The Abyss 4K UHD (1989)

[By_His_Strypes]

Cameron this, Cameron that... he's such a phony AI rat. I don't think he is trying to cater to the average joe here and stick it to the die hard fans of these movies. What kind of logic is that? I consider myself a die hard fan and can acknowledge a major upgrade here. Some don't even know what they are complaining about. They saw a few making a big stink about things and jumped on that train. That train will be vocal but it's going nowhere. In the end? these are the movies we will have... like it or not.

[Jbabler]

Originally Posted by richieb1971

I wonder if Cameron retouched it this time around.

There is a scene in the first 30 mins where the black crane lady grabs something with the crane under water and you can tell its animated. It looks like stop frame animation. I was surprised of this because the effects elsewhere are top notch.

If you're talking about where she's trying to uncouple the tether line, it's always looked like that.

[Resettito]

Originally Posted by By_His_Strypes

Cameron this, Cameron that... he's such a phony AI rat. I don't think he is trying to cater to the average joe here and stick it to the die hard fans of these movies. What kind of logic is that? I consider myself a die hard fan and can acknowledge a major upgrade here. Some don't even know what they are complaining about. They saw a few making a big stink about things and jumped on that train. That train will be vocal but it's going nowhere. In the end? these are the movies we will have... like it or not.

It's perfectly legitimate to be disappointed and upset when these are very likely the final versions, and we're not getting anything better. They might overall be upgrades but some of us really hate when directors (and yes, they're the directors, they're the ultimate "authority" so to speak) fall in love with new tech and just go nuts with it and end up wanting, for some reason, to make their "old" films look like they were shot today, sometimes even as if they were digitally shot.

So yeah, DNR rightfully gets a bad rap, and it's infuriating to see it very badly used and to see the beautiful texture of film messed with to that degree.

[Dr. Trog]

Originally Posted by Resettito

Trailer versus actual stream?

Trailer vs the 10 year old digital copy floating around.

[Atomic Salad]

Originally Posted by Dr. Trog

Trailer vs the 10 year old digital copy floating around.

vs smartphone camera's autofocus and autoexposure randomness

[Dr. T]

Originally Posted by bilbofett

[Show spoiler]

[Show spoiler]

so its exactly what I thought it was. And our fav love-him-or-hate-him BH is carrying water for them. Why not call it what it is? a 4k upscale that can be hit or miss, looks mostly miss. I believe the Abyss was rescanned from the negative. True Lies? Seen nothing yet to lend credence to that. They never even talked about that over the years. It was just "oh btw you know how you were all waiting for the Abyss? Turns out in that time we also rescanned Aliens AND True Lies! Surprise!". I'm skeptical they did. IF they did.. then Park Road ruined it.
I'll be honest here..always had a HUGE crush on Jamie Lee. When I heard the 4k was finally coming, I was anticipating being able to see details (in the famous stripperpole scene) like skin pores and even light forearm hair that we've never seen before.
What we got (thus far) is an over-DNR'd waxy, AI mess.

.and here's the new "Park Road™ optimized" cover:

[Show spoiler]

^^Ok, that one was a joke ��

Sir, this is an Abyss thread.

[sojrner]

[Chad Rouch]

Originally Posted by bilbofett

I'll be honest here..always had a HUGE crush on Jamie Lee. When I heard the 4k was finally coming, I was anticipating being able to see details (in the famous stripperpole scene) like skin pores and even light forearm hair that we've never seen before.

This is borderline evidence for a restraining order from her.

[By_His_Strypes]

I think BH knows some will attack him for him saying the transfers are good more than anything else. So, he is throwing in some bits here and there to acknowledge that aspect of which he knows is out there and very adamant about these transfers having been botched.

[Dr. Trog]

Originally Posted by Atomic Salad

vs smartphone camera's autofocus and autoexposure randomness

vs the blue light bulb in my living room lamp

[motorheadache95]

Originally Posted by By_His_Strypes

I think BH knows some will attack him for him saying the transfers are good more than anything else. So, he is throwing in some bits here and there to acknowledge that aspect of which he knows is out there and very adamant about these transfers having been botched.

