4K Ultra HD – UK Edition – Universal Pictures – 110 min – 05 July 2021
Video format
• Intermediate Master: 4K
• Standard HDR: HDR10
• Ratio: 1.85
Soundtrack
• English DTS:X
• French (Parisian) DTS 2.0
Subtitles
• English
• French
It is brought to the attention of our dear readers as well as the viewing equipment specified and used by each tester of the MaG team, the rendering may differ from one installation to another, whether or not it is calibrated, as well as personal preferences and expectations may influence the rating. Moreover, the images in the article are not representative of the edition tested.
WORK – A new race of heroes
Teleported from his cozy daily life by a mysterious cosmic force, Howard The Duck, the extra-dimensional duck fan of beer and cigars, arrives on our planet, in Cleveland, among humans. In addition to getting used to his new life in the company of rocker Beverly and scientist Phil, he was forced to take humanity under his wing and fight against strange threats if he did not want to end up in confidence.
Cursed work of the 80s that became cult over the years, this pure nanar that never takes itself seriously propel on our little blue planet the most hero « ridiculous » but also and especially the most staggered of the Marvel universe. Despite enormous pitfalls (from writing to directing to performing), this delusional work follows the amusing and/or brilliantly ambiguous situations with a Dr. Howard the Duck whose behavior is deliciously subversive. And then, without this film, Pixar might never have existed!
IMAGE – Trapped away, far away from home!
Drawn from a brand new 4K scan, the images (nets and light) captured at the time in 35 mm seem to date yesterday!
The organic texture is a beautiful finesse, the details are sharpened (except in the generics where they are a little soft) and much sharper than in HD (the feathers of Howard, the wardrobe of Beverly, the constructions of Cleveland), the colors gain in vivacity (the primarys on the criard clothes) and in shade (greenness, the blue sky, the carnation), the contrasts are more precise (richer blacks and purer whites), the light sources are exposed with much more realism (the lightings of the bar) and intensity (the reflections on the water, the powers of the villain coming from the Nexus dimension of Sominus), and the compression is absolutely invisible.
SON: Come on, duck, rock!
Making a demonstrative use of the height scene ( Howard's arrival on Earth, the movements of the ULM, the laser explosion, the music) and provided with a furious dynamic, the VO encoded in DTS:X sends out pâté!
Immersive and supported by rather heavy bass, it uses a very good spatialization (both front and back) by swinging its effects/ambiguations on all available speakers. Coherent and balanced, it therefore diffuses natural dialogues that are not absorbed by the « tintamarre » or by the magnitude of the score.
Flatter and tighter at the front, runway 2.0 requires, the VF is simply destroyed!.. Even if at its modest level, it is not ridiculous with good general clarity and excellent frontal separation.
CONCLUSION – Badass the corner corner?
For all fans of the space palmipede, emblematic figure of the counterculture of the 1970s in the United States (in comics therefore) and hero of the fascinating nanar that we are interested in today, the present edition 4K Ultra HD (with the unexpected technical quality) is a boon not to be missed. Nearly 35 years after finding the beak in the water, Howard is ready to shine!
Artistic note
6
Video quality
9
Audio quality
9
0
Subscribe
Connection
0 Remarks
oldest
