Waited like the Messiah, the 4K Ultra HD of James Cameron's movies that are Aliens (1986), Abyss (1989), True Lies (1994) and Titanic (1997) are recently available on the media. A boon for all fans knowing that in the case of dAbyss (only a non-anamorphic 2000 DVD to get under the tooth) and True LiesNo official Blu-ray was released yet! So we had to arm ourselves with patience... Especially as in March 2019, Skip Kimball (standardizer in Company 3) had published on social networks a photo of the calibration (in the process of finalisation) of the remasterAbyss. The excitement was then at its peak... Yes, the Arlesian would soon be available in the displays! However, it would have taken four long more years to complete the Titanic, the first title of this salve of reasterization, shows us the end of its prow followed a few months later by the crew members. So, was waiting worth it? Index : 4K restorations of Terminator 2 and Avatar should put the chip in your ear...
But before I come to the detailed test of each disc, I must quickly reveal the truth to you: New 4K scans here, but use of some previous work « inflated » to AI. Of course, it took a few hours to confirm this, but a careful comparison leaves no doubt as to the use of the same old sources, at least for Aliens (2010 Blu-ray scan 2K) and Titanic (the 2012 4K restoration). For True LiesIt would be a 2K scan by Lowry Digital in 2012. As regards Abyss, according to information gleaned to the right and left, it would be about a HD master of almost 10 years and not a recent 4K restoration despite the (forcely more sellers) saying of Lightstorm Entertainment. What about scan 4K of Aliens ordered by the 20th Century Fox and finalized in 2010 by Lowry Digital ? About 4K scans of Abyss and True Lies yet completed by MediaWorks Reliance For a few years? We may never know...
So what the hell were these 4K remasters born by? Quite simply by a artificially intelligible twisting carried out by Park Road Post, subsidiary of WingNut Filmsthe production company of Peter Jackson (to whom the massacre is already due) The Beatles: Get Back). In the program, a digital filtering that is far too visible where the lion's share is cut (more or less heavy) and artificially reinforced (more or less aggressive). In short, a regular coarse DNR + EE 2.0-style tripodling where a real new master (scan 4K of the original negatives + cleaning + calibration) was obviously expected. No Iron Jim, a 35 mm capture should never look like a digital shooting (Avatar is not necessarily the standard meter of cinematographic beauty), especially when artificial falsification is also intrusive...
Nevertheless, I will be frank about this: James Cameron can of course do what he likes with his films, like George Lucas (American Graffiti, Star Wars) to quote only one. However, this does not mean that we must close our eyes to the problems present. And if some will most certainly appreciate these results on the ground, so much better for them besides, it would be frankly dishonest on the part of a tester to make a technical return to it while the « optimizations » due to AI learning algorithms are visible throughout. And if that were to happen, it would be high time to change the cream shop...
Finally, it should be noted that the contribution of Dolby Vision (a 10-bit MEL stream) is only powder to the eyes on the four editions, since mapping seems static (or then very lazyly dynamic) with a maxCLL hardly separating from the 200 nits...
Contents
It is brought to the attention of our dear readers that, in addition to the specified and used viewing equipment, the rendering may differ from one installation to another, whether or not it is calibrated, as well as personal preferences and expectations may influence notation. In addition, the images (from the site) Slowpoke Pics) serve as an illustration and cannot be considered representative of the edition tested.
Test equipment and condition (Config. HP: 5.1.4)
Video broadcaster : Sony Bravia XR-65A95L (Dolby Dark Vision)
Sources : Oppo UDP-203 Audiocom Reference | Zappiti Reference
Pregnant : Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar (Dolby Atmos | DTS Neural:X), SVS SB-4000
Aliens, Return - War and Mothers
Source United States | Publisher : 20th Century Studios | Release date : 12 March 2024
Video format
• Intermediate Master: 4K
• Standard HDR: Dolby Vision
• Ratio: 1.85
Soundtrack
• English Dolby Atmos
• English Dolby Surround 4.1 (film version)
• English DTS-HD MA 2.0
• French (parisian) DTS-HD HR 5.1
Subtitles
• English
• French
Artistic : 8.5 | Video : 5 | Audio : 9
After 57 years of drift in space, Ellen Ripley was rescued by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. Despite her report concerning the incident on the Nostromo, she is not taken seriously by the military as to the presence of xenomorphs on planet LV-426 where her crew set themselves... planet where several families of settlers were sent on mission to « terraforming ». After the latter disappeared, Ripley decided to accompany a marine squad in their rescue mission...
