Lost: The Complete Fifth Season Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit [Blu-ray]
Lost: The Complete Fifth Season Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit [Blu-ray]
The epic story of Lost twists, turns and time-shifts in its outstanding fifth season. Packed with hours of never-before-seen bonus features and exploding off the screen with a pristine picture and theater-quality sound, LOST is an astonishing new experience on Blu-ray High Definition. When destiny calls, the Oceanic 6 find their way back to the island. Discover what forced them to return, and find out the fate of all those who were left behind. Explore innovative new bonus features, including Lost University, an immersive collegiate experience powered by BD-Live where you can interactively examine the themes, stories and secrets of LOST. The answers to some of the series’ most pressing questions are revealed in this spectacular 5-disc Blu-ray Hi-Def collection. You’d be crazy not to watch, proclaims Matt Roush of TV GuideSince Lost made its debut as a cult phenomenon in 2004, certain things seemed inconceivable. In its fourth year, some of those things, like a rescue, came to pass. The season ended with Locke (Terry O’Quinn) attempting to persuade the Oceanic Six to return, but he dies before that can happen–or so it appears–and where Jack (Matthew Fox) used to lead, Ben (Emmy nominee Michael Emerson) now takes the reins and convinces the survivors to fulfill Locke’s wish.
As producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse state in their commentary on the fifth-season premiere, “We’re doing time travel this year,” and the pile-up of flashbacks and flash-forwards will make even the most dedicated fan dizzy. Ben, Jack, Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Sun (Yunjin Kim), and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) arrive to find that Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) have been part of the Dharma Initiative for three years. The writers also clarify the roles that Richard (Nestor Carbonell) and Daniel (Jeremy Davies) play in the island’s master plan, setting the stage for the prophecies of Daniel’s mother, Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan), to play a bigger part in the sixth and final season.
Dozens of other players flit in and out, some never to return. A few, such as Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), live again in the past. Lost could’ve wrapped things up in five years, as The Wire did, but the show continues to excite and surprise. As Lindelof and Cuse admit in the commentary, there’s a “fine line between confusion and mystery,” adding, “it makes more sense if you’re drunk.” Other extras include deleted scenes, featurettes, a “lost” episode of Mysteries of the Universe, and commentary from writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz on “He’s Our You,” a reference to Sayid, who tries to change the future by changing the past. –Kathleen C. Fennessy
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Dharma Orientation Kit DVD Edition
I have to say I’m disappointed with this collection. When I first saw the dvd was coming out, I saw the original “Complete 5th Season” and this one (also saw the blu-ray, but I don’t own those yet). So, I was very excited and immediately told my husband I wanted THIS ONE for Christmas. I got it, immediately opened it and finally got around to really looking at it and watching it a few days later. Here are some issues I have:
*I think it is ridiculous that the kit “MAY” include the “Exclusive Submarine Patch.” I only see the die hard fans getting this kit and it’s a little disappointing that only a select few get the “exclusive” version. I would have liked to see more patches anyways…the medical patch, the motor pool, and the dharma stations for example.
*The size is crazy! I had no idea when I looked at the picture that it was coming in a 3-ring binder! This definitely does not fit on my shelf with the other seasons.
*False advertising of what is on the discs. When you read the description it says it includes, “A Day with Josh Halloway” and “Time Frame and Continuity.” They do have a day with Richard Alpert on the disc, but not Sawyer (Halloway). Also…I cannot find a time frame and continuity anywhere! Some people have said that it IS on the blu-ray edition however….
*After deciding I wanted this version and getting it, I learned there was another special edition…Lost: The Complete Fifth Season (Collector’s Edition with Bonus Disc and DHARMA Luggage Tag)
This one seems to have all of the video from the Dharma Kit (Dharma Kit is 731min. long), plus more. The Collector’s Edition is 751min. long! While it was cool to see the maps and orientation guides, I would have much rather seen the “over 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage!”