I think his tolerance for this kind of processing is just higher, plus I believe he watches everything on a projector which diminishes the effect a bit. He did give top marks for Lord of the Rings, too, believing he was watching new 4K restorations from the film elements.

I don’t agree with his positive takeaway on Aliens (and probably not True Lies from what I’ve been hearing), but his actual review seems fair enough. More reason I’ve never put much stock in scores and just reading the actual review.

[HeightOfFolly]

Originally Posted by surfinhank

It's funny reading his reviews of these digital releases, it's like he's bending over backwards not to say anything the least bit negative. Like not being able to say "the PQ sucks" so he's talking in code to say the PQ sucks:

"extraordinary clarity and detail, so much so that it’s actually a little jarring. The film looks almost modern now as opposed to vintage late 80s, which is obviously Cameron’s intent."

"it occasionally looks a little bit processed... however, the more I look at this image, the more I appreciate it, and I suspect that most fans will feel the same."

"the clarity increase is so dramatic that it does take a little bit of getting used to."

It can't be easy to watch this after he spent God knows how many years telling us that The Abyss was FINALLY coming out on Blu-ray THIS year.

[By_His_Strypes]

Originally Posted by HeightOfFolly

It can't be easy to watch this after he spent God knows how many years telling us that The Abyss was FINALLY coming out on Blu-ray THIS year.

Can't he only relay the relevant info he is being told? info that fans would want to hear or should he have just kept it to himself? In the end he was right, even though he endured much hate along the way.

[Croweyes1121]

I just wanted to post these real quick to show people that the entire film is not teal, despite what some are claiming...

















Don't use these as judgment of the overall transfer as they're compressed. I'm just illustrating the color. I can also share plenty of caps of purple/blue (not cyan/blue) scenes as well if people want them. Now again, I am NOT claiming that there isn't a lot of teal in the film. There is. Always has been. But it's not everywhere and in every environment and every scene. Where it is, it's supposed to be.

[Trekkie313]

Some of these look better than what I saw in theaters. Them coming out of DeepCore at the end looked duped/washed out and the ship had more purple.

[Dr. Trog]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

I can also share plenty of caps of purple/blue (not cyan/blue) scenes as well if people want them.

I'd like to see the same two screenshots that some knucklehead posted from his outdated smartphone a few posts back!

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by Trekkie313

Some of these look better than what I saw in theaters. Them coming out of DeepCore at the end looked duped/washed out and the ship had more purple.

As someone who went to the theatrical showing, I definitely agree.

I do also know for certain that the audio has been updated / improved since the theatrical showing. Every audio issue introduced by the branching DVD was still there at my theatrical screening but has now been fixed. Whether they were fixed last minute just in the past week or if the theatrical showing purposefully used an earlier version of the audio that hadn't gone through final corrections in time for theatres, I don't know.

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by Dr. Trog

I'd like to see the same two screenshots that some knucklehead posted from his outdated smartphone a few posts back!

Obviously these are way more teal because of where they take place, but I think these are the two you were wanting.

[Croweyes1121]

A few shots containing blue (not exclusively cyan) coloring, to show that the transfer does indeed contain true blues and purples when called for:

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

I just wanted to post these real quick to show people that the entire film is not teal, despite what some are claiming...

[Show spoiler]

Don't use these as judgment of the overall transfer as they're compressed. I'm just illustrating the color. I can also share plenty of caps of purple/blue (not cyan/blue) scenes as well if people want them. Now again, I am NOT claiming that there isn't a lot of teal in the film. There is. Always has been. But it's not everywhere and in every environment and every scene. Where it is, it's supposed to be.

Those look good enough for me. I honestly won't really care, if Aliens is a mess, because I have a good enough Blu-ray, I'm also not the biggest fan of True Lies, but I NEED a decent Abyss release, because I love this movie and having it only on DVD is ridiculous.