How to succeed in a respectful suite that stands out from Original ? Perhaps by evacuating the claustrophobic in camera in order to stage a real war film camouflaged in horrific science fiction, where the only alien creature invites a hundred of his friends to face overarmed marines. The show is thus total and all the scenes where the xenomorphs appear fly. In the family of genre cinema, Aliens is Queen!
« Being in the marines is like a farm holiday. Every meal is a banquet, every mission is a pleasure, every end of the month we are millionaire. »
Result of a 35 mm capture by the head op Adrian Biddle (V for Vendetta), the granular photograph so characteristic of the work is more than a distant memory (the silver texture was simply annihilated) and is now like a digital production whose rendering, « improved » algorithmically in its details (not without having caused many visual problems), is much closer to a video game (coucho) Aliens: Fireteam) than a film.
Too clear everywhere, the AI having decided that each element of the framework should be « redesigned » With more or less fidelity (regardless of the initial development settings), the image has a very disturbing hardness even if some improvements are amazing (the texture of the uniforms, the environment of the colony). And since the result of the previous 2K scan, it lets the same dirt and other scratches shine not without having first accentuated them (how are these not details?). Fortunately, it's not just negative...
More natural, the colorimetric palette with cold blue-grey tones is more tainted by the orange-breast drifts of the previous Blu-ray, so that the red and purple shades cover a beautiful vibrance. The same applies to carnation, otherwise healthier (this is notable in the 1st class Jenette Vasquez). The contrasts have also been perfected with deeper blacks (but not too much anyway) than in the past and bolder whites. Average binary flow was measured at 51.526 kbps.
On the other hand, even if a little brighter, light sources such as helmet lamps and sparks from welding torches remain generally dull and above all, do not provide any new information in the high luminances. Would it be a simple light adjustment? I think so.
Between the lines « in CGI » Corporal Dwayne Hicks and the Fog Homo ecce Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, what's the worst?
Equipped and modernized without separating itself from its vintage sound design, the VO today proposed in Dolby Atmos takes full advantage of the channels at its disposal so that the fear envelops lastingly (cf. the presence and cries of xenomorphs emanating from all directions).
The dynamics are fantastic, the directional effects and the atmospheric atmospheres work at full speed, the rear cry is regular (the activity of the loading dock, the screaming of the outer wind, the debunking in the hive), the dialogues are clearly exuded by the central, the verticality of the mixing is not there to make figuration (spaceships, rain, reverberations in restricted spaces), the LFE channel is not lacking muscle (flames, crash, explosions, handling robot, sentinels-radars) and the partition of the James Horner, with warrior brass, exploits the entire space with great fidelity.
Less open and energetic, the VF DTS-HD HR plays it small arm in comparison.
Abyss, the Odyssey of the depths
Source United States | Publisher : 20th Century Studios | Release date : 12 March 2024
Video format
• Intermediate Master: 4K
• Standard HDR: Dolby Vision
• Ratio: 2.39
Soundtrack
• English Dolby Atmos
• English DTS-HD MA 2.0
• French (parisian) DTS-HD HR 5.1
Subtitles
• English
• French
Artistic : 9 | Video : 6.5 | Audio : 9.5
A U.S. Navy submarine is mysteriously dark and the crew of an experimental oil drilling base is mobilized to recover its nuclear warheads. One of the divers finds himself in a fantastic odyssey at 8,000 meters deep, where he is confronted with a mysterious force that could change the world, or destroy it.
Long before Titanic and Avatar: The Waterway, this underwater trip with hypnotic beauty left no doubt about James Cameron's passion for the « Big Blue ». Completely at the margin of his time (he also drank the cup at the box office), in an otherwise unknown between author cinema and large-scale film, this hybrid work where the choking in camera (the codes of the genre are there) finds his breath in a touching declaration of love to our planet (under nuclear threat), tells above all how a couple who have touched the bottom will pull out the head of the water after multiple trials. A real technical power tower (the laboratory of T2) coupled with all personal aspirations (difficult relations with his then wife, the producer Gale Anne Hurd) became cult over time.
