Blu-ray Review – Blade Runner 2049
Blade Runner 2049
Warner Brothers 2017
PG13 | 2hrs 44 mins | Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
HD | 1080P | Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1 | DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
4K | 2160P | HDR10 | Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1 | DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
2.40:1 Aspect Ratio
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright
Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
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 4K or Immersive audio yet, what did the 1080P24 version look like? Good, and the sound track was really enjoyable.
Entertainment: 4+
Video: 4+
Audio: 5-
Technical Review – HD Blu-ray
Blade Runner 2049 was shot digitally on Arri Alexa cameras in 3.4K with digital intermediates at 4K. While the opening shot of an eye reveals tremendous details of the iris and eyelid together with great contrast and color depth, I have to say that is where the visual impact seemed to stop for me. The remainder of the movies various environments from the bleak wastelands outside of LA, to the wide open shots and the skies above LA, lack deep blacks, have less than stellar contrast, and contain few vibrant and saturated colors. They show a deliberately monochromatic environment drained of color, revolving around various shades of yellows, grays, browns and blacks. Most of the more colorful scenes being found in computer imagery like Joi (Ana de Armas – a holographic companion), street imaginary, building logos and the 3D city holographs and projections. Even then, the colors are somewhat desaturated. The more appealing imagery appearing later in the holographic Las Vegas lounge acts.
There are no obvious integration problems with any of the CGI effects and the imagery was sharp and crisp at all times. Skin tones were not oversaturated, with some excellent facial close ups, showing very good definition, with all colors looking natural and realistic, as fitting to the films dystopian genre and color scheme. Textures and clarity are good, from the costumes, to the interior and exterior building and claustrophobically crowded city street shots, where it was forever raining or snowing.
At 2hrs 44 minutes this is a long movie to squeeze onto one side of a disc, and needs all the real estate in can get in order to keep the bit rate high and provide a clean and sharp image. It looks like the entire disc was used with a bit rate that barely exceeded 20Mbps. Despite this, the bit rate budget and encoding seems to be have been carefully managed, and I saw no compression artifacts or softening of the image.
The Blu-ray version of Blade Runner 2049, features Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtracks. The Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack drives the movie and provides an excellent accompaniment to the scenic action, providing plenty of gentle accuracy to outright aggression. The score written by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch steals a little, and sometimes a lot, from the original Vangelis’ sound track. At all times the sound track carried the film exceptionally well, from the ripping and majestic synth chords and tight bass lines, to the deep and powerful bass percussion. The stereo imaging is excellent and precise and provides excellent aural support for many of the action sequences. Quite notable is the powerful explosive recoil action of K’s (Ryan Gosling – The Blade Runner) handheld weapon, together with some of the thunderous action shots and explosive sequences that will give your subs a bit of something to chew on. The surrounds, at all times providing good support for the locales natural atmospheric reverberation. Providing an immersive sound field and directionality for various effects, such as the buzzing of the bees, rushing waters outside of LA and distant pianos as K enters the building where Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford – the original Blade Runner) is hiding. Overall, there are plenty of intense elements and atmospheric support for the various environments, from the drone attack on the mob in the wilderness to the showdown over the water. Dialogue is always clear and well defined, being accurately located across the front mix.
Story Overview
Its been over thirty years since the original 1982 movie by Ridley Scott, Blade Runner, was released on DVD in 1997. If you haven’t seen the original movie I would strongly advise you to see it before viewing this sequel. Even if you have seen it before, I still think that a refresher viewing is in order. While this movie and story can stand on its own merits, its strongly dystopian feel may not suit many, and the length of the movie with its thought provoking slower scenes almost put me to sleep, only to be brought back to reality by yet another thunderous action and chord sequence.
So thirty years on LAPD Officer K is the new Blade Runner. Unwittingly he unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge the remains of what is left of society, into compete chaos. This discovery results in his assignment by Lieutenant Joshi (Robin Wright) to find Rick Deckard, the original LAPD Blade Runner, who had been on the run for those thirty years.
This movie, in anybody’s terms, is a long movie, and with its strongly dystopian feel and lack luster monochromatic environments, even though they are stunning in their own rights and convey the desperation of the society, I found required my full attenuation, as I was never really pulled into the movie except by the music. I felt that the acting and performances of all members of the cast were very good and each carried their part well. So while I was looking forward, with great relish to this movie, and I enjoyed it, it didn’t light my fire in the way I hoped that it would.
Never the less, it is definitely worth seeing and owning.
