8.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The Earth's Mightiest Heroes must protect the earth as they are confronted by their most powerful villain yet, the mad Titan Thanos, as he unleashes the power of the Infinity Gauntlet and its six stones upon the planet.
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett JohanssonAction | 100% |
Adventure | 99% |
Comic book | 87% |
Sci-Fi | 86% |
Fantasy | 75% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 MVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
German: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
English SDH, French, German, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Blu-ray 3D
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
With the plethora of great Marvel films out there, hailing any of them as "the best" is sure to cause a ruckus amongst the legion of rabid fans. But most would not argue that Avengers: Infinity War makes as strong a case as any of them for that title. The film pushes all the right buttons, leaving the characters and universe in an ever-evolving state of flux and the viewer in a constant state of amazement. Less than 10 minutes into the movie and infinity War reshapes the Marvel landscape and continues to turn the universe upside down on through to the end, an end that is not just a cliffhanger but an end that leaves the state of Marvel, and the studio's enormous fanbase, precariously teetering atop Mount Everest. The film is action-packed, sprawling, and heartfelt. The roster is huge and the story is consequential. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who shot the sequel immediately after shooting Infinity War, have a tall task to live up to this and to resolve the seemingly unresolvable.
The opening Marvel collage promises good things, producing some very impressive depth/pop-out hybrid images. The film proper's first scene,
prominently featuring Thanos and Loki, does not struggle to establish or reveal depth, even through burning rubble and a general lack of good light.
Character separation from the environment and from one another always appears clearly defined, and a fight between Hulk and Thanos never struggles
with defining character bulk, shape, and their place in the environment, even considering the quick-moving action and all of the digital renderings the
3D presentation needs to keep up with. Action scenes throughout delight with endless stage extension and some large scale moments that shine with
the opportunity to expand the movie's playing field. Perhaps just as interestingly there are a number of seemingly insignificant little environmental
details that in 2D go largely unnoticed but in 3D stand out as necessary objects that help to define distance between characters and their surroundings,
both in largely static scenes and as battlefields evolve.There's nothing really gimmicky in play, either, just a nonstop barrage of seamless depth and
some natural extension effects, whether simple things like fingers and arms or more complex moving parts during intense action.
For as good and fluid as the 3D may be when the chaos reigns, it is perhaps the stable depth and wide-open areas that most impress. When Strange
and Wong put on a little show for Tony Stark, filling him in on Thanos and the Infinity Stones, the sense of depth and scale within the shot -- a hybrid
of live action and digital -- is very impressive, as it is throughout all of Strange's home, which pushes and pulls with realistic stretch and space. Long
stretches of city streets extend well into the distance. Spider-Man slings through the city with breathtaking 3D positioning against the urban expanse.
Natural Wakandan expanses spread out far and wide. A ground level shot seen at the 43:43 mark, a scene when Thanos meets a young Gamora, offers
maybe
the best example of the 3D's ability to stretch a location with significant back-screen push.
The 3D presentation doesn't see any dramatic fall-off in terms of textural clarity or color compared to the standard 2D Blu-ray. It remains sharp and
intimately detailed with environmental touches -- whether grassy fields or dense city rubble -- and facial and costume features alike alive with tangible,
believable complexity. Colors don't see any significant subtraction to vibrance, either. For a more detailed review of what to expect in terms of color and
detail, see the review for the standard Blu-ray here.
Avengers: Infinity War's Blu-ray 3D release does not include the UHD's Dolby Atmos track. The disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack again suffers from Disney's reduced output encoding. At this reviewer's normal calibrated listening level, the track produces a light, shallow sound, with dialogue approaching whisper levels and action lacking audible intensity. Moving the volume dial upwards alleviates the sound level, but the track's lack of low end finesse remains an issue. Battle scenes are certainly not lacking for surround activity. Once a good, representative volume is found, listeners will enjoy no shortage of sweeping sounds that convey energy and motion and throw the audience in the middle of the action. It's at an increased volume where the sound design's true strengths are found, as every blast, thump, thud, bit of scattered rubble, and any and all sonic details, critical and subtle alike, become more prominently audible and intensely engaging as the sound designers almost certainly intended. A track is not this complex with the end goal of forcing the listener to strain to hear and enjoy it or to reduce its potency. Regardless, the track is a lot of fun at its core level, and even if the low end output is not prodigious, there's enough essential power to support action. The surrounds additionally carry a good number of light but environment- and mood-critical sound elements that shape less invasive scenes. Musical delivery follows, lacking the vitality at standard volume but finding more intensity and satisfying delivery at higher outputs. Dialogue, hushed as it may be, is fine when the volume is properly adjusted.
Avengers: Infinity War contains the following extras on the 2D-only Blu-ray. No DVD or digital copies are included. The release ships with an
embossed slipcover.
Infinity War is a dazzling film of great emotional draw, strongly defined characters despite a sprawling roster, digital delights, and storytelling that wraps together many previous plot lines from older Marvel films while boldly headed into an unknown future for the entire universe. This is not only perhaps the best Marvel movie of them all, it's also one of the year's most agreeable movies. Disney's Blu-ray 3D release of Avengers: Infinity War, which is not available in the US but that can imported region-free, delivers a first-rate 3D experience, alive with depth and complex moving parts that alway find perfect placement across, into, and out of the 3D environment. Sound and supplements are unchanged from the US Blu-ray. Very highly recommended.
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