« If you take a long look into the abyss, the abyss looks at you too. »
Captured in Super35 format by the Director of Photography Mikael Solomon, this previously textured image is now abnormally clear with a silver granularity so small that it hardly exists anymore. In front of the Blu-ray included in the edition, the piqué increases in precision (the background) and the colorimetric palette in vibrance (the Lindsey red sleeveless dowel, the purple glow).
Clearly crafted with its strangely extraordinary clarity and some bizarrely smooth planes, it usually offers a superior resolution filled with details (the decorations, costumes, close-ups on the faces) even though they are sometimes too accented... And not just where they should be (the fuzzy elements should have stayed).
And despite a not frankly insubmersible compression (a strand of color banding in the depths) with its 56.68 Mb/s (on the Special Edition) and some tasks making in places their appearance, the wide range of blues (and cold greys) is faithfully reproduced without any oversaturation. Undersea scenes are much more perceptible than in the past (see Bud's long descent) by blacks with increased density, and light sources show a real vibrance when light with phosphorus appears.
Once the volume has been adjusted (+5 dB) to reach the reference level, the nicely immersive VO Dolby Atmos will allow you « Overwhelm » with its live sound scene, where the constancy of the aquatic ambiences is equal to the realism of the high technology on board (emitting a flatitude of sounds).
The partition dAlan Silvestri The LFE channel delivers heavy bass despite its moderate presence, the metal noises of the structure emanate from all sides, the surrounding activity (overturning at regular intervals) is pronounced, the heights rise to the 7th sky as soon as the scene is plunged under the water and the dynamics are present.
Loss of verticality obliges on the VF DTS-HD HR 5.1, the claustrophobic nature of the places is less well done. It does not prevent that by activating a virtualization DSP, the recovery of the air scene is effective. Not on the margins for the rest even if less authentic, it does not demerit.
True Lies, Total and more!
Source United States | Publisher : 20th Century Studios | Release date : 12 March 2024
Video format
• Intermediate Master: 4K
• Standard HDR: Dolby Vision
• Ratio: 2.39
Soundtrack
• English Dolby Atmos
• English DTS-HD MA 2.0
• French (parisian) DTS-HD HR 5.1
Subtitles
• English
• French
Artistic : 8 | Video : 3 | Audio : 10
For 15 years, Harry Tasker has been leading a double life. For his wife, Helen, he's a common computer representative. For the U.S. government, he's an elite anti-terrorist spy. And when these two lives end up meeting, Helen and Harry find themselves immersed in a gigantic international plot...
American Remake of the Little Franchouillard Comedy Total (that he buried from his opening sequence), this muscular action comedy with Schwarzy (Conan, Predator) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, Everything Everywhere All at Once) appears to be a farewell to weapons for his principal interpreter. To do this, what better than a high-flying pyrotechnic-rigolo show straight out of a James Bond What the fuck?
« - Have you ever killed anyone? - Yes, but they were bad guys! »
One « modernization » of which the passage to the artificial mill, horrendously heterogeneous from one plane to another, massacre shamelessly the photograph captured in Super35 of Russell Carpenter (Charlie and his funny ladies).
Either blurred and waxy, or too sharp and counter-natured (like cel-shading nearly 40% of the time), this image with abnormal photochemical texture « clean » (absent) and then fichtre « Dirty » (invasive) the second after, is agitated by an autopilot treatment... It also affects contrasts (incoherent levels of black) and carnation (from pale to tanned in a snap of fingers). Surprisingly, some fine details naturally persist from there.
For the rest, the revisionist colorimetric palette (cool and not warmer) offers new bold hues (the red sports car, the turquoise seafront of the Florida Keys), the light sources are very bright at times (cf. the chimney fire during the striptease of Helen) and the compression HEVC, with a bitrate of the order of 65 to 70 Mbps on average, does not fry its cover.
My dear daughter, your father tells me I'm too much of a lift! You think it's true?
I think I got the wrong movie, I had to put A Darkly Scanner and not True Lies !
Plastic is fantastic!
