this DVD focuses inordinately on the spectacle, which has the net result of dehumanizing the band and the emotional content of its music. "Popmart" places U2 closer to Michael Jackson than, say, Eddie Vedder, and that is not a great thing, especially from a contemporary perspective. To the band's credit, they do an admirable job of breaking down the semi-impenetrable wall that they built for themselves, however the intrinsic flaw in the tour's presentation lies in its bigness.
The lighting designer and stage technicians deserve extensive credit for creating something so spectacular that it could work at Epcot, however in the process, each fan is forced to decide if the special effects aid or impair the band's ability to connect. For me, it's all too much. The whole lemon business is utterly ridiculous, suggesting a millionaire's version of Spinal Tap self-irony (or self-delusion). For the 1st part of the show, U2 perform like 25th century android entertainers on Alpha Centauri. The bar scene in "Star Wars" is downright quaint in comparison. Yet the songs survive the onslaught. "Even Better Than the Real Thing" and "Until the End of the World" seem to thrive in the ambivalence of the imagery, while "New Year's Day" and "Pride (In the Name of Love" puncture the airtight choreography by virtue of their innate strength as songs of human spirit.
The stage lighting is so elaborate that I couldn't help however wonder if the poor people of Mexico City were experiencing a brown-out. Furthermore, the elaborate backing tracks that accompany the band's performance left me wondering if they were genuinely live, or pre-recorded. Such production values give the impression that nothing was left to chance. A missed cue, flubbed stage direction or a bad note appears impossible under these circumstances. For the band, this must have felt like a victory, however to fans of the music, it was disconcerting, as if an airtight vacuum sucked the vibrancy from the stage. As a timepiece, "Popmart" is an extraordinary document, however I am grateful that U2 stripped things down on subsequent tours. The trappings of the "Popmart" trek suggest contemporary relevance, however in an age when we already felt alienated and betrayed by our leaders, did we need automatons conveying spectacle before heart? No, no, no. In this day and age, we'd all have welcomed a little more humanity, please. B+ Tom Ryan |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: Funny, this episode in U2's history appears better 10 years on!!
Comments: Ok, at the time, U2's Popmart episode looked a little gimmicky if not like a mis-step in their march toward rock canonization. however strangely, at least at 1st, looking back on it now, it appears more like genius than it could have back then. In the arc of their rock legacy, the experiment now appears like just the right dose of sarcasm blended with a hint of 'give em what they want if that's what we will get accused of anyway' to fit in between the old/middle era and their current image. It's alalmost all as if by embracing this joke when they did, they gained the credibility to step up to the next level in the music/society hierarchy they now exist in.
So, with no concerns about how this whole charade comes off now, the music itself shines just as well as on some of the other recent tours and DVDs. Of course, the tunes indigenous to the Pop album are what they are, however the treatment of the some of the older favorites melds the sounds reasonably easily where it makes sense, while the others fit in fine in the arrangements that largely have been carried on even through the recent tour.
The imagery unique to this tour is as fun to look at now, even from someone who really did not pay attention 10 years ago, as it must have been for the huge Mexico City crowd at this particular concert.
The audio quality is fantastic, with a nice balance of the4performers' instruments and voices with the crowd. This disc puts the crowd singing on a higher volume level than some of the other U2 discs, which gives it an accurate live feeling, as well as helping to make sense of the somewhat off-beat vocals U2 concert fans expect of Bono these days-- at times, he clearly struggles with the crowd as he attempts to deliver the vocals in a style different from the records.
The video quality is not great, however you should know it was recorded on standard video anyway, so do not expect miracles. It is in 4:3 format as well. |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: popmart dvd
Comments: even thou i got the vhs tape for this concert u2 popmart tour from mexico city 1997 i have to say its a great concert love the lights and song selection im sure the dvd will be the same or even better i have to say its a great concert1to have. |
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