In 2013, Henry Cavill earned fame as the then-newest version of Superman via Man of Steel. Before then, he got the lead in 2012’s thriller The Cold Light of Day.

Will Shaw (Cavill) visits Spain for a vacation with his family. However, this soon goes awry and the others disappear.

Will’s father Martin (Bruce Willis) pops up again before long, and the pair attempt to find out what happened to the rest. Will and Martin find themselves in a messy situation where they don’t know who to trust as they try to save their relatives.

Though I think he boasts talent, Cavill failed to show much in Man of Steel or 2011’s Immortals. In both, he looked great but didn’t display much charisma or personality.

At least in the case of Steel, I laid a lot of the blame on the screenplay, as it turned Superman into a flat dud. Not that I felt Cavill could’ve added much anyway, but the part as written remained undercooked.

As Will, Cavill finds himself allowed to display a wider range of emotions, and he feasts – probably too much. Given a character with a plenty of anger, Cavill brings a lot of aggressiveness to the role.

And not much else. As always, Cavill displays a terrific physique, but he comes across as one-note in the way he portrays Will’s attitude.

Not that the “story” offers much room to play. Essentially a collection of action beats in search of a plot, Day hops around and never finds a particularly coherent tale.

At its heart, Day provides a simple narrative, but those involved can’t leave well enough alone. They toss out all sorts of twists and turns intended to add tension.

They fail. Rather than amp up the drama, the story beats just feel like windowdressing and cheap attempts to churn actual life out of this dud.

That means Day becomes a wearying experience. It works overtime in its attempts to thrill us, but all these choice just feel desperate.

Can I say I’ve seen worse thrillers? Unquestionably, but Day nonetheless winds up as a messy bomb.

The Cold Light of Day appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Expect a generally positive – albeit semi-erratic – presentation.

Sharpness generally worked well. Some light softness kicked in at times, but the majority of the movie exhibited fairly solid delineation.

I witnessed no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear.

Colors tended toward the standard mix of amber and teal, with some heavier blues/greens as well. The hues could come across as a bit thick but they nonetheless appeared largely appropriate.

Blacks seemed on the crushed side, and shadows came across as somewhat dense, a factor exacerbated by some brutal “day for night” shots that became nearly unwatchable. Ultimately, this was a decent image but nothing special.

As for the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1, it worked fine, even if it didn’t match up to action flick expectations. This meant a soundfield with reasonable activity but nothing truly memorable.

Unsurprisingly, action scenes delivered the most pizzazz, although they could feel a little more restrained than expected. Still, they used the five channels in a fairly engaging manner and satisfied for the most part.

Audio quality also seemed good. Music was lively and vivid, while effects came across as accurate and full.

Speech felt natural and concise. Again, nothing memorable emerged here, but the soundtrack fared acceptably well.

The disc comes with no bonus materials. It provides an online link called “What’s New” but nothing on the disc itself.

A thriller in the Jason Bourne vein, The Cold Light of Day feels stagnant. Though the film attempts a lot of urgency, it never connects and turns into anything impactful. The Blu-ray brings largely good picture and audio but it lacks supplements. The film fizzles.