Guardians Of The Galaxy – Volume 3 – 4K Review
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Disney/Buena Vista | 2023
PG13 | 2hrs 29 min | Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Comedy | Comic Book
HD | 1080P | DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Native 4K | 2160P | Dolby Vision | HDR10 | Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Aspect Ratios: 1.85:1, 2.39:1
Staring: Chris Pratt | Zoe Saldana | Dave Bautista | Karen Gillan | Pom Klementieff | Vin Diesel
Directed by: James Gunn
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 4K HDR10 video look like? Reference, and the 7.1 soundtrack? Also reference.
Entertainment: 5-
Video: 5
Audio: 5-
Technical Review – Native 4K UHD HDR10
Guardians Of The Galaxy – Volume 3 was captured digitally in the Redcode RAW format at 6K & 8K by cinematographer Henry Braham using various lenses. It was finished as a 4K Digital Intermediate at the 2.39:1 and 1.85:1 aspect ratios and graded for this 4K release in HDR10. This dual-layer BD66 disc has been well authored and shows no use of noise reduction or edge sharpening and no obvious compression artifacts or significant digital noise. The package also contains a BD50 HD disc with DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 and a redeemable digital code.
This very colorful movie bursts onto your screen with a wide colorful palette that is taken advantage of on various planets and spaceships. With the film shot in such a high resolution format, this 4K release has excellent overall image clarity with a dazzling display of crisp, razor sharp detail with refined texturing throughout. Objects, clothing, threads and facial close-ups provide excellent detail and definition even for Rocket and Groot. From the costume textures to the facial pores, beads of sweat, stubble, wrinkles, eyelashes, hair strands, practical makeup applications and features, all accurately rendered without any undue exaggerations. CGI and special effects integration are very good, having realistic textures, blending well with the real action shots and never looking soft. Even Rocket and Groot look real. CGI effects like explosions, flying objects, debris and smoke are well integrated into the live action with no distractions.
Contrast balance was excellent throughout, from the brilliant uncompressed whites of the walls and floors of Orgocorp’s headquarters, daylight exterior shots, explosions and lighting to the deep and noise free inky blacks of those darker corridors and outer space. Darker scenes always supporting excellent low level and shadow detail. Individual weapons shots, various light sources, stars, metallic objects, jet exhaust and explosions sparkle with a true-to-live realism. All creating a very good dynamic contrast range and enhancing visibility of objects in both exterior and interior shots creating an excellent depth of field that on occasions had an impressive three-dimensional quality.
The color palette presents with a large array of vibrant colors. Color fidelity is excellent throughout with vivid and well saturated primaries and secondaries, all having very good color depth and density, hues are bold and vibrant. From the Nowhere rusty amber hues and neon signage, Krgalins pinkish-red arrow, the Warlocks Gold paint offering a metallic hue, bright green plants, Gamora’s green skin and the purple and red outfits, to the oranges and yellows of the spaceship, all culminating in the climatic fight scene that showcases a rainbow of colors from the costumes, alien body fluids and gun blasts. Skin tones and facial complexions throughout looking wonderfully natural.
This video is very good on all fronts, providing a solid HDR10 reference image.
Audio – Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Guardians Of The Galaxy – Volume 3 flies into home theaters with a solid, Dolby Atmos mix that defaults to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 in my system. However, once again, the Disney sound engineers forced me to turn up my levels by +4dB in order to get a satisfactory sound level. Even then it still lacked a little in dynamics and a solid extended and impactful bottom end.
The overall sound presentation is quite dynamic, with moderately good sub involvement and excellent surround action. The soundstage is wide and surrounds are constantly active with ambience, directional cues and movement, delivering an active environment that drops the listener both into calm environments and action-packed sonic spectacles alike. Effects placement are accurate and natural, with plenty of movement in both the rear and side surrounds, together with the general environmental and room acoustics effects consistently pulling you into the many locals and environments, like the inside the Bowie spaceship, the Guardians’ headquarters, Orgocorp’s headquarters and the High Evolutionary spaceship. From those quieter, dialogue-heavy sequences steeped in surrounding activity, chattering and footsteps to violent screams, roaring jets, gunfire, falling debris, cockpit sounds, Kraglin’s flying arrow and various panning effects. All fill the surrounds pulling you into the scene and keeping you “in the action”.
Sub action is less than stellar and does not provide the serious, hard hitting, low end extension that this movie deserves. At the elevated level, it does just manage to support the roar of the engines, missiles, explosions, gunfire, crashing spaceships and body impacts. Imaging continuously feels broad and expansive following the action as it moves on and off-screen. Dialogue is always crystal clear and well detailed with an excellent mid-range and solid front-center imaging and prioritization, providing good clarity and detail no matter how loud and aggressive the action.
Flushing out the soundscape and supporting the movie throughout its entire length, the films score, composed by John Murphy and bolstered throughout by Peter Quill’s Awesome Mix Vol. 3 Zune collection, offers a great supportive mix, being seamlessly immersive and perfectly clear. Hitting a good balance between the dialogue and effects the score provides a light spill into the surrounds and very good integration within the soundstage.
A good, but not reference audio track, that adequately supports the reference video.
Story Overview
Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is still devastated by the demise of Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and drowns his depression in Knowhere, the Guardians’ headquarters. When Rockets past catches up with him Star-Lord must rally himself and the troops for one last life-and-death mission. Joining forces with the Ravagers and a duplicate Gamora they travel to an earthly type world, full of various animal experimentations created and ruled by the malicious High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), a space-faring alien cyborg scientist and founder of Orgocorp. With the dark past of Rocket now catching up to them can the Guardians stop the sinister plans of this intergalactic megalomaniac and save Rocket and themselves?
My 2 cents
While I found the movie entertaining, I was not too sure about trying to turn these “ass-kicking” Sci-Fi characters created by the previous two movies into “real” everyday beings with a range of human emotions; sadness, laughter and anger, that seemed to be a little strained and on occasions forced. Never-the-less it was a fun movie and is layered with lots of emotion and entertainment, bringing the trilogy to a fitting close.
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