*It also appears the regular edition of the 5th Season has all the same video as the Limited Edition (Both are 731min). VERY DISAPPOINTING!!! That is, minus the 5min VHS of the Dharma Orientation video you get with the kit.
So, unless you want this edition just so you can have the “pretty version” I would save your money and just buy the regular season. OR, just purchase the Collector’s Edition!
4 Stars Overall, Worth Buying
The only negative to this boxed set is you can get more “bonus” materials if you buy the Season 5 set that has the “Dharma Initiative luggage tag.” That one comes with an entire additional DVD with what appears to be interesting background material on the show.
Lost: The Complete Fifth Season (Collector’s Edition with Bonus Disc and DHARMA Luggage Tag)
This season has far fewer of the episodes with audio commentary; only two, in fact (though both are excellent). All the sets come with these as well as a few other bonus materials on Disk 5 (along with “The Incident” final episode.) Of these, only 1 is important for advancing the show - a faux episode of a 1980s TV program investigating the Dharma Initiative. You get this with all the sets.
This special set does have one valuable piece of material that does advance the story: a copy of the “truce” between the DI and the indiginous inhabitants of the island. You are missing a valuable bit of plot info if you don’t have that item.
If you are REALLY into Lost you definitely have to buy this - I don’t give a whit about the fifth patch - and also buy the set that has the bonus DVD and the luggage tag. That may seem extravagant; I was able to rationalize it because I needed to buy a separate set for one of the kids and I will watch their bonus materials DVD before they go back home after Christmas.
1 Stars Cynical explotation of the show’s fans - don’t waste your money
This set is designed to steal the money of people who are dedicated to the show. Everything about the packaging amounts to the most cynical sort of explotation.
What do you get for all the money:
(1) A song thats been available on itunes for months.
(2) A VHS tape containing an amaturish reworked version of a orientation film already seen in the show. Why do I want to go find a VCR to watch something I’ve mostly already seen and which adds absolutely NOTHING to what was already seen. Its not important. Its not entertaining.
(3) A bunch of printed extras full of bad jokes and without any interesting content. There is only one exception. There is a truce document included that is the kind of content people want. But it requires that the packaging be damaged to look at it.
(4) A bunch of patches. And they cared *so much* that some packages have an extra patch (the submarine). When your down to putting bonus items in something this expensive, its just tacky.
(5) Its nonstandard size. It doesn’t fit on shelves and it doesn’t fit into most DVD collections.
I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who actually wanted to watch the season. This is strictly a rare collectors item that you never open and put somewhere for a few years in the hope that it increases in value. I mean given all the features (the damage-to-open packaging, the VHS tape, the submarine patch), thats the market this thing was really designed for.
5 Stars AWESOME
If you are a LOST fanatic, you must get this Blu-ray version filled with tons of cool Lost memorabilia! Plus it looks amazing in blu-ray! The Lost University extra is the best feature on it, but only for true LOSTIES. The rest of you will love the other bonus features.
5 Stars I love it
As I read through these reviews I was kind of surprised by some of them. If you are a fan of the show I don’t understand why you wouldn’t love this. I don’t think the price is bad for this what you get. I paid under 80 bucks and that including taxes and shipping. I like the packaging its fun and its got me pumped for the final season to start. I guess they could have done something more expensive and maybe used a hardwood case instead of the cardboard box that the folder comes. And maybe they could have used the more traditional DVD holder case that houses all the DVD’s together like they did for the past season’s offering. I have to say I like the DVD holders in this set. I like how they look like old floppy discs from the early 80’s. Sure they are made of paper but if they would have made the kit nicer it probably would have cost a lot more and I most likely wouldn’t have been able to afford it. So I think it was nice that they offered up a nice collectable for under 80 buck. If you’re not sure if you want this collectors edition all I can say is for me it is worth the money but you can still just get the normal season 5 DVD release if you disagree.
Filed under: Blue Ray Movie Reviews