Guardians of the Galaxy 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Guardians of the Galaxy 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

SteelBook lovers may be getting a contact high from either visiting their local Wal-mart or going online to the retailer's site, since the corporate giant has been partnering with a number of studios/labels to release a rather large slate of titles in this packaging format of late. Included in this glut are so-called Mondo X offerings from Disney / Buena Vista and Marvel, and Guardians of the Galaxy 4K is included in that subcategory. As with several other Wal-mart SteelBooks (not necessarily limited to Disney / Buena Vista and/or Marvel properties), Guardians of the Galaxy 4K has had a previous SteelBook release back when Best Buy was partnering with various studios/labels to offer their own "exclusives". Both that Best Buy SteelBook and the original Guardians of the Galaxy 4K wide release packaging were reviewed by Martin Liebman, and the above links will lead to his assessments of those particular releases, but I'd recommend those interested to actually begin with Ken Brown's Guardians of the Galaxy Blu-ray review of the original 1080 release for a full plot summary and list of supplements.

Guardians of the Galaxy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality is assessed in the above linked reviews.

Guardians of the Galaxy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality is assessed in the above linked reviews. In a perhaps joking riff on my traditional "different reviewers means different opinions", Ken and Marty's reactions to the audio were manifestly different, and in fact in what was perhaps a typo, Marty gave different audio scores to the wide and SteelBook releases, which may indicate " same reviewer means different opinions", but one way or the other, I'm offering a 4.0 for the Atmos track.

Guardians of the Galaxy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

On disc supplements are detailed in the above linked reviews. I've been mentioning with regard to these "new, improved" Marvel SteelBooks that even fans who purchased the older Best Buy offerings may want to double dip, since the Mondo X designs in particular tend to be so outstanding, but this particular release may be an outlier in that regard, if only because I personally found the Best Buy SteelBook release of this film to be rather colorful and exuberant. Things are still exuberant with the front panel image on this release, once again offering the film's major characters, though arguably this time in a somewhat darker hued and maybe a bit more psychedelically tinged presentation. Oranges and purples predominate in a rather unusual color scheme. The back panel is rather minimalist, and in fact the bulk of the panel is rather dark blue/black, and I can state with some authority that it will show fingerprints. A mylar O-ring offers a few more elements, but really not all that much. I've documented the O-ring beside the SteelBook in the second photo, as well as showing what it looks like on the SteelBook in the third and fourth photos. Once again the interior panels aren't much to write home about, but are at least colorful and whimsical. Discs also carry the Mondo X branding along with artwork. A digital copy is also included.

Guardians of the Galaxy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Guardians of the Galaxy is of course a lot of fun, and my hunch is most fans of the franchise will probably already have at least one copy of this film in either 1080 or 4K in their collections, and a subset of that group may already have the Best Buy SteelBook. This new offering from Wal- mart offers an attractive design that should at least appeal to Mondo X completists. Recommended.