While she has always been fantastic (including VHS), this turbulent soundtrack powered by the score of Brad Fiedel (Terminator) takes advantage of a strong upgrade with a memorable engagement of the height scene (the voice during interrogation, the jet passages, the helicopter ride) and more space to breathe back (the final with the Harrier II).
More immersive than ever, the activity around it is substantial to the slightest incartade and music, which benefits from a pleasant fidelity of the mediums, perfectly distributed on all channels. The dialogues are always clear, the dynamics are far from modest and the LFE channel is firm (explosions, shots, jet engines).
If it is not to enjoy its dubbing drolatic, there is no reason to favor the VF presented in DTS-HD HR 5.1 because it is less impacting and tighter, it assumes too little the double life that it is supposed to lead.
Titanic, Lost Hearts in the Atlantic
Source France | Publisher : 20th Century Studios | Release date : 24 January 2024
Video format
• Intermediate Master: 4K
• Standard HDR: Dolby Vision
• Ratio: 2.35
Soundtrack
• English Dolby Atmos
• English DTS-HD MA 2.0
• Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Subtitles
• English
• French
Artistic : 10 | Video : 7.5 | Audio : 9.5
Southampton, April 10, 1912. The largest and most modern ship in the world, known for its insubmersibility, the « Titanic », sails for his first trip. Four days later, he hit an iceberg. On board, a poor artist and a big bourgeois fell in love...
One of the greatest films of the 7th art including the upsetting love story, historical truthfulness, perfect casting (Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet), the titanic reconstruction, the striking tricks of realism, the fear caused by the shipwreck and the poignant music revive the legend of the Titanic. A timeless masterpiece.
« It happened 84 years ago, and I still smell like fresh paint. No one had yet slept in the sheets, porcelain had never been used. The titanic was nicknamed... the dream ship, and he was, he was really... »
Integrally filmed on 35 mm film, the photo of the chef op
So yes, the artificial sharpness of some extras in the background and the few disorders in the focus (this is the problem when blurred things become clearly defined) attracts the eye, but the level of detail (including SFXs), unheard of for this film, is in the whole very appreciable (the close-ups on the faces, the costumes of the era). The tiny petzoyles on the copy, however, should not have boarded.
Of course, the granulosity that is in retreat without visiting « the Grévin Museum » (even though it was completely removed during this remaster before being applied once the « cleaning » completed) makes the silver patina slightly move away, but it remains sufficiently glamorous not to be grieved overly.
As for WCG and HDR technologies, it is in a conservative spirit that they have been applied... The calibration of a clarified hair (even with the glacial hues during the sinking) is generally anchored in the colorimetric space Rec. 709 (except perhaps for a handful of blues and during the vintage sequence) and little new information comes to visit the high luminances (the ultra-solar white light therefore remains overexposed) despite a slightly increased shine (the car chromes, the reflections in the moonlight).
Magistrally contained before seriously deploring during the dramatic event, this ideally balanced Dolby Atmos soundtrack shows a formidable dynamic, a particularly wide spatialization, clear voices, striking accuracy (the vibrations and other cracks of the ship's metal hull), serious ones that are unleashed (notably during the collision with the iceberg) and terrifying realism effects (water simmering). In addition, it propels James Horner's music all over the cabin and uses always appropriate verticality (such as the arrival of the Rose helicopter, the sound of the insubmersible sirens and the visit to the engine room). Does she do more than justice to this Oscar-winning mix? Oh yes if this is for both lines of dialogue missing (2:11 and 2:37)!
The small VF Dolby Digital 5.1 is not able to give life to the liner because of its lack of size and precision (the limits of compression), even though its dubbing is well incorporated into the original soundtrack.
Hello, I had several sound cuts during the VF viewing of the movie version of Aliens of the order of 7 or 8 including one spotted at about 41 min. With a pana ub450 drive. It doesn't seem very normal. Defective disc?.
Nothing on my side, maybe more of a compatibility concern due to the Seamless branching process. 🤔
Not at all agree !!!!!!!! The image is beautiful! I'm sorry to read that we need grain on a movie. I don't see any when I go to the movies. It's a great edition to buy eyes closed.. some plans a little too greenish light but on a giant screen with protector it's superb!
You have the right to think so, but the problems go far beyond the application of a simple DNR. 😞
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