Avengers: Infinity War (2018). UK Disney UHD. Now that I've picked my jaw up off the floor I can write y'all another boring wall of text with some janky photos to see in the new year. I realise I'm very late with my thoughts on this but literally one of you still seems to want to know what I made of it, and here I am. I wanted to rewatch some more of Phase 3 first but I never got around to it and just wanged this on last night, I'm very glad I did.
Shot primarily on the Alexa 65 with Ultra Panatar anamorphic lenses the movie has a supremely glossy look but it never lacks for texture on faces, clothing etc, retaining that shallow depth of field inherent to large format capture (which is exacerbated even more by the anamorphic glass). Having not seen the movie in IMAX but in regular 'scope, I came away from the cinema thinking that the opening scene looked really badly framed but that the remainder looked fine, and I'm relieved to say that I felt the same way after watching the 'scope UHD.
This 4K UHD does a magnificent job of conveying Trent Opaloch's cinematography, the close-ups are insanely detailed (Gwyneth and RDJ look old as balls in that park scene!) and even the wider shots retain such a finely resolved amount of acuity that I found myself wondering whether this actually got a 4K finish after all. This isn't proof of anything but comparing the UHD to the Blu I found a distinct lack resolution in the mid-to-wider vistas in the 1080p version, like the details on the buildings in the NY cityscape at 19m10s or the roof of Edinburgh station at 39m49s where all those diagonal beams converge and lose detail. Close-ups still look rather nice on the 1080p BD, as they often do, but even there the subtler details like hairs can blend together while the UHD looks so crisp.
Then now, now then, what about the HDR? I recall that one or two people were less than impressed with it, but to me and my TV it's a stone cold STUNNER. I'm not exaggerating when I say that there's hardly a minute that goes by where I can't see the HDR working its magic to pull down more range and more colour and more loveliness, I started to take photos and by the end of just the opening ****ing scene I had as many 'demo' shots as I needed. (I took some more though, natch.)
One thing that floored me with the HDR is how much control it has over the image, bringing out as much or as little extra brightness is necessary and hasn't just had the brightness ramped up for the sake of it, it's vibrant but it's so natural at the same time. The cloudy-looking skies when Peter is swinging across the bridge to get to the donut are a great example, they retain far more highlight detail than the SDR but aren't nuked for the brightness either, yet something like the Bifrost has far more punch and intensity to it as well as retaining a SHITLOAD more range (which you'll see later in the photo section).
It really isn't just me gazing at expanses of sky and how a lightbulb looks as to why I'm so excited though, as it's the total effect of what HDR does for the whole image. I lost count of the amount of times it took on an almost three-dimensional look, I know I mention dat HDR 'depth' a lot and I wish I could come up with some better synonyms but that really
is the best way to describe it. And when you've got something that uses as much CG as this does (3000-odd shots, I think?) as well as a coterie of completely CG characters then creating that depth, that space between spaces, is crucial in selling the effect and the amount of difference it makes is MASSIVE to my eyes, make the effects look so much more tangible and properly integrated into the shot.
The bit in NY when Stark and Strange are facing off against Ebony Maw looks so flat on the SDR Blu-ray, like a bunch of blokes tarting about on a greenscreen (which is what it is, to be fair), but the HDR version brings so much more of a realistic quality to it, not simply becuz highlights but for the way that light and shade play off of people and objects. Same goes for when Thanos is talking to Peter in the flaming ruins of Knowhere, the closeups of the Mad Titan's face with the fire burning in the background look so real it's breathtaking. There's still some very dodgy CG in and of itself which not even HDR can fix (Banner's head sticking out of the Hulkbuster suit, shudder) but for the most part the HDR is a killer addition.
The colour also gets a terrific boost but, as with the HDR, it's not raging at eyeball-melting intensity all of the time, instead you get a range of improvements from subtle to stunning and everything in between. There isn't a wholesale change in colour balance between SDR and HDR but I think the SDR has just a fraction more of a greeny tinge, only a fraction, but the UHD wins in terms of how much bolder the colour looks.
Black levels are excellent, I'd say that they've been brought down just a touch compared to the SDR but this is NOT a case of dat Disney black crush rearing its head, instead it's a very subtle difference, but a welcome one. Example: In the bit when they're on the Quinjet after rescuing Wanda and Vision from Scotland and Cap says "home" it cuts to black, right, and the UHD version dims my TV (a filthy full-array LCD) down to off, i.e. there's nothing there to illuminate the scene. But on the SDR disc that same cut to black keeps the screen lit, I can just see the black borders and the dark area inbetween. It's the sort of thing that any kind of ambient light would ameliorate, but watching in a darkened room with no bias light you tend to notice these things and it makes the UHD look just that little bit more solid in the lower end.
Wrap all that up with an encode that is, at first glance, perfect, with no overt applications of sharpening or denoising and you've got one hell of a UHD that covers all the bases of resolution, colour and range. It's even got sound as well, but I wouldn't know about that.
Time for lots of photos! Please please PLEASE don't treat these as 100% accurate depictions of either SDR or HDR but for illustrative purposes they're okay to a point, just try and pay attention to what I'm trying to convey with them (if you're still awake after reading all that). Same frames at all times.
Thanos and Friends aboard the Asgardian ship, or what's left of it.
It's not that dark but it was necessary to get the highlights, look at how much more range is retained on the UHD in the purple 'splosions, even the purple colour itself is more vibrant.
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Heimdall summoning the bifrost. Picture, thousand words, etc
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Back down to Earth with a simpler shot, nice amount of highlight detail in the sky in the background, nothing as massive as the shot above this one but then it doesn't always have to be.
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Wong's big bang theory, lovely amount of highlight detail in the nascent cosmos
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Strange in the street. See how the magic thingy on the right is clipped out where it hits the sky in the background in SDR? The HDR version is not as dark as that but again, exposure, blah blah blah
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Thor getting a workout at Nidavellir. Again, not much more that needs be said.
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Last photo, fittingly of the sunset as Thanos surveys his work.
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HDR10 4K BD review, OPPO 203 into Sony 65ZD9
Maybe tonight... Should watch 1&2 first though really...
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