Mission: Impossible 1-5 4K UHDs (1996-2015)

[bbwiscfan]

The fact that I was 11 is still no excuse....

[bbwiscfan]

Originally Posted by ncraft

The best thing I can say about Mi2 is that it is better than Speed 2 or MiB2, if only slightly.

I have such a hard time with MiB2; I've seen it twice since acquiring the UHD boxset (which is just incredible) but to this day I still don't follow the plot to the end, its just so boring. The PQ is impeccable though. Part of the reason why I loved MiB3 so much is that my expectations were shit with the result of 2.

[Geoff D]

MI3 then, still an absolutely cracking action film. It's got an energy to it unlike the previous two but also a greater sense of personal drama, De Palma's slower burn and Woo's even slower-mo doves giving way to a propulsive tale revolving around Hunt and the love of his life. If Mi2 set this series up to be the Yanks' version of Bond, Mi3 does an OHMSS and marries off the IMF's star secret agent, almost culminating in the same outcome...almost. The action is thrilling, the score is terrific and the photography by Dan Mindel loves dat anamorphic without wanking all over the lens flares. This JJ fella is one to watch!

The UHD is excellent, taking the ultra black crush, pervasive yellow tinge and blown out highlights of the SDR version and completely turning them around. Shadow detail is revealed in abundance on hair, clothing and darker backgrounds and yet black levels still hit good and deep in several scenes. The old SDR grade always made people look a little odd at times, all yellow faces and pink lips, but they look so much more, well, normal in HDR without completely neutralising the underlying lighting in any given scene, the film has distinct looks for the US, Italian and Chinese sequences and the more neon-lit look of the latter is still very much in evidence, as is the deliberately greeny tinge of the German warehouse raid.

The increase in highlight detail is quite simply huge, not just in light sources and skies but practically any bright surface. When Davian is being questioned by Hunt on the plane the bright spotlight beaming down on him nukes the highlights on PSH's white shirt and on his sandy hair in SDR, but in HDR it's all perfectly resolved and those parts of the image don't lack for brightness, the highlights practically beam out in HDR.

Resolution-wise, the hyper contrast of the SDR version makes it look extremely sharp already so the upscaled UHD can only do so much, but there's definitely an extra touch of coherence in the wider shots. Several of the shots in the 'Vatican' had an unpleasant shimmering on the HD DVD and the MPEG-2 Blu-ray (the latter having some very untidy compression in places), this was refined further on the AVC Blu-ray and the UHD makes them look as cleanly defined as they're ever gonna look. And for such an early DI it shows very little signs of tinkering when it comes to things like grain and sharpening, grain looks nicely organic throughout (with only one of the shots of the drone attack looking a bit funky, like a patch of grain is literally missing as it flies past) and there are very few signs of them overcooking the sharpness. No signs of any chroma noise as far as the encode itself is concerned, and there's no banding or other such anomalies that I spotted.

I still think it's funny that people feared the HDR boogeyman would take x movie and jack up the contrast and colour and turn it into some garishly overcooked monstrosity, but more often than not it's been the exact opposite and MI3 is perhaps the most clear-cut example yet. The original SDR grade looked like My First Digital Intermediate at times, pushing the colour and contrast to ridonkulous extremes although it still kinda works, there's a punchiness to it which even the HDR can't match, but that grade takes a different tack and draws out more nuance and realism without kneecapping the original intent.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Yeah the blacks and shadow detail were very impressive. I loved this presentation.

[Fat Phil]

Good to hear. After watching Jack Reacher yesterday I had a real hankering to get the Tomcat/Chris McQuarrie band back together so I skipped over MI3 and GP and watched Rogue Nation today . But i'm now ready and eager to see Philip Seymour Hoffmaestro's contribution to the MI universe.

[chad_1138]

1-4 will arrive tomorrow and 5 will show up Monday. Almost time to start running these through the new P65

[singhcr]

Thanks for the review, Geoffy. From what you've said I'll have to eat my hat when I assumed that such early DI material wouldn't show a huge improvement from BD to UHD.

[MegatronG1]

Further price drop on amazon in the UK...£69.99.

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

MI3 then, still an absolutely cracking action film. It's got an energy to it unlike the previous two but also a greater sense of personal drama, De Palma's slower burn and Woo's even slower-mo doves giving way to a propulsive tale revolving around Hunt and the love of his life. If Mi2 set this series up to be the Yanks' version of Bond, Mi3 does an OHMSS and marries off the IMF's star secret agent, almost culminating in the same outcome...almost. The action is thrilling, the score is terrific and the photography by Dan Mindel loves dat anamorphic without wanking all over the lens flares. This JJ fella is one to watch!

The UHD is excellent, taking the ultra black crush, pervasive yellow tinge and blown out highlights of the SDR version and completely turning them around. Shadow detail is revealed in abundance on hair, clothing and darker backgrounds and yet black levels still hit good and deep in several scenes. The old SDR grade always made people look a little odd at times, all yellow faces and pink lips, but they look so much more, well, normal in HDR without completely neutralising the underlying lighting in any given scene, the film has distinct looks for the US, Italian and Chinese sequences and the more neon-lit look of the latter is still very much in evidence, as is the deliberately greeny tinge of the German warehouse raid.

The increase in highlight detail is quite simply huge, not just in light sources and skies but practically any bright surface. When Davian is being questioned by Hunt on the plane the bright spotlight beaming down on him nukes the highlights on PSH's white shirt and on his sandy hair in SDR, but in HDR it's all perfectly resolved and those parts of the image don't lack for brightness, the highlights practically beam out in HDR.

