Rating summary
| Movie |  | 1.5 |
| Video |  | 3.5 |
| Audio |  | 4.0 |
| Extras |  | 0.5 |
| Overall | | 1.5 |
Higher Power 4K Blu-ray Movie Review
High, Not Mighty and No Better in 4K
Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 23, 2018
Magnolia Home Entertainment has chosen Higher Power to be its second release on UHD, and
it's a bad choice. Unlike Marrowbone, which
showed small but definite improvement from
4K/HDR treatment, director Matthew Santoro's feature debut derives no benefit from the
upgrade—which is no surprise given the distorted nature of the source material.
For a discussion of the film, please see the 1080p Blu-ray
review.
Higher Power 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
(Note: Screenshots accompanying this review have been captured from the standard Blu-ray.
Additional 1080p captures from that disc can be found here.)
As discussed in the standard Blu-ray review, nearly every
frame of Higher Power has been
heavily manipulated in post-production, draining (for the most part) the image of color, reducing
the resolution and deliberately introducing distortion and interference for a variety of reasons.
Why anyone thought that it would be a good idea to uprez these images from their already
downgraded state is a mystery, but the result is a UHD disc that is effectively indistinguishable
from its 1080p counterpart. There's no more detail to see; the colors aren't more intense; the
blacks aren't darker or subtler; and the highlights aren't any brighter. If you pop the standard Blu-ray into your player by accident, you probably
won't notice the difference, and if you correctly
insert the UHD disc, you may be pardoned for thinking that you've mistakenly selected the
1080p disc. Higher Power on UHD is a waste of the format and worth neither your time nor your
additional expenditure.
[System calibrated for UHD using (a) a Klein K-10A Colorimeter with a Custom Profile made in
CalMAN using a Colorimetry Research CR250 Spectroradiometer; (b) Murideo Fresco SIX-G
UHD signal generator with HDR10 and Dolby Vision capability; and (c) SpectraCal CalMAN
Software v. 5.8.2.85. Calibration performed by Kevin Miller of ISFTV.]
Higher Power 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
The 4K disc features the same Dolby Atmos track previously
reviewed.
Higher Power 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
The extras on the 4K disc, such as they are, largely match the skimpy offerings on the standard
Blu-ray, with the blessed omission of the useless BD-Live
feature.
- Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2.40:1; 2:18).
- Also from Magnolia Entertainment: A trailer for Marrowbone, followed by promos for
The Charity Network and AXS TV. These also play at startup.
Higher Power 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
I couldn't recommend Higher Power on Blu-ray, and I can't recommend it on 4K. It's a bad film
in either format, and UHD does nothing for it.
