Black Panther Blu-ray 4K Review
2018 – Black Panther – Long Live The King
Disney/Buena Vista | 2018
PG13 | 2hrs 14 mins | Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
HD | 1080P | Dolby Atmos | Dolby TrueHD 7.1
4K | 2160P | HDR10 | Dolby Vision | Dolby Atmos | Dolby TrueHD 7.1
2.40:1 Aspect Ratio
Starring: Chadwick Boseman | Michael B. Jordan | Lupita Nyong’o | Danai Gurira | Martin Freeman | Daniel Kaluuya
Directed by: Ryan Coogler
Ratings & Reviews
Please see here for my comments on reviewing movies.
My ratings are simple being marked out of a maximum of 5+. My reviews are biased towards the technical production aspects of the film with brief comments about the story line. Extras, sorry, that’s just not my ‘bag’.
Not having Immersive audio yet, what did the 4K version look like? Excellent, and the sound track, very good.
Entertainment: 5-
Video: 5-
Audio: 4+
Technical Review – 4K UHD HDR10
Black Panther was shot digitally using Arri Alexa cameras in 3.4K and finished as a 4K Digital Intermediate. It is often an outstanding visual presentation but lacks some of the visual dazzle of recently reviewed 4K Marvel movies. Overall the sharpness is very good and detail is generally excellent, really popping on props and costume fabrics. Colors, hues and saturation are generally very good throughout, like the blues of T’Challa’s helmet. Blacks are deep, noise free and solid providing good levels of contrast. CGI integration is generally good and there are no compression artifacts. Human skin tones and textures are very realistic without being over saturated, with some excellent facial close ups.
Disney continues to excel at not getting its audio reference levels correct and it is really unforgivable for a company of this standing. In a nutshell it tends to ruin the movie in my opinion. My system defaults to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and I needed to turn up my reference level by +10dB to get anything that was approaching a normal listening level. This at least elevates the wimpy level that this soundtrack is set to, to something that supports the action. Even at these levels it still doesn’t come close to many other action movie soundtracks, lacking in dynamic control of the soundstage, impact and bottom end action. Bass is present but sparsely handed out and never digs very deep. Being just enough to support the music, car chases, explosions and battle sequences. The only real exception being the heft of the large percussive drums. Surround use is extensive supporting both a locales ambience bringing the listener into the action and a number of pin point sound effects. However, I felt that the mix overall lacked balance on a number of occasions. Imaging was precise with human dialogue always clear and well defined, being accurately located across the front mix.
Story Overview
After his fathers death, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns home to the hidden African nation of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king where he ascends to the throne and becomes the new Black Panther, charged with protecting the hidden kingdom and its people. Years earlier his uncle N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown) betrayed the Wakanda nation by stealing its rare metal Vibranium, that has awesome powers, and selling it to an arms dealer named Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis). NJobu’s son N’Jadaka (Michael B. Jordan) who had been abandoned by the King eventually joins forces with Klaue. Now a mercenary, he returns to Wakanda seeking revenge and a chance to fight the newly crowned King T’Challa and rule Wakanda as King.
While not quite a reference video quality the movie does provide some excellent images, colors and contrasts. The action, acting and effects were generally very good but the movie is just let down by a “limp” sound track. It could have been so much more. Disney need to understand this and get its sound stage and engineers back in line with every other studio. Or do they all need to go back to audio mixing 101? Somebody needs to tell them that a soundtrack can make or break a movie; well it does in my HT room!
Never the less the movie was very entertaining, never seemed to drag, and provided sufficient eye candy moments.
