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4K UHD/Blu-ray Review: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

Home » 4K UHD/Blu-ray Review: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

Aug 12, 2018 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

Ever since his own home planet of Titan was devastated by overpopulation, Thanos (Josh Brolin) has made it his mission to stop other planets from succumbing to the same fate. He finds worlds on the brink of running out of resources, invades them, wipes out half the population and then watches these planets rebuild and flourish now that they have ample resources to support the reduced population. In his own sick way, Thanos believes he is doing what is right, and wants to continue his mission throughout the universe. So Thanos is now on a quest to find the six Infinity Stones, powerful gems that have been around since before the Big Bang. If Thanos can obtains all six of the stones, he would be able to wipe out half of the universe’s population with a simple snap of his fingers!

Avengers: Infinity War is described by the screenwriters as a heist film, following Thanos’ quest to snatch and grab all 6 of these gems. While I wouldn’t classify it as a heist film, I would say it is an epic tale of good versus evil, where evil is a ridiculously powerful being who believes his mission is just. The film opens right where Thor: Ragnarok ended. The ship that Thor, Loki and the other Asgardians used to flee their home has come under attack by Thanos. Thanos is after the Space Stone, which is housed in the Tesseract, which had been stolen by Loki. With each stone he acquires and adds to his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos becomes increasingly more powerful. He knows where at least three of the final four stones are located, and sends his minions—his “children”—to help retrieve those that reside on Earth. The Time Stone is encased in the Eye of Agamotto, which Doctor Strange wears around his neck, and the Mind Stone resides in Vision’s forehead. Meanwhile, Thanos heads off to find the Reality Stone, which was last seen with the Collector (during the events of the first Guardians of the Galaxy film). The final stone, the Soul Stone, remains more elusive. If the universe has any hope of surviving, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes—as well as some not-so-Earthly ones—will need to come together and work as a team against the seemingly-unstoppable Thanos.

Avengers: Infinity War is the 19th film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which began with 2008’s Iron Man. It is the culmination of 10 years worth of character and franchise development, and the result is pretty amazing! It is so rewarding to see all of these various franchises—Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and Black Panther—all come together for the first time as a unified force against a common enemy. It was a blast to see 30+ different characters from all of these different franchises collide and interact! This was especially true of the characters from Guardians of the Galaxy, who had pretty much been isolated to their own films up until now. The sheer scope of this film is astonishing, and its amazing what the filmmakers were able to pull off. The only two main characters from the MCU who don’t show up are Ant-Man and Hawkeye—it is explained that both men took, for the sake of their families, house arrest plea deals after their roles in breaking the terms of the Sokovia Accords.

The films that make up the MCU have a variety of different tones and color palettes, but the filmmakers have done an excellent job at finding the right balance for this epic crossover. They have perfectly combined humor, action and drama to make this movie both fun and exciting but also emotionally devastating at times. It brought me so much joy to see Peter Quill and the Guardians meeting and teaming up with Thor. It is hilarious to see Quill feel threatened by the handsome Thor, and trying to downplay the god’s rogue-like charm. Meanwhile, we also see the egocentric Tony Stark and Doctor Strange meet for the first time, as they also team up with the wide-eyed Spider-Man. And finally we see the divided Avengers regroup along with The Hulk and the Wakandans. While the film initially starts off with these smaller groups of characters getting together, by the final act, we get to see pretty much everyone together for the massive showdown.

Avengers: Infinity War is nearly two and a half hours, but never feels either rushed or overly long. The story keeps moving along, as it switches between the various groups of characters, but it never feels like we are away from any one group of characters for too long. Right from the start, the film establishes that this fight against Thanos is going to be deadly, and that not everyone is going to survive. While I initially thought this was a brave, bold choice, I was less impressed by this when it came to the film’s ending. I went into this movie knowing that it was just part one of a planned two-part film, so I wasn’t expecting things to be completely resolved by the end. However, without going into spoilers, I felt that by the way the writers chose to end the film, they undermined all of the stakes that they had previously established early on. The film ends in such a way that is just too over-the-top and too-escalated, that it feels likely that all of the bad things that happened over the course of this movie would almost definitely be reversed in part two. While I was disappointed by the final moments of this film—except for one really emotionally-heartbreaking performace—that did not affect my overall enjoyment of the film. The rest of the film leading up to this was thoroughly entertaining and satisfying, and more than I could have even hoped for before watching the film!

The 4K UHD presentation is phenomenal. Every scene is filled with vibrant colors—as the film opens, we fly by various beautifully-colored planets with their different flowing atmospheres, and when The Hulk is hurdling towards earth, he leaves this rainbow-colored trail in his wake. Each planet has its own color palette to help the viewer easily switch back and forth between the storylines, and these hues are further enhanced by the HDR on the 4K version of the film. And even with his purple skin, Thanos always looks so real and lifelike. The 4K presentation provides an incredible amount of detail in every scene—you can really see the textures on faces and clothing, and the detail in burning planets and during fast-paced battles. The overall level of detail if amazing, with CG environments and characters blending in seamlessly with the actors and real locations! The huge final battle looks amazing!

