Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

The Saga Concludes—in HDR

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 11, 2017

To accompany the Blu-ray and 4K releases of the latest chapter in J.K. Rowling's wizarding world, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Warner Brothers has begun remastering all eight Harry Potter films for UHD, adding yet another version to the series' plethora of existing editions. Harry's odyssey is being issued in two parts, with the last four installments appearing first. The reverse order is dictated by technical considerations, as the earliest chapters in the franchise were not completed on digital intermediates, which means that the negatives have to be rescanned and regraded for 4K and HDR.

All four of the films in this first group—The Order of the Phoenix, The Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2—were shot on film with post-production on digital intermediates at 2K. Accordingly, all of them arrive on UHD as up-conversions, with visual benefits principally derived from HDR encoding (as well as some subtle, and not so subtle, tweaking of the palette). As a sweetener, Warner has remixed all four soundtracks from the original PCM, Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD MA 5.1 to the object-based DTS:X, providing an audio upgrade for those who have the appropriate hardware. Included with each UHD disc are two standard Blu-rays comprising the so-called "Ultimate Editions" of the Potter films that Warner began releasing in 2009. A digital copy completes each package.

For further discussion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, please see the previous reviews of the film's original release and "Ultimate Edition" by Kenneth Brown. The Feature score has been retained from prior reviews.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

(Note: Screenshots included with this review are 1080p captures from the standard Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date. The Video score has been retained from prior reviews.)

According to the best available information, Warner's 2160p, HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD presentation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has been sourced from a 2K digital intermediate, which limits the prospect that the format's superior resolution will reveal additional detail. Still, the HDR encoding provides subtle but noticeable improvements over the standard Blu-ray, courtesy of enhanced contrast, black levels and highlights. The palette continues director David Yates's tendency toward darkening and desaturation that can been seen in all four of his Potter films, even though they are the work of three different cinematographers—Slawomir Idziak for The Order of the Phoenix, Bruno Delbonnel for The Half-Blood Prince and Eduardo Serra for The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2.

But, just as in the first installment of Deathly Hallows, not all is darkness. The opening sequence with Harry and his friends at the beachfront "safe house" owned by the Weasley family features bright exteriors and interiors illuminated by light streaming through the windows. "It's beautiful here", says Luna Lovegood, underlining the locale's studied contrast to the rest of the film, which is summed up by the grim opening view of Hogwarts surrounded by Dementors and surveyed by the newly installed Snape from his perch high above. (The shot of Snape from behind demonstrates the UHD's superior delineation of blacks; on the Blu-ray, it's a solid silhouette, but the UHD distinguishes textures of hair and cloak.) The colors, contrast and highlights of these bright early scenes remain largely unchanged with HDR, with the biggest benefits occurring later in the film, especially in the prolonged siege of Hogwarts by Voldemort's forces. For a prime example, consider the extended sequence outside the gates, when Valdemort returns believing that he has triumphed. He is backed by a sea of followers and met by a crowd of students and faculty, and on the UHD, both groups remain composed of numerous distinct individuals, even in the longest shots. On the Blu-ray, by contrast, the single figures blend together as soon as the camera withdraws to a distance, and in the longest shots, they're an undifferentiated blur. (For a particularly good example, compare the overhead aerial shot of Draco returning to the Death Eaters' fold on both formats.)

But the HDR encoding doesn't just benefit shadow and darkness. In Harry's spiritual, dream-like visit to a place resembling King's Cross Station, both he and Dumbledore are more crisply outlined against the pervasive white light and mist. Here, too, the farther they are from the camera's eye, the more pronounced the benefit.

As with the other three Potter films directed by Yates, the brightest colors are reserved for magic, and the colors of Deathly Hallows: Part 2 appear to be largely unchanged from the Blu-ray. Still, a direct comparison reveals small refinements. Look, for example, at the final wand battle between Harry and Valdemort, with its clashing waves of magical spells. On the UHD, they remain a collision between fields of bright red and bright green, but the HDR treatment allows for subtler and more varied shades of these opposing forces, imparting more texture and a more fluid movement. The UHD colorist has happily resisted the temptation to dial up the hues on such obvious choices as Luna Lovegood, who can be spotted in any Hogwarts crowd by the gentle pastels of her wardrobe.

[System calibrated using a Klein K10-A Colorimeter with a custom profile created with a Colorimetry Research CR250 Spectraradiometer, powered by SpectraCal CalMAN 2016 5.7, using the Samsung Reference 2016 UHD HDR Blu-ray test disc authored by Florian Friedrich from AV Top in Munich, Germany. Calibration performed by Kevin Miller of ISFTV.]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Previous releases of The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 contained a 5.1 soundtrack encoded in DTS-HD MA, but the UHD arrives with a DTS:X soundtrack that, on audio systems not yet equipped to decode that format, should play as DTS-HD MA 7.1. The previous mix was a first-rate soundtrack, as noted by Kenneth Brown's review, who called the track "jaw-dropping, window-rattling, sternum-thumping", with effects that "tear through the landscape", an "aggressive assault" by the rear speakers and an "atmospheric soundfield". As with Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Ken's audio score of 5 leaves me no room for increase, but the DTS:X encoding does indeed surpass its predecessor in numerous respects.

The roller coaster ride through the vaults at Gringotts is just as loud but now more refined, with a clear sense of objects and scenery rushing by on either side, as well as overhead. When our heroes are dropped from the car's tracks to the cave bottom below, you can hear Hermione from overhead casting the spell that will break their fall, and her voice sounds like it's approaching the ground from above. The noisemakers used by the goblins to distract the guardian dragon move fluidly and specifically through the listening space, both front and rear, following the progress of the goblins toward the vault, and the protective curse that causes objects in Bellatrix's vault to multiply generates countless specific noises of popping and clattering all around.

When Professor McGonagall summons the huge stone soldiers to protect Hogwarts, they sound as if they're leaping to the ground from above. The cacophony that accompanies the various battles, especially in the climactic sequence that cuts back and forth between Harry's battle with Valdemort and Ron and Hermione's pursuit of the huge snake, is even better defined and specific effects are precisely localized.

It should be noted that "object-based" sound formats are designed to be adaptive, and DTS:X in particular touts its ability to adjust to a wide variety of speaker configurations. Still, the degree to which the new mix produces audible benefits in the home theater will no doubt vary depending on individual sound systems and speaker arrays. For reference, I listened to The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 on a 7.1.2 speaker configuration, consisting of front left, right and center, and two each of side, rear and "height" speakers, plus subwoofer.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The UHD disc contains no extras. The included pair of standard Blu-ray discs contains the same extras listed in the prior review of the "Ultimate Edition". The Special Features and Extras score from that review has been retained.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Warner's release of Harry Potter on UHD is a welcome addition to the format, even with the limits on resolution that are inherent in the source. But the most interesting potential lies ahead, as parts 1 and 2 of the series, The Sorcerer's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets, undergo new 4K scans that should yield even greater benefits, compared to their Blu-ray counterparts. In the meantime, the UHD presentations of the series' back end is a worthwhile and recommended upgrade, especially for anyone who doesn't already own the "Ultimate Editions".