Insurgent 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Insurgent 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

The Divergent series has kind of seemed like an “also ran” in the so-called dystopian YA sweepstakes, engendering little of the hysteria that greeted The Hunger Games 4-Film Complete Collection and (at least based on recent box office returns) failing to even muster the relatively tamped down response afforded to The Maze Runner franchise. Despite what appears to be the writing on the wall with regard to these multi-film roll outs involving young folks speaking truth to power (whether that be in the form of The Man or The Woman or simply The Monolithic Government), Lionsgate has brought the first three Divergent films out in 4K UHD.

Insurgent 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Insurgent is presented on 4K UHD with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.40:1. Like its sibling Divergent, Insurgent was finished at a 2K DI, despite its initial capture being at higher resolutions. Like many other 4K UHD releases sourced from 2K DIs (including Divergent), there's some appealing new detail to be seen in elements like textures on fabrics or even the clarity of elements like facial pores, but the uptick here is often subtle. Some fairly small elements like the slightly frayed rope of a swing have rather nice upticks in overall detail, though at times you have to look fast and/or not blink to catch these moments. The biggest changes I noticed were perhaps more attributable to HDR, with some commendable new depth to shadow definition in a number of darker moments, including the first sequence of the war zone and, later, the interior wasteland of the factionless ruins. That increase in depth of shadow detail continues through more mundane scenes like the dinner sequence with Four and his mother. The cooler palette that prevails throughout much of the exterior footage contains (again, somewhat subtly) a wider range of tones in the gray to blue spectrum that is being exploited. Especially interesting from a comparison standpoint is the almost monochromatic sequence with Tris that plays out largely in blacks, which in the 4K UHD release has better delineation. As with Divergent, however, blacks overall are a bit variant, looking milky some of the time but rather nicely deep at others, then crushed in still other moments. There was also some of the same judder in lateral pans that I mentioned in our Divergent 4K Blu-ray review, though it's perhaps less of a distraction in this outing.

Insurgent 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This release contains the same Atmos mix detailed in our Insurgent Blu- ray review. (Kind of interestingly, the Spanish track on this particular disc is a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 option.)

Insurgent 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 4K UHD disc contains no supplemental material, and the score above reflects that lack. The 1080p Blu-ray also included in this package contains the same supplements that are detailed in our original Insurgent Blu-ray review.

Insurgent 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I personally found Insurgent to be quite a bit more of a slog than the first film, though I've spoken to (younger) Divergent franchise fans who think it's at least as good as the first film, so your mileage may of course vary. This 4K UHD release provides occasional eye candy that may recommend it to early adopters of this new format, and the sonics of the soundtrack are quite impressive.