The audio presentation is equally impressive. The Atmos soundtrack is well-utilized to provide a fully-immersive aural experience. As Scarlet Witch and Vision are walking the streets of Scotland, rain can be heard overhead. In a big battle scene with Thanos on Titan, things are flying everywhere, and the sound comes from every direction of your living room—it feels like you are fully-immersed in the on-screen action. And the film’s final showdown in Wakanda sounds amazing, with chants, growling enemies, explosions, and weapons of every kind clashing away. The dialogue remains clear throughout the film, and the score and musical selections (when traveling with the Guardians) also sound great.

The 4K release comes packed in a standard UHD keepcase along with a rounded-corner cardboard slipcover. Inside is the digital copy redemption instructions (the digital copy redeems in UHD format), along with the UHD and Blu-ray discs. The bonus material can only be found on the Blu-ray disc. This includes an audio commentary as well as 32 minutes of featurettes, 10 minutes of deleted scenes, and a 2-minute gag reel. The digital copy also includes a 32-minute digital-only bonus featurette. While the 4K release is phenomenal, it was disappointing to see that Disney is once again is not offering a 3D Blu-ray option in the U.S. (it will be available in other countries)—this is such a visually stunning film, especially when Doctor Strange is altering reality, and it would have been great to have that viewing option as well for those who have the ability to watch 3D at home.


What’s Included:

Film: (2:29:21)

4K Ultra HD:

  • 2160p / Widescreen 2.39:1
  • HDR-10
  • Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus, Japanese 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus
  • Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Simplified Chinese

Blu-ray:

  • 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
  • Audio: English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital
  • Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese

Digital:

  • Digital Copy
    Redeems in UHD via Movies Anywhere. While Movies Anywhere only offers HD playback, the digital copy should propagate to linked services such as Vudu in UHD. At the time of this review, the digital copy code in our review copy was not yet active.

Extras:
Bonus material is only available on the Blu-ray disc and digital.

    Blu-ray Disc:

    • Featurettes (32:18)
      Ply All or select from:

      • Strange Alchemy (5:08)
        The cast and filmmakers talk about combining the characters and tones of the various MCU franchises in fun and unexpected ways to create one epic film. Includes interviews with producer Kevin Feige, directors Joe & Anthony Russo, executive producer Trinh Tran, and stars Chris Pratt (“Peter Quill/Star-Lord”), Dave Bautista (“Drax”), Don Cheadle (“James Rhodes/War Machine”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“Doctor Strange”), Chadwick Boseman (“T’Challa/Black Panther”), Robert Downey Jr. (“Tony Stark/Iron Man”), and Paul Bettany (“Vision”).
      • The Mad Titan (6:34)
        The cast and filmmakers talk about the character of Thanos, his role across the MCU films, and what Josh Brolin brings to the role. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with producer Kevin Feige, directors Joe & Anthony Russo, executive producers Louis D’Esposito & Victoria Alonso, writer Stephen McFeely, and stars James Brolin (“Thanos”), Zoe Saldana (“Gamora”), Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”), and Chris Pratt.
      • Beyond the Battle: Titan (9:36)
        The cast and filmmakers talk about the scope of the production, and filming the Titan sequence on a soundstage in Atlanta. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with directors Joe & Anthony Russo, producer Kevin Feige, executive producers Trinh Tran, Victoria Alonso & Louis D’Esposito, visual effects supervisors Dan Deleeuw &r Matt Aitken, additional visual effects supervisor Swen Gillberg, stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave, and stars Mark Ruffalo (“Bruce Banner/Hulk”), Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Tom Holland (“Peter Parker/Spider-Man”), and Chris Pratt.
      • Beyond the Battle: Wakanda (10:58)
        The cast and filmmakers talk about the increased stakes of this film, and what it was like filming the massive, epic final battle on Wakanda in a field in Georgia. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with directors Joe & Anthony Russo, executive producers Trinh Tran, Victoria Alonso & Louis D’Esposito, producer Kevin Feige, visual effects supervisor Dan Deleeuw, stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave, fight coordinator James Young, costume designer Judianna Makosky, and stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans (“Steve Rogers/Captain America”), Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan (“Nebula”), Danai Gurira (“Okoye”), Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan (“Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier”), Scarlett Johansson (“Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow”), Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston (“Loki”), and Paul Bettany.
    • Deleted Scenes (10:13)
      Play All or select from:

      • “Happy Knows Best” (1:24)
        In this alternate version of a scene that’s in the film, Tony and Pepper are walking in the park. Tony tells Pepper about a dream he had, and then the couple argues about their wedding date when Happy Hogan interrupts them, driving up in a golf cart.
      • “Hunt for the Mind Stone” (1:25)
        Wanda Maximoff and the wounded Vision try to hide from Thanos’ “children”, who are hunting them down in the darkened streets of Scotland.
      • “The Guardians Get Their Groove Back” (3:21)
        Peter Quill, Drax and Mantis are quarreling on the ship when the news from Nebula arrives.
      • “A Father’s Choice” (4:02)
        Thanos shows Gamora a flashback of her happily returning from a mission for him, and then confronts her about lying to him about the Soul Stone.
    • Gag Reel (2:05)
      Montage of the cast forgetting/flubbing their lines, and having fun on set.
    • Audio Commentary (2:29:21)
      Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely provide an entertaining and informative commentary throughout the film. The filmmakers talk about finding the right tone and look for the film, the development of the script, and their thoughts and motivations behind each scene.

 

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