New York cab driver Korben Dallas didn't mean to be a hero, but he just picked up the kind of fare that only comes along every five thousand years: A perfect beauty, a perfect being, a perfect weapon. Now, together, they must save the world. Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, and Gary Oldman star in acclaimed director Luc Besson's outrageous sci-fi adventure, an extravagantly styled tale of good against evil set in an unbelievable twenty-third century world.

The big question regarding this newly remastered release of The Fifth Elementremains: is the picture quality an improvement over the previous, substandard release? Indeed it is; every problem present in the previous release has been corrected; the disc delivers a pristine image that pops off of the screen with amazing depth and stunning imagery. From start to finish, video quality remains consistent while featuring rock-solid black levels, outstanding fine detail and color fidelity that is lush and warm while still highlighting the film's unique visual style. Grain inherent in the theatrical presentation has been expertly reproduced, giving the movie a truly film-like image. From the opening scenes within an Egyptian tomb to the space battles and urban cityscapes, this transfer's meticulous attention to detail renders every scene flawlessly.

In The Fifth Element's opening scenes, scores of hieroglyphics are depicted in great detail on the walls of an ancient temple; fine edges in the engravings are clearly defined, without relying on artificial edge enhancement. The early space scenes also offer a glimpse into the improvements found throughout this disc; black levels are noticeably deeper and never wander into the blue-gray levels of the previous version. While this new transfer uses the AVC compression codec over the Mpeg-2 compression of its predecessor, the quality of the master is what has brought the greatest improvement to this release. All studios currently producing high definition material should look to this latest release of The Fifth Element as the primary example of the importance of mastering to Blu-ray from a pristine source. The Fifth Element is finally the demo disc that videophiles have been waiting for.