Black Widow – 4K UHD Blu-ray Review
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Disney/Buena Vista | 2021
PG13 | 2hrs 13 min | Action | Comic Book | Adventure
HD | 1080P | DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Native 4K | 2160P | HDR10 | Dolby Atmos | Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Aspect Ratio 2.39:1
Staring: Scarlett Johansson | Florence Pugh | David Harbour | T. Fagbenle | Ray Winstone | Rachel Weisz
Directed by: Cate Shortland
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’.
So what did the 7.1 soundtrack sound like? Good in most respects, and the 4K HDR10 video? Very good.
Entertainment: 4+
Video: 5
Audio: 4+
Technical Review – Native 4K UHD HDR10
Black Widow was captured digitally in 4K, 6K, and 8K using Panavision Millennium DXL2, Phantom Flex4K, Red Helium, and Sony CineAlta Venice cameras with various anamorphic lenses. It was finished as a 4K Digital Intermediate in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 complete with grading for high dynamic range in both Dolby Vision and HDR10. This dual-layer disc has been well authored and shows no excessive use of noise reduction or edge sharpening and no obvious compression artifacts
The overall image clarity is excellent with an abundance of crisp detail and plenty of refined texturing. Clothing, threads and facial close-ups provide excellent detail and definition with natural skin tones and accurate rendition of pores, eyelashes, hair strands, cuts, bruises and features without any undue exaggerations. Even the vehicles and buildings show excellent detail. CG effects and integration are very good, but all is not perfect. The only visual problem is that in downsampling from higher resolutions, there’s occasionally a bit of aliasing and moiré fringing visible. These are fleeting moments and do not detract from the movies enjoyment and maybe be missed by many.
Deep blacks abounded throughout, were noise free, and showed excellent low level and shadow detail as found in the night scenes and various room sequences. Peak whites and overall highlights provided clean detail with no clipping, like small particles of debris, the suns blazing glow as it bounces of buildings and sidewalks, snow, the edges of clouds and the high sheen off various metallic surfaces. All providing a terrific dynamic contrast range and enhancing visibility of objects in both interior and exterior distant shots.
Color fidelity is excellent with well saturated primaries and secondaries, all having good color depth and density, hues are vibrant and accurate. The movies pallet varies between warm in Cuba, Morocco and Ohio, to cooler in the Russian, Norwegian and Eastern European settings. From the deep blood reds and rose red monitors to the vivid greens of foliage, colors abound everywhere with a mix of browns, yellows and magentas in Budapest to the Taskmaster’s orange lined cobalt blue uniform in the Metro.
Overall a very good image just making it into the reference category.
Audio – Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Black Widow provides a Dolby Atmos primary audio track that defaults to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 in my system. I found the track low level and lacking a deep, impactful, powerful extended bass, the usual Disney afflictions.
Imaging continuously feels broad and expansive as action moves on and off-screen, with dialogue always clear and detailed with solid front-center imaging and prioritization. Music is smooth and detailed, with effortless integration within the sound stage, being well balanced between the dialogue and effects as Lorne Balfe’s score envelopes the whole listening environment with light bleeding into the surrounds and all with effortless integration within the sound stage.
The soundstage is deep and wide, and surrounds are constantly active with ambience, directional cues, and swirling movement. From the subtle sounds of wind blowing and leaves shaking in the distance to the bombastic racket of explosions and falling debris. The side and rear surrounds always helping pull you into the various environmental atmospheres keeping you engaged at all times.
Cars and motorcycles zoom across the room, helicopters fly by, debris scatters in every direction, and the various floors of the Red Room are heard collapsing mixed with the noise of rubble and electrical sparks all helping to generate an enveloping surround sound-field. With the mid-range continually providing excellent clarity and detail no matter how loud and aggressive the effect, particularly during the final Red Room sequence.
Unfortunately while the bass is good it could be much better. It lacked muscle and impact and didn’t provide that room rattling palpable punch to support some of the more intense special effects.
So while the primary audio sounds very good, it is not reference quality.
Story Overview
Black Widow is set in the aftermath of the events of Captain America: Civil War. It tells the origin story of the Black Widow Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), who is now on the run after violating the Sokovia Accords. Raised in Ohio with her sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) by sleeper agents Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) they return to Russia where they become part of the Red Room project that creates the Black Widows. Natasha eventually defects and joins SHIELD becoming an Avenger, leaving her sister to become chemically brainwashed by the Red Room Project. Yelena is eventually exposed to an antidote and with no one else to turn to sends Natasha the rest of the antidote. Joining forces Natasha and Yelena plan to destroy the Red Room, but first they need to reunite their Russian parents.
My 2 cents
While I found Black Widow an enjoyable and entertaining movie, I felt that the acting and audio was subpar. Put together the movie just lacked in “sparkle” and even at times dragged. Maybe this is all due to the hype, and that I was expecting something more than I got, maybe COVID impacted the production! I felt that each characters performance was less than stellar and now with Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney making her return uncertain, this seems such a disappointing way to possibly exit the series. If you are a real Marvel fan I am sure that you will thoroughly enjoy this movie despite my misgivings, I did.
Purchase from Amazon here.
