After two of his first three films became moderate successes, director Tarsem Singh experienced a notable box office disappointment with 2012’s Mirror Mirror. One of that year’s two takes on Snow White, audiences preferred competitor Snow White and the Huntsman and even the presence of Julia Roberts couldn’t make Mirror a hit.

After the comedy/fantasy of Mirror, Singh returned to the sci-fi/thriller genre he previously explored in 2000’s The Cell. Alas, this one also flopped as well, a fact that apparently prompted Singh to wait another eight years to make another movie and also led him home to his native India to create 2023’s Dear Jassi after a long affiliation with Hollywood.

Terminal cancer means a rapidly expiring clock for billionaire Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley). Desperate to extend his life, Damian pursues a radical approach.

Thanks an experimental process, Damian's consciousness gets placed into a new identity as "Edward Kidner" (Ryan Reynolds) via a lab-created healthy body. Or maybe not, as Damian/Edward discovers some dark secrets behind his new existence.

Will I reveal those plot twists? No, as I prefer to maintain a spoiler-free zone.

That said, if one can’t figure out the Big Reveal, then one needs to get out more. The movie’s alleged curveball seems entirely predictable.

As does most of Self/less. A thriller without thrills, it finds little creative to occupy the audience.

Granted, it does come with a creative premise, albeit not the most original concept one can imagine. The notion of an ill person who finds an extreme and novel manner to extend their existence comes with plenty of company.

Still, the fact so many of us would pursue immortality makes it a tantalizing notion. In the right hands, the subject can work well.

Apparently writers Alex and David Pastor weren’t the right hands for the screenplay and Singh wasn’t the right hand to direct. Even with the sci-fi trappings of the plot, none of these men manage to make Self/less into anything more than a generic thriller.

Even Singh’s usually inventive eye for visuals abandons him here. Self/less looks like pretty much every other genre flick of its era, so the filmmaker brings nothing fresh or intriguing to the film’s look or staging.

Despite a dodgy New York accent, Kingsley makes the most of his short time in the film. Once he departs, though, so does pretty much anything interesting.

Stripped of his standard snarky movie persona, Reynolds seems unusually dull. He brings a little “action star” pizzazz when appropriate but otherwise creates a flat and bland character.

Self/less pursues a bland and trite path of discovery and revelation that never turns into anything involving. It just plods and lacks imagination.

Self/less appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a largely positive presentation.

Sharpness usually looked fine. Some wider shots betrayed a bit of softness, but those remained minor and not especially consequential.

Neither moiré effects nor jaggies manifested, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also remained absent.

The movie’s palette leaned hard on a mix of teal and amber/orange. Uncreative as those choices seemed, the Blu-ray reproduced them in a positive manner.

Blacks appeared deep and dense, while shadows looked appropriately rendered. No real problems manifested in this appealing image.

In addition, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack worked fine, though it came with less pizzazz than one might expect from an ostensible action flick. This meant a mix heavy on music and atmosphere.

Those elements filled the room in a satisfying manner. The occasional violent beats kicked the spectrum to life well, but they just appeared too infrequently to make a big difference in the soundscape.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared concise and distinctive. Music showed solid range and clarity.

Effects came across as accurate and full, with nice low-end as necessary. The track’s moderate lack of ambition left it as a “B”, but it seemed reasonable for the tale at hand.

A few extras appear, and we lead with an audio commentary from director Tarsem Singh. He provides a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, editing, photography, stunts, and effects.

Despite the moody nature of so much of his work, Singh always provides a bubbly and disarming personality in his commentaries, and he also seems more willing than most filmmakers to admit errors. He covers this flick well and gives us another lively commentary,

Three featurettes follow, and Inside Self/less spans six minutes, 37 seconds. It involves Singh, writers Alex and David Pastor, producers James D. Stern and Ram Bergman, art director Tim Beach, set designer Walter Schneider, and actors Ryan Reynolds, Natalie Martinez, Matthew Goode, and Ben Kingsley.

“Inside” covers the movie’s concept and development, cast, performances, story and characters, photography, and sets. A few good notes emerge but the reel largely feels superficial.

On the Run goes for six minutes, 46 seconds. This one brings info from Reynolds, Singh, Martinez, stunt coordinator/2nd unit director Steven Ritzi, SPFX coordinator David Khalil Nami and actor Derek Luke.

The featurette looks at the film’s stunts and action. Like “Inside”, “Run” mixes a handful of worthwhile insights with fluff.

Lastly, Shedding occupies two minutes, 27 seconds. We find remarks from Reynolds, Kingsley, Goode, Singh, Computational Neuroscience and Bio-Inspired Engineering Associate Professor Dr. Charles Higgins and Numeric Modeling of Physics and Biological Systems and Computational Techniques Associate Professor Dr. Wolfgang Fink.

“Shedding” views the body-swapping notion at the flick’s core. The scientists attempt some justification for the notion but this feels mostly like a puff piece.

The disc opens with ads for Cop Car, 12 Monkeys (TV series), Continuum and Sinister 2. Previews includes promos for Hanna, Kill the Messenger, The Place Beyond the Pines and Closed Circuit. No trailer for Self/less appears here.

Though known as a director with a creative visual eye, Tarsem Singh’s work on Self/less provides no hint of those skills. The movie comes across as generic in all possible ways, and it lacks any bite. The Blu-ray brings positive picture and audio along with a few bonus materials. This turns into a dull and forgettable stab at a sci-fi thriller.

Note that this 2025 Blu-ray reissues the movie’s prior release in 2015. The 2025 BD simply reproduces the same disc from 10 years earlier.