Resolution-wise, the hyper contrast of the SDR version makes it look extremely sharp already so the upscaled UHD can only do so much, but there's definitely an extra touch of coherence in the wider shots. Several of the shots in the 'Vatican' had an unpleasant shimmering on the HD DVD and the MPEG-2 Blu-ray (the latter having some very untidy compression in places), this was refined further on the AVC Blu-ray and the UHD makes them look as cleanly defined as they're ever gonna look. And for such an early DI it shows very little signs of tinkering when it comes to things like grain and sharpening, grain looks nicely organic throughout (with only one of the shots of the drone attack looking a bit funky, like a patch of grain is literally missing as it flies past) and there are very few signs of them overcooking the sharpness. No signs of any chroma noise as far as the encode itself is concerned, and there's no banding or other such anomalies that I spotted.

I still think it's funny that people feared the HDR boogeyman would take x movie and jack up the contrast and colour and turn it into some garishly overcooked monstrosity, but more often than not it's been the exact opposite and MI3 is perhaps the most clear-cut example yet. The original SDR grade looked like My First Digital Intermediate at times, pushing the colour and contrast to ridonkulous extremes although it still kinda works, there's a punchiness to it which even the HDR can't match, but that grade takes a different tack and draws out more nuance and realism without kneecapping the original intent.

Stop talking badly about M:I 2

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Agent Kay

Stop talking badly about M:I 2

Finally got my UK set today!

Will start watching these asap.

[KcMsterpce]

Originally Posted by Agent Kay

Stop talking badly about M:I 2

Adverbs 101 (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) - YouTube

[NoFro]

Have the set, waiting for the nights to draw in. It's not been getting dark until about 22:00 in the UK and I'm not wasting a 4K UHD by watching it in daylight. Blackout curtains can still only do so much.

Should be able to watch them in a couple of weeks.

[Dave_6]

Got the first two finally arriving today. Can't wait to watch the first one again since I haven't seen it since it first came out on home video.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by singhcr

Thanks for the review, Geoffy. From what you've said I'll have to eat my hat when I assumed that such early DI material wouldn't show a huge improvement from BD to UHD.

It's not that it displays some incredible difference in things like resolution and grain from one version to another (though the 2K grain is resolved about as keenly as it's ever going to be on the UHD, it's very fine on this disc and has none of the occasional colour blotching that's visible on MI 1 and 2), but the vast amount of highlight and lowlight detail that's been preserved shows that these creaky old DIs could bake in plenty of range if they wanted to. As I said at the time, they weren't scanned on a potato

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

It's not that it displays some incredible difference in things like resolution and grain from one version to another (though the 2K grain is resolved about as keenly as it's ever going to be on the UHD, it's very fine on this disc and has none of the occasional colour blotching that's visible on MI 1 and 2), but the vast amount of highlight and lowlight detail that's been preserved shows that these creaky old DIs could bake in plenty of range if they wanted to. As I said at the time, they weren't scanned on a potato

This is what is lost on people, the stuff they used then was brand new technology and was state of the art.
In 2018 there is newer stuff, but most if it is cheaper and lower in quality even if they offer higher resolution.

[aetherhole]

My M:I 1-3 discs are out for delivery. After watching Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, I've anticipated getting them in hands. I will probably start with M:I 3 first then 1, and finally 2. (No, I'm not saving the best for last, just trying to put off my least favorite as long as possible!)

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Agent Kay

This is what is lost on people, the stuff they used then was brand new technology and was state of the art.
In 2018 there is newer stuff, but most if it is cheaper and lower in quality even if they offer higher resolution.

Aye, they didn't move over to DIs on a whim, the movie industry was keenly aware that to digitise film and have it hold up you needed a very good scan along with proper management of range and colour gamut. The VFX industry had long been grappling with these questions throughout the '80s as the transition to digital VFX loomed large on the horizon, and as soon as the scanning and manipulation of those images was ready for prime time with high-end datacine (telecine had been around for yonks but it just wasn't stable enough or of a high enough quality) then it became apparent it might have uses other than to squirt out some VFX, e.g. Snow White was restored in 4K back in 1993 and although O Brother was the first 'official' feature to have a full DI in 2000, something like Pleasantville (1998) made extensive use of digital colour correction to create the striking 'colour on black and white' effect.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by aetherhole

My M:I 1-3 discs are out for delivery. After watching Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, I've anticipated getting them in hands. I will probably start with M:I 3 first then 1, and finally 2. (No, I'm not saving the best for last, just trying to put off my least favorite as long as possible!)

Watch number two first if only get it out of the way, it's kinda like ripping off a plaster/Band-Aid: might be painful at first but you'll soon be glad it's over with.

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Watch number two first if only get it out of the way, it's kinda like ripping off a plaster/Band-Aid: might be painful at first but you'll soon be glad it's over with.

Stop it!
#JusticeFor2 #JusticeForWoo #theladydothprotestMI2much

[aetherhole]

I ain't hatin' on John Woo. I still thoroughly love Face/Off, Broken Arrow, Hard Boiled, and even to a lesser extent Paycheck.

My complaint is M:I 2 does not a M:I movie. It's not even a full-fledged John Woo movie, as others have pointed out. I mean...

[Show spoiler]what the hell is up with Ambrose CRYING!? A formidable foe for Ethan shouldn't be shown crying; Angry, upset, and plotting sure!

Plus all the lack of effort to blend actors and stunt actors (indicative of a lot of Woo movies, though). Then there's the motorcycle sequences at the end, blatantly switching from street tires to spiked dirt tires. Then their's Ethan's excessively long and floppy hair.

Geoff, maybe I will watch #2 first. Rip the band-aid off quick!