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Mortal Engines Blu-ray 4K Review

Mortal Engines 4K UHD – 2018

Universal Studios 2018

PG13 | 2hrs 8 mins | Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

HD | 1080P | Dolby Atmos | Dolby TrueHD 7.1

4K | 2160P | HDR10 | Dolby Atmos | Dolby TrueHD 7.1

2.39:1 Aspect Ratio

Staring:  Hera Hilmar | Robert Sheehan | Hugo Weaving | Jihae | Ronan Raftery | Leila George

Directed by: Christian Rivers

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 7.1 soundtrack sound like? Enjoyable, and the 4K HDR10 video? Excellent.

Entertainment: 4+

Video: 5

Audio: 4+

Technical Review – 4K UHD HDR10

Mortal Engines was shot digitally on RED Weapon Helium at 8K, with digital intermediates at 4K. This movie really shines on Blu-ray and shows what well produced 4K  productions can look like. It is an excellent visual presentation and will impress anybody that enters your home theater.

Digitally photographed this 4K UHD movie provides extremely sharp images, high levels of crystal-clear detail and a solid wide color gamut. Character, clothing and prop close ups are excellent providing high levels of detail on the smallest of items like buttons and fabric. Facial features like pores, scars, strands of hair, beards and teeth show great detail while skin tones are natural and flawless throughout. Black levels are solid with good shadow detail showing no black crush. Overall contrast levels and color saturation are good throughout as depicted by Shaws’ red facial mask and Shrikes green eyes. The digitally constructed machines show amazing complexity and attention to detail of the moving parts, revealing detailed wear and tear patterns. Real world terrain is well depicted with good sharpness as seen in the tracks left by the traveling cities. CGI integration is excellent with no glaring flaws. Noise levels are low to none existent and there are no visible compression artifacts. Certainly a reference quality release from Universal.

Audio – DolbyTrueHD 7.1

Mortal Engines offers a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 soundtrack that defaults to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 in my system. The most obvious missing element to the sound track was that of a dynamic, deep, solid and extended bottom end. These massive moving machines, heavy gun play and “old tech” hyper weapon should have moved my room but alas it was not so. There was extensive use of all four of the rear speakers to draw the viewer into the action and the film’s steampunk world, whether it was aircraft zipping around, London “eating” other cities or simple PA announcements. Dialogue was always clear and detailed with solid front-center imaging and prioritization.

Story Overview

Mortal Engines is the first of four novels in Philip Reeve’s quartet of the same name. The book focuses on a futuristic, but old fashioned steam powered version of London, that has become a giant machine in a world running out of resources. 

Years after the “Sixty Minute War,” in a post-apocalyptic world, cities survive the now desolate Earth by moving around on giant wheels attacking and devouring smaller mobile towns in order to replenish their resources. A mysterious young woman, Hester Shaw (Hera Hilma) meets outcast Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) in London, one of the largest mobile towns.  Discovering a conspiracy by Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) to take over the world using a dreadful weapon constructed from “old tech”, they join forces with Anna Fang (Jihae), a dangerous outlaw with a bounty on her heard, in order to stop the approaching slaughter of millions.

This is an entertaining movie, and provides plenty of superb eye candy.  It has excellent visual effects, an OK bottom end, and lots of speaker action to keep you in the movie. The story line seems a little lacking, the ending is less than satisfying, but I enjoyed the overall ride. A reference piece of video and certainly one that will impress your friends.

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