Angels & Demons Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Angels & Demons Blu-ray Movie Review

Sony has re-released 'Angels & Demons' to Blu-ray to celebrate The Da Vinci Code's 10th anniversary, tie-in with the upcoming release of 'Inferno', and pair it with the film's UHD debut. This new 1080p disc features new video and a blend of new and (mostly) old supplemental content. This release also ditches the extended version of the film; the previous Blu-ray featured two cuts. Unfortunately, those who prefer the film's longer presentation and wish to view it under the newly remastered video are out of luck.

Robert Langdon.

Angels & Demons Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Angles & Demons has received an overhaul in the way of a 4K remaster, and Sony's 1080p disc reaps the benefits thereof. Like The Da Vinci Code, the movie was (primarily) photographed on 35mm film and finished at 4K. The result is spectacular. The image is beautifully filmic, very clean and naturally sharp, and accentuated by a fine grain veneer. Details are crisp and sharp. Gone is the mild inherent softness of the first film and the less forgiving lighting. Angels & Demons is still a somewhat dark film, but bolder splashes of color are much more commonplace. Bright reds around the Vatican are particularly noteworthy, dominating many a scene and often standing apart from more mildly colored or darkened backdrops. Blood, clothing shades, flashing sirens, and other assorted object accents also yield attractively even and natural coloring. Details are fantastic. Facial features are particularly noteworthy, with pores and hair and other textural minutia revealing to the fullest extent the Blu-ray format can seemingly allow. Finer clothing textures are wonderful, too, particularly some of the more ornate church garb and the sports coat Langdon wears for, about, the movie's first half or so. Black levels are perfectly deep and balanced. Flesh tones are full and healthy in any lighting condition. No apparent evidence of print wear or encoding artifacts are apparent. This is a terrific presentation from Sony.

Angels & Demons Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with The Da Vinci Code's 1080p reissue, Sony has left off the Atmos track from Angels & Demons' UHD counterpart in favor of a more traditional DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. While a shame that the studio cannot, or will not, offer the best possible experience on every disc, the good news is that this presentation is very good on its own merits. The film begins with some well defined zip and zoom as the track follows the activity in the Large Hadron Collider. Intensity of movement and volume both increase as the action unfolds, to the point that the stage becomes fully saturated in its broader, bass-heavy details and the finer points of movement and spacing alike. Directional effects continue with a helicopter powering through the stage minutes later. Nothing matches the Collider scene for sheer sonic intensity, but general action chaos -- gunfire, raging fires, and other combined elements -- do immerse the stage in key sonic details, usually paired with high intensity music. The film's score is generously reproduced around the listening area. Clarity is high, spacing wide, surround immersion balanced, and bass support active and even. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized with firm center placement, save for key moments when a larger in-film area allows it some space to reverberate through the listening area.

Angels & Demons Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Angels & Demons contains one completely new extra and the extended cut scenes. For reviews of previously released material, please click here. Gone are the following extras: The Path of Illumination, CineChat, and BD-Live. A UV digital copy code is included with purchase.

• NEW! Legacy of Langdon with First Look at Inferno (1080p, 4:10): This supplement shares a name (minus one "a") with one found on The Da Vinci Code's reissue, but it's a bit different. It opens with a look at Inferno and moves on to examine how the films are similar and different (with a closer look into Angels & Demons), and eventually comes back full circle to Inferno. Note that the back of the box advertises this supplement (labeled as "A First Look at Inferno") as well as "A Look Back with Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, Dan Brown and Brian Grazer." That latter supplement doesn't appear to actually exist on its own, so it seems like Sony made it sound like two extras when it is, in reality, just this one (Hanks, Howard, Brown, and Grazer all appear in this extra). The packaging listing definitely demarcates them with a "bullet point" symbol. Pretty shady if that's the case.
• (Sort of) NEW! Extended Cut Scenes (1080p, DD 2.0, 9:23): While audiences cannot watch the extended cut in full, the trimmed scenes are at least here to peruse separate of the picture proper. Included are Not Eligible, Parking, Pressure Change, In the Church, Oxygen, Law, Seeking Guidance, We Must Open the Doors, Gunfight, Oxygen Mask, and Impossible. These scenes were presented in 5.1 lossless sound on the original Blu-ray; why not here, too?
• Rome Was Not Built in a Day
• Writing Angels & Demons
• Characters in Search of the True Story
• CERN: Pushing the Frontiers of Knowledge
• Handling Props
• Angels & Demons: The Full Story
• This is an Ambigram
• NEW! Teaser Trailer (1080p, 1:11).
• NEW! Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:16).

Angels & Demons Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Angles & Demons still holds up as the better of the two (current) Robert Langdon movies. A firmer film, more energetic, a vastly more interesting plot, superior performances, and Ron Howard directing with the same knowing smoothness as the first film all help elevate this sequel a step above the first. Sony's reissue features a fantastic 1080p picture sourced from a 4K master. Audio is 5.1 rather than Atmos, as it is on the companion UHD release, but it's still strong. Most of the supplements are simple ports from the last release